PHL artist Manuel Baldemor features Ifugaos in Paris art exhibit

Filipino artist Manuel Baldemor held an art exhibit at United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Miollis, Paris on April 15.

Entitled “Philippine Skyland,” the one-day exhibit featured prints and paintings by Baldemor depicting the life and culture of the indigenous Ifugao people at the Salon des Délegués.

The Ifugao, who hail from Northern Luzon are known to be responsible for creating the 2,000-year-old Banaue Rice Terraces which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Carved from a mountainside, the Banaue Rice Terraces is considered by Filipinos as the “eighth wonder of the world” with its steps serving as a natural irrigation system for rainforests.

Baldemor is well known for his style of depicting folk people through various geometric shapes which are regularly used in UNICEF cards.

His painting “Karo ng Sorbetes” was key to the Philippines landing a UNESCO seat in the 34th general conference in Paris in 2007.

He was exposed to art with the wood carvers of Laguna, his hometown. He draws inspiration from and is the common subject of his paintings along with its people and culture.

Baldemor is also currently a columnist for the art and culture section of Philippine newspaper Manila Bulletin.

He is the recipient of multiple local and international awards and has done more than a dozen single-man art exhibitions in different countries including the US, China, Russia and Germany. - Andrei Medina, VVP, GMA News