ARThetic: The Beauty of Artists Beyond Their Artworks

               Xyza Cruz Bacani, a former domestic worker in Hong Kong for almost 10 years, is an author and photographer who started her journey in photography by taking pictures of street life in Hong Kong. She has earned herself a scholarship from the Magnum Foundation’s Photography and Social Justice Fellows in 2015 and was given a chance to improve her skills in New York. Bacani has exhibited her photos worldwide and have also won multiple awards from them. In addition, she was included in BBC’s 100 Women in 2015, and is also a Fujifilm ambassador. Bacani is currently represented by Redux Pictures in New York, USA.                The images she capture mostly show stories about human rights, as this is one of her interests in addition to labor migration. Bacani’s photographs also serve as a way to tell underreported stories that gives awareness to the audience. Her works include “What if you were free to love anyone you choose?” and “Project Ugnayan”.                Her photograph

               Niccolo Cosme, a creative director and conceptual photographer, started photography way back in 2001. In the year 2011, he has won the 7th annual Professional Photographers of America (PPA) Affiliate Asian-Pacific Image Competition by the Professional Photographers of America in Korea. The next year, he was also one of the artists who was awarded with the “Ani ng Dangal (Harvest of Honors)” award by the Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and Arts.                He lead “The Project Headshot Clinic” in 2007 which promotes awareness on relevant social issues, and have made collaborations with other companies and organizations. Cosme also founded and is currently a CEO of Howwwl Digital, a digital advertising agency, and “The Red Whistle” campaign in 2011, a non-government organization that aims to alarm citizens of the HIV and AIDs in the Philippines.                 A lot of his works include Christian iconography, where he takes inspiration from the iconograph

               Mark Nicdao had no interest in photography at first, which is ironic. He had no intention of pursuing a career in this industry. But fate has a sneaky way of interfering with one's plans. Nicdao was offered an internship as a production assistant with photographer Francis Abraham, who would eventually become his mentor, by a personal friend in 2003.                 He'd been apprenticed to Abraham for eight months when fate intervened once more. Nicdao had been hired to photograph Lucy Torres, a former celebrity who is now the representative of Leyte's fourth district. Nicdao, who was 24 at the time, took a risk despite admitting that he was "not technically excellent yet" and that he was "always uncertain." Not only did his decision pay off, but the trip was "wonderful”. Torres then asked Nicdao for his phone number, stating she could call him again if she needed him. She followed through on her promise and called him for a future ca

Paul Quiambao is a self-employed photographer with a specialization in travel photography. Paul Quiambao's early achievements can be traced back to his alma institution, the University of Santo Tomas. For the university's 400th anniversary celebrations, Paul's dramatic and unforgettable photos were sought. His dramatic photographs of the university's ancient landscapes and buildings were published in a book and shown throughout the Philippines, launching his career. He considers himself a late bloomer in the arts, having discovered his passion for photography after photographing his mother's Christmas party at the Bank of the Philippines Islands Head Office in Makati when he was just 12 years old. Paul's love affair with the camera began at that point. Paul Quiambao's photography is particularly distinctive in that he sees beauty in calamities. The most of photographs shot during the monsoon floods reflect disaster, hopelessness, and even tragedy. Paul Quiam

               BJ Pascual was born in the city of Los Angeles in the state of California. He was transported to a tiny village in Cavite, Philippines, when he was three months old and nurtured by his grandparents. He returned home to Manila after studying at New York's Parsons School of Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, and the International Center for Photography, and quickly established himself in the city's burgeoning fashion industry, producing a formidable body of work that includes some of the era's most memorable fashion and celebrity images.                His work has appeared on the covers of the country's biggest newspapers, as well as many billboards and advertisements for major businesses in the Philippines, where he has shot over 300 magazine covers. He has photographed foreign superstars such as Elsa Hosk, Coco Rocha, Sky Ferreira, Pietro Boselli, Noah Centineo, and Troye Sivan, in addition to being widely demanded by prominent local celebrities.  

               Abdulmari Imao was born on January 14, 1936, in Siasi, Philippines. He is a Filipino a sculptor, painter, photographer, ceramist, documentary filmmaker, cultural researcher, writer, and articulator of Philippine Muslim art and culture. Adbulmari Imao is the first Moro to become a National Artist. In addition, he is also one of the seven National Artists for the Arts, along with Napoleon V. Abueva, Fernando C. Amorsolo, Victorio C. Edades, Carlos V. Francisco, Vicente S. Manansala,  and Benedicto R. Cabrera. He was the first Asian recipient of a Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) fellowship grant to study in Europe. Upon his return to the Philippines, he taught Fine Arts at the University of the East. He also did several photo-journalistic and scholarly research work about the peoples of Mindanao.                He was known for his famous works such as the indigenous ukkil, sarimanok and naga motifs. It has been popularized and instilled in the consciousness of the Filipino nat

