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His works are in collectors’ homes and abroad. At this point in his career, his ouvrages d’art are sold before they are even made, and this is not an exaggeration.
He is the first Filipino artist who won the Grand Prize for fine arts in the Dubai Shaikha Manal New Signatures Young Artist Award in 2008. Fast forward to 2022, his works were exhibited through a collaboration of Galerie Joaquin and Fundacion Sanso where his Mechanical Possibilities were in dialogue with Juvenal Sanso’s 1956 sketches of whimsical machines.
His name is Darwin ‘Japat’ Hara Guevarra, a self-taught artist honed with practice, exposure and experience. Early on in his career, some gallery owners thought that his works would not sell or that it won’t be appreciated by art connoisseurs. Thanks to winning in competitions and gaining the trust of other artists who invited him to group shows and exhibitions. When an artist is really good, popularity and connections are easy to come by.
He finds an object, he includes it in a masterpiece. Some of his works are a combination of scraps and those he formed by molding, or welding. The final work speaks to the spectator’s core. He is the first Filipino artist who had a solo exhibition with forty mixed media artworks in Tashkeel Gallery. He made it in Dubai, and made it big time.
Coming back home was never the same after Dubai. Japat, as he is fondly called by family and friends, continuously creates works that bespeak his mind. More people are touched by his sculpture, painting, photography, and even performance.
What else is there to dream of when you have already succeeded as an artist? He is happy to share his vision of a gallery and studio that can also be a place for artists in residence somewhere in the historic and heritage town of Pila. And that wouldn’t be far-fetched. His home is a miniature of what he dreams to put up, where his works and those of other artists’ and his family’s art are treasured. Yes, his wife and son are artists as well.
An artwork may not always bear a message, but Guevarra’s always speaks to its audience. They are moving and unforgettable. And when art evokes social realism, it is always relevant. Such is the work of Darwin Guevarra. No magic there but pure hard work. Genius.