Leon Gallery collaborates with Asian Cultural Council for its first auction this 2024

Leon Gallery has collaborated with the Asian Cultural Council to commemorate the visionary artistry of Filipino talent.

For its opening salvo for 2024, the gallery is celebrating the birth anniversaries of three of the country's modernist stalwarts: Fernando Zóbel's 100th and the 110th of two of his closest friends, Anita Magsaysay-Ho and Nena Saguil. 

Magsaysay-Ho is represented by a rare rendition of the iconic "Planting Rice," as Saguil graces the auction with impeccable works representing her prolific career.

These include her beginnings at the Philippine Art Gallery to her artistry-defining experience as a painter of the École de Paris.

The works of Jose Joya and Roberto Chabet, two former ACC grantees, are also part of  the centerpieces of the auction.

"There is much to be grateful for and many milestones to remember with our first major auction of the year—the much-awaited Asian Cultural Council Auction of 2024," León Gallery Director Jaime Ponce de Leon said in a press release on Friday.

According to ACC Philippines Chairman Ernest Escaler, the León Gallery and the ACC have produced nothing short of a fruitful and "wonderful partnership'' in the past nine years. 

"Filled with gratitude for the year that was, we recommence with greater optimism to move forward building a legacy that espouses the transformative power of the arts," Escaler said.

"As we aim to actualize ACC's mission year after year, we seek the support of like-minded individuals and form alliances along the way to support our advocacy,'' he added. 

"The Asian Cultural Council Auction is always an occasion close to our hearts, not least of all because it brings to the forefront the abilities of our young Filipino artists,'' Ponce de Leon said. 

This is the 9th year that Leon Gallery and the ACC have collaborated on an auction.

— LA, GMA Integrated News