ABOUT THE WORK

Ferdie Montemayor is a founding member of the Salingpusa artists' collective. As a visual artist, his oeuvre is primarily influenced by his hometown of Antipolo. The sprawling view of the city from a vantage point overlooking the cityscape of neighboring Metropolitan Manila has provided an endless source of artistic inspiration for Montemayor. This is perfectly encapsulated in his Bayan series, done in a span of more than a decade, from the 1990s to the mid-2000s. The Bayan series tackles the subject of urbanization that spilled outside the realms of the metropolis and defined much of the '90s decade. Montemayor explores the expanse of the urban spaces by observing life on the "macro" scale, then delving into the intersection of different elements within a metropolitan area. In this piece titled Ganap, Montemayor paints an image of a bustling cityscape, with people, cars, and man-made structures, such as houses and towers, converging to define a modernday city. The canvas features Montemayor's trademark use of vigorous brushstrokes, with the dominance of a robust orange palette emphasizing the often chaotic and densely populated urban spaces. In 1994, Montemayor was bestowed with the prestigious Thirteen Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines. His works are found in the Singapore Art Museum and the Pinto Art Museum collections. (A.M.)