The Fine Arts program under the College of Communication, Art, and Design once again bring you works of art in this year’s Jose Joya Awards and Exhibition, centering on the theme “A Longing for New Heroes: Celebrating 500 Years of Filipino Victory in Mactan, Honoring Filipinos’ Service and Strength Amidst the Pandemic”. The annual painting competition, now heading to its 45th run, is named after the late Jose Joya, National Artist for Visual Arts, and the pioneer for abstract expressionism in the Philippines. As the former dean of the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Fine Arts, Jose Joya played a vital role in the institutionalization of the University of the Philippines Cebu Fine Arts Program in 1975. In the following year, Dean Joya launched the first painting competition which to this day is known as the Jose Joya Awards.
Additionally, the event was featured on The Freeman.
With the National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases recently putting various local government units in Cebu under stricter quarantine classifications, in the light of Covid-19, the metro’s creative arts sphere is once again embracing the digital route in hosting art exhibits and shows. This year’s holding of the annual Jose T. Joya Awards and Exhibition stands out as the first locally-organized online show to open this month after such classifications were set in place.
With the theme “A Longing for New Heroes: Celebrating 500 Years of Filipino Victory in Mactan, Honoring Filipinos’ Service and Strength Amidst the Pandemic,” the exhibit is composed of artworks made by students of the Fine Arts program of the University of the Philippines Cebu. It takes on a three-tiered tone as a celebration of the 45th holding of the annual competition-and-exhibit, a celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Mactan, and as an exhibit that honors the strength and resilience of healthcare workers who have been at the frontlines in the ongoing pandemic.
Like previous holdings, this year’s show draws attention to the creative explorations that are being undertaken by student-artists – a leaning that sets it as an unveiling of the different ways that artists-in-training are finetuning what they have learned. From abstract expressionist to neo-expressionism pieces, the exhibit’s featured works show how progressive the views of student-artists are – how they, even in the midst of the ongoing health crisis, are training their sights to concretize their creative identities while being responsive to events that are happening around them.
It was in 1975 when National Artist Jose T. Joya played a crucial role in institutionalizing the Fine Arts program of the University of the Philippines Cebu. A year after, the artist-educator hosted a painting competition which, over the years, evolved into what is now known as the annual Jose T. Joya Awards and Exhibition.
