Winner Jumalon

Winner Jumalon (born 28 December 1983, in Zamboanga, Philippines) is a Manila-based Filipino modern visual artist. His works with oil and encaustic on canvas have been described as "late capitalist masterpieces marred by illogical marks, haze, and aggregations of reality that not only displaces portraiture as the totemic symbols of power and status but questions the formation of identity itself as the trap where a man cannot go forward".

Jumalon was awarded the Artist Award of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2009, and has been represented by both Sotheby's and Christie's with consecutively increasing valuations in the secondary market. Jumalon has denied that economic success informs his paintings, and states that his works are instead antagonistic to the dictatorship and reification of the market. His projects seek a re-evaluation of some of the most fundamental positions that art has assumed in the past.

Biography

Jumalon trained for four years at the Philippine High School for the Arts at Mt. Makiling, Los Banos, Laguna, with a major in Visual Arts. After high school, Jumalon pursued his childhood dream of entering the College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. He graduated with a baccalaureate in fine arts, majoring in painting.

Work

The dialogue of Jumalon's work features spaces he inhabits or inhabited. These spaces include Zamboanga, his childhood home; Laguna, where he was a Philippine government scholar; and Quezon City, where he studied fine arts in UP.

Jumalon says that these spaces are connected to his identity. His relationship with art developed with his connection with the people and places around him. Teachers, friends and everyday moments have shaped the life he has lived. His work evolves from these encounters. In this specific sense, the art is not separate from his surroundings, but becomes a way of understanding and responding to them instead.

Jumalon finds inspiration in almost anything around him, a passing moment of time, a piece of debris or a potted plant. He draws from the past but brings it into the present. This makes him not treat nostalgia simply as memory, but as a way of noticing what continues to remain relevant. He often begins with an idea and then challenges himself to translate into a visual form capable of carrying it. The material he chooses and the way they are used are all part of that specific process. Once the idea is proven worth of pursuing, paint, material, and hard work becomes the means through which it begins to take shape.

For Jumalon, the process involves developing an idea and exploring how it can be expressed visually. The work draws from everyday environments around him, specifically the urban spaces he inhabits and incorporates their objects, textures and visual elements. These surroundings provide both subject matter and context for the work. Through this approach, he connects his observations of everyday life with the materials and forms used to construct his pieces.

Back in his native land, he painted mostly colorful self-portraits. It came to pass, he started using a layering technique, and drawing faces over faces, an observation perhaps, watching fellow students with their diverse individuality go under guises just to create that harmony.

Spending his high school life in Laguna has been still artistically inclined having visual arts as his major. His paintings were done in subdued earth colors. He was then living in a mountain where his school is located, learning the rigors of the academic world.

Later works played with wide spaces and abstract figures, graffiti, and black scratches on white background.

Awards

Accolades 2005 Top 5 Finalist in Philip Morris Award ASEAN Art Competition 2003 Top 50 Finalist in Philip Morris ASEAN Art Competition Finalist (Water media on paper category) Metrobank Art Competition Jose Moreno Scholarship Pitoy Moreno Foundation Best Artwork for the Philippine Collegian Best Editorial Cartoon for the Philippine Collegian 2002 Finalist (oil/acrylic category) in 35th National Shell Art Competition Semi-Finalist (Oil on Canvas) Metrobank Art Competition 2001 Honorable Mention in 34th National Shell Art Competition

Solo exhibitions

2010 A Part, Winner Jumalon Solo Exhibit runs from 6 to 30 June at Pinto Art Gallery, #1 Sierra Madre Heights, Grandheights, Antipolo City. 2008 Eslite Gallery Taipei, Taiwan 2007 Destroyed Images Ark Galerie Jakarta 2006 Face Values, Richard Koh Fine Art in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2005 About Face, The Drawing Room in Makati, Philippines

Group exhibitions

2010 Pachingguel “Pach” Hortillanos, Winner JumalonRecent Find, Manila Contemporary 2008 Showcase Singapore, Singapore Hong Kong International Art Fair, Hong Kong CIGE 2008 Beijing Art Fair, Beijing, China Bridge Art Fair New York, New York, U.S.A. 2007 Scope Miami, The Drawing Room @ Miami, Florida, U.S.A. Art Singapore, The Drawing Room, Level 4, Suntec Building, Singapore 2006 The Drawing Room @Dubai Art Fair International Exhibitions & Conferences the United Arab Emirates >ART Singapore, The Drawing Room, Level 6, Suntec Building, Singapore New Directions, The Rotunda Gallery, Neilson Hays Library, 195 Surawong Road, Bangkok, Thailand Utterly Art & The Drawing Room South Bridge Road, Singapore 2005 Art Taipei 2005 Taipei, Taiwan Art Singapore 2005 The Drawing Room, Suntec Building, Singapore 2004 Asian Art Contemporary Singapore The Drawing Room, Suntec Building, Singapore 2003 Top 50 Finalists Metropolitan Museum, Roxas Blvd., Manila, Philippines Art Rush Metrobank Plaza, Makati Avenue, Makati, Philippines “Box Environment” Ayala Museum, Stock Exchange Bldg., Makati, Philippines 2002 Metrobank Art Competition Metrobank Plaza, Makati Avenue, Makati, Philippines 35th Shell Art Competition SM Megamall, Artwalk, Mandaluyong, Philippines 2001 34th Shell Art Competition Greenhills, San Juan, Philippines “I-Works” Nemiranda Arthouse, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong, Philippines “Anim-a” Thesis Exhibition UP Faculty Center, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines 2000 "Makiling sa Tabi ng Dagat” Cultural Center of the Philippines

Resources

http://misc.inquirer.net/nokia/youngartists/profile.html

http://www.drawingroomgallery.com/pdf/winner_jumalon.pdf

http://www.manilaartblogger.com/2010/06/07/winner-jumalons-unusual-portraits/

http://www.utterlyart.com.sg/artists/view/83

http://angfierranijuana.wordpress.com/tag/winner-jumalon/

http://www.drawingroomgallery.com/contemporary/images/artworks/5/press/1134025247.pdf

http://www.artslant.com/ew/events/show/248275-recent-find