Plain and simple—that’s how artist Andres Barrioquinto wants his message across. In Ugaling Baboy, Ugaling Aso…Third World!, he lifts from both personal and creative experiences to articulate what he feels toward his immediate environment. On view from June 3 to 15 at the West Gallery in SM Megamall, Ugaling Baboy, Ugaling Aso…Third World! features Barrioquinto’s latest oil paintings and pen-and-ink drawings.
Barrioquinto’s body of work may reflect what it is essentially happening around us, but it is actually a product of “probing my own soul rather than reflecting the world of ideas, and in explaining a moody or inner world than revealing a basic harmony…” For some time now, Barrioquinto has felt more comfortable working on his own, with the littlest of influences surrounding him, other than the ambient music or television program he listens to or watches while he’s painting. He notes, “My work is likely to be more sharply individualized than realist, therefore more dramatically my own, sometimes to the point of eccentricity, their individuality becomes more natural…”
For starters, Barrioquinto explains his approach to the uninitiated: “I paint images so exaggerated or distorted that they take us away from the familiar world into one of emotion and feeling.”
Ugaling Baboy, Ugaling Aso…Third World! took off from a random viewing of Dating Daan on TV. Barrioquinto’s own “Third World” tackles degeneration, vice, greed, and corruption-factors that have hounded our socio-political life, even as Barrioquinto avoids making a direct political statement. Barrioquinto works with what directly affects him, and expresses such emotion in a freewheeling, uninhibited manner. He isn’t afraid to use Hitler-like figures or deviant behavior to convey what is inherently a personal exploration. “Nadilaan ng Demonyo” has a pig dressed as Hitler. “The Moment I Became” has a familiar yet seemingly disintegrating Lego figure. “Unexamined Failure” is a commentary on the “system” where Barrioquinto himself was once an active participant. Then there is a series of sketches titled “Sketches for My Friend the Drunkard and the Unforeseen Sexcapades.”
He adds that he is trying to explore today what he feels he couldn’t do before, most notably when he was trying to find his own voice as an artist. While the images may reflect anger, or frustration at the least, toward a crooked system, Barrioquinto says that his positive and healthy attitude toward art making has helped him stay focused and disciplined. He is more involved with the world around him and his work, and wants to share such discoveries, both intentional and unplanned, with as many people.
A recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2003, Barrioquinto graduated with a degree in painting from the College of Fine Arts of the University of Santo Tomas, where he received numerous awards, including the Benavidez Award in 1999 and 2000. In 1999, he received honorable mention at the 9th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibition in Taiwan. In 1998, he won the grand prize at the 15th Young Painters Annual National Painting Competition sponsored by the Metrobank Foundation. He is also currently an illustrator for Entrepreneur Magazine.
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