               Julie Lluch was born on March 5, 1946 in Iligan City, Philippines. She completed a degree in Philosophy at the University of Sto. Tomas in 1967. Julie Lluch is one of the foremost exponents of terracotta in the Philippines today. Her, highly personal art finds perfect expression in Philippine indigenous clay to which she refers as a most “sensuous and pleasurable” feminine medium. Her ideologically informed works of sculptured women performing various domestic chores, mostly auto-biographical originate sharp feminist commentary on the circumstances of women’s lives. She later works deal with spiritual themes, particularly the Christian paradox of death and rebirth, faith and vulnerability as depicted in her praying women series.                 In the recent past, she is also known because of her public sculpture commission which is the bronze statue of former Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson along Roxas Boulevard and monuments of Chief Justices Jose Abad-Santos and Cayetano

               Anastacio Tanchauco Caedo (14 August 1907 – 12 May 1990) was a Filipino sculptor. His style of sculpture was a classical realist in the tradition of his mentor, Guillermo Tolentino. Some of his famous works were the MacArthur Landing site in Palo Red Beach, Leyte, the Bonifacio Monument in Pugad Lawin, Balintawak, the Benigno Aquino Monument which was originally at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas in Makati, and numerous statues of Jose Rizal, most notably the ones displayed in Philippine embassies throughout the world. He produces numerous commissions of representational sculptures mainly monuments of national heroes, successful Filipino, politicians, businessmen, and educators. Caedo is also notable because of his humbleness, for refusing the honor of awarding him the National Artists of the Philippines in 1983, 1984, and 1986. Famous Works The Benigno Aquino Monument which was originally at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas in Makati The Bonif

               The National Artist Awards for Sculpture in 1973 were represented by Guillermo Estrella Tolentino (1890-1976). He is known as the "Father of Philippine Arts" for his monumental works such as the "Bonifacio Monument," which stands at the crossroads of EDSA and Rizal Avenues and symbolizes academic independence, and "The Oblation," which is housed at the University of the Philippines.                Guillermo Tolentino was born in the city of Malolos in the province of Bulacan. He studied painting at the University of the Philippines' School of Fine Arts under Vicente Rivera and then sculpting under Vicente Francisco. He got more interested in sculpting than painting as time went on. In 1915, he earned a bachelor's degree in painting and sculpting, with honors in all areas.                By 1919, he had made the decision to relocate to America and work as a waiter. Bernard Baruch was impressed with his little statue "Freedom"

               Napoleon V. Abueva, a Bohol native, was the youngest National Artist awardee at the time, at the age of 46. Abueva called the "Father of Modern Philippine Sculpture," was instrumental in shaping the local sculpture landscape into what it is today. He has worked with a wide range of materials, including hardwood (molave, acacia, langka wood, ipil, kamagong, palm wood, and bamboo) as well as adobe, metal, stainless steel, cement, marble, bronze, iron, alabaster, coral, and brass. Abueva developed "buoyant sculpture" - art designed to be viewed from the surface of a tranquil pool — as one of his early ideas in 1951. Abueva had a one-man performance at the Philippine Center in New York in the 1980s. His sculptures have been displayed in a variety of institutions both domestically and internationally, including The Sculpture at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.                He is called the father of modern Philippine Sculpture for a reas

               Leeroy New (General Santos City, 1986) is a Manila-based artist-designer whose work is influenced by film, theater, product design, and fashion. He attended the Philippine High School for the Arts and the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, where he majored in visual arts. He began his career as a sculptor and has since dabbled in everything from film production design to collaborating with fashion designers to generating 3D mock-ups for commercial use. He was able to make this proclivity to shift from one mode of creative output to another the backbone of his artistic work.                He has won several awards for his work, including the grand prize for sculpture at the 2005 Metrobank Art Awards; the La Trobe Residency Grant in Australia and the Artesan Gallery Residency Grant in Singapore at the 2009 Ateneo Art Awards; a nomination for the 2011 Signature Art Prize in Singapore; the 2012 Cultural Center of the Philippines 13 Artists Award; and the 20

                Nikki Luna is a Filipino artist who is well-known for being a female voice in Philippine contemporary art. She makes esoteric sculptures and installations that resemble everyday things and materials but get a deeper focus via her technique, meanings that arise from struggling with women's identity, history, and challenges. Intimate stories of vulnerable and underprivileged Filipinas, as well as the mechanisms that perpetuate oppression against them, for example, intertwine with her process. The phrases "lady of the house" are embroidered into cowhide using hair strands collected from Filipina migrant laborers in Egypt.                The phrases are nearly invisible as they blend with the stretched skin of a domestic labor animal, alluding to the cruel conditions of these laborers, whose rights and passports are revoked in order to serve their mistresses. Luna has poured her skills into projects that aid women and children who are victims of gender-based v