Bicolano Artist Opens Community Art Studio and Gallery

Albay, Philippines – Renowned Bicolano artist, Cesar Gueta opened an art studio and gallery at his own home in Brgy. Taysan, Legazpi City in the province of Albay.

“My body of work reveals the complexity of people and places. My experimentations with form and figure are the result of my fascination with the concept of art journaling as a method of visual research and as a creative process,” said Cesar Gueta in an interview.

Produced before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, his art journals, sketches, paintings, and sculptures enable the attention of the viewers to be drawn to the entanglement of memory, time, space, and materiality with his subjects and themes.  

According to Bicolano artist-curator and co-founder of Kurit-Lagting Art Collective, Geri Matthew Carretero, Gueta’s  artworks attempt to bring to life far-flung places, pinpoint social concerns and issues, and showcase lesser-known facts about communities that would otherwise go undocumented. “Even without photographs, as an artist, he uses the medium of sketching and painting to document daily life and to reproduce scenes that tell stories in which people can relate to, and remember events, cultures, and journeys,” he said.

“Documenting and articulating these as a personal artistic journey to explore and transform different ideas, offer a potent means of interpreting specific images of a particular moment, through Gueta’s recollection and remembering of people and places,” added Allan Abrigo, co-founder of Kurit-Lagting and a member of CAP Bicol.

Born in Masbate, Cesar Gueta is a scholar, teacher, and one of the awardees of the Outstanding Albayano for Visual Arts by the Provincial Government of Albay. As a teacher, he is currently mentoring budding artists through his art workshops, studio grants, and artist’s talks.

As a member of the Kurit-Lagting Art Collective, CAP Bicol, and Albay Arts Foundation, he is also an advocate of community-based art education by organizing community art programs to improve and empower disadvantaged groups of people.