The festive colors of Rex Cuenca

BACOLOD City is home to many artists of national renown, among them filmmaker Peque Gallaga, painter Charlie Co, and Palanca Hall of Famer Elsa Martinez Coscolluela. In the field of visual arts, there are many lesser known but definitely not less talented artists in this city in Western Visayas. One of them is Rex Cuenca.

What is striking about Cuenca’s works are the happy and bright colors he uses that evoke the ambiance of a barrio fiesta. Last summer I had the joyful opportunity to visit Bacolod City again and check out Cuenca’s gallery. When in Bacolod, an excursion to Manokan Country is imperative. While you are there, you might as well visit Cuenca’s gallery while feasting on succulent chicken inasal. My personal favorite is isol, the chicken’s behind where the concentration of oil glands are at its grandest making it deliciously sinful, with clogged arteries as part of its punishment . It is more delightful to partake of this gustatory sin while surrounded by oil paintings and terra cotta masks made by Cuenca. You will not only feed your body, but your soul as well. Cuenca is from Talisay City, which sits right next to Bacolod in Negros Occidental where, according to him, he started to paint using pencils and kitchen charcoal on walls, to the chagrin of his parents and neighbors. He was influenced by his uncle, Roberto Versoza, also a well-known painter and sculptor in Negros. Cuenca considers the sculptor Felix Garzon as his first mentor. A drop-out from La Consolacion College-Bacolod’s architecture program, Cuenca considers himself a self-taught artist. Currently, he is the president of the Association of Talisay Artists and an active member of the Artists’ Association of Bacolod. Every summer, Cuenca gives workshops in basic drawing, painting, and terra cotta making for Tapulanga Foundation in Silay City, the site of the new airport 30 minutes north of Bacolod. Cuenca has mounted and joined solo and group exhibits in various art galleries in Boracay, Bacolod City, Iloilo City, Cebu City, and Metro Manila. He is also one of the regular featured artists at the Kamarikutan Arts Festival in Puerto Princesa City organized by Palawan artist and patroness of the arts Dinggot Conde-Prieto every April. Bright expressions Cuenca’s style plays between distortionism and expressionism, with a Filipino twist of using bright fiesta colors. Take for example his painting of carabaos. There are eight (a lucky number symbolizing infinity) carabaos painted in different colors: yellow, violet, orange, blue, brown, and black. The carabaos are smiling, laughing even, as if they are joining a lavish fiesta. This is a reversal of the common image of carabaos as hardworking animals. Perhaps, this is symbolic of the long suffering and marginalized farmers – or maybe the sakadas (the underpaid seasonal workers in sugarcane plantations in Cuenca’s island home of Negros) – having a temporary respite from their hardships because it is fiesta time? Does this explain the unrealistic and almost surreal colors of these beasts of burden? In the painting “Mother and Child," the mother is wearing a violet blouse and skirt reminiscent of a Muslim woman’s garb. Tied to her back in a sarong is her baby girl. The mother is selling fruits and vegetables. Notice the distorted features of the woman and her child. They look sturdy, almost masculine. We know that a street vendor’s life is hard. In this painting, we cannot see the hardship of the mother because of her distorted and expressionless face. The festive colors are almost absurd, maybe because poverty is an absurdity? In another painting, there are three haciendera women. They look prosperous with their pompous dresses and jewelry. Two women are holding flowers and laughing while reading the text message in the cellphone of the woman in the middle. Perhaps the message is from an illicit lover? This is a party scene where the women do nothing but eat, drink, flirt, and be merry. I cannot help but think of Peque Gallaga’s classic film Oro, Plata, Mata where the hacienderas are trying very hard to maintain their lavish and pampered lifestyle during wartime. Happy colors When asked about his style, Cuenca confessed that he is very much influenced by his idol Pablo Picasso. Why not? If Picasso was born in Bacolod City, I’m sure he would have painted like Cuenca. The style of sturdy and distorted women and men is a hallmark of Cuenca’s paintings. This is deliberate, for according to him, “I want to have my own identity as a painter." Cuenca is also very conscious about his choice of subjects. He says, “I want to paint something that is related to our life as Filipinos." Cuenca is now 54 years old. I am sure he will continue painting his sturdy characters of carabaos, market vendors, vaqueros, sakadas, and many other marginalized souls using his enigmatic bright colors that are capable of resonating both happiness and sadness. I went home to Manila with the memory of Cuenca’s happy colors. His subjects, though not always happy as in the case of the sakada, will always remind me of the sweetness and the gaiety of sugarlandia’s capital—the cities of Silay, Talisay and Bacolod. - YA, GMANews.TV Photos by JORDAN CARNICE