ArtistSpace opens 2017 with ‘Panata’

To begin the new year, the Ayala Museum’s ArtistSpace will present Panata (Vow), the solo exhibition of Cebu-based artist Jun Impas that is scheduled to run from January 22 to February 2. 

Panata pays tribute to the centuries-old tradition of the Traslacion, in which devotees carry, pull or mill around the carroza bearing the life-sized, dark-skinned and cross-bearing image of Jesus the Nazarene as it passes through the streets of Manila to reach Quiapo Church. Held every January 9, the procession of the Black Nazarene is said to be the largest gathering of religious devotees in the Philippines.

The focus of Panata is a single, sprawling painting that spans a breathtaking 90×160 inches. According to renowned Filipino art critic Cid Reyes, the painting’s colossal size contained in a small gallery reflects the energy of the spectacular religious feast.

Depicted in the painting are thousands of barefoot men that trail behind the Black Nazarene, with some in a frenzy to clamber up the carroza to touch the revered image. The work was created in a painterly fashion, and is seemingly rendered in the chiaroscuro style.

Panata serves as the climax of the body of work that Impas created to document and celebrate as many of the country’s fiestas as he could. It is said that, for all of his works, Impas paints from personal, first-hand experience.

Impas studied at the Surigao del Norte School of Arts and Trade and later became the youngest member of Cebu Artists Inc. (CAI). The awards he won include the grand prize of the prestigious Petron Art Competition in 2004 and the Excellent Award in the China Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Youth Artwork Competition in 2008.

Impas also won in several contests sponsored by the Portrait Society of America in 2013, 2014 and 2016. He is the former president of CAI and of the Portraits Artist Society of the Philippines.

Admission to Panata is free. ArtistSpace is on the ground floor of the Ayala Museum Annex, on Makati Avenue corner de la Rosa Street in Greenbelt Park, Makati City. For inquiries, call (632) 759-8288 for send an e-mail addressed to gallery coordinator Lorraine Datuin to hello@ayalamuseum.org.