The University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts (CFA) Gallery or Parola featured the works of its alumnus, painter and performance artist Alfredo Liongoren in a retrospective exhibition held from September 19 to October 6.
Curator and UP CFA Assistant Professor Mark Louie Lugue stated that Liongoren’s exhibit, “Layers and Layers of the Self Peeled Through,” showcased artworks spanning sixty years of his artistic journey.
“[He] imagined his past works and exhibitions to be layers of his self that he had to peel through. Through this gesture of making, he opens himself up and unveils his interiority. Each of these layers affords a unique glimpse to his personhood, without any one of them capable of explicating all that he is,” Lugue said.
“This retrospective exhibition, which also serves as a homecoming, brings together artworks from six decades of the Liongoren’s practice: starting from his student years at the [UP CFA] in the early 1960s, to the succeeding decades—which have been typified by shifts between varying degrees of abstraction and figuration, and later, explorations with the overtly socio-critical and the performative,” he continued.
In a Facebook post, the UP Parola management said they were “happy” to have hosted the exhibit which it called a “most fitting reunion” for Liongoren and UP CFA.
During his student days, Liongoren was the recipient of scholarships from the Jose Joya Sr. Memorial Foundation and Purita Kalaw-Ledesma. His talents