Accompanied by a certificate issued by Josefa Joya-Baldovino confirming the authenticity of this lot

Provenance: León Gallery, The Spectacular Mid Year Auction 2015, Makati City, 13 June 2015, Lot 48.

ABOUT THE WORK

Jose Joya’s diverse body of work is a testament to the evolution of his styles, techniques, and mediums over his artistic career. He transitioned from the figurative, traditional style to abstract expressionism and laterto ceramic painting. In the 1970s, during his abstract expressionist period, he introduced his acrylic collages, a unique blend of translucent and finely-grained rice paper with acrylic paint, creating biomorphic shapes of varying sizes and densities. Joya’s canvases are known for their large, kaleidoscopic brush strokes and thick impastos in arbitrary shapes and places. These strokes and colors, far from being random, are a deliberate expression of the artist’s feelings—his way of connecting to the world around him, creating a depth of artistic expression. As Leonidas Benesa puts it: “...the most abstract expressionist works of Joya are not merely explosions and explorations in paint as well as the textures and other tactile qualities of paint. What may not be apparent to the casual eye is that the works are held together in fine tension, that they are invested with an inner order so conceived that the colors do not fly off but inhere or cohere together in gyroscopic balance.” Pasay is one of Joya’s acrylic collages, in which he illustrates the City’s vibrancy and bright energy with the use of oranges, nudes, beiges, and whites. This color palette and his incorporation of rice paper give texture and life to this 1981 masterpiece. Indeed, Pasay is an exceptional work, an integration of Joya’s knowledge and ingenuity that embodies the traits of an authentic Joya piece. (Jessica Magno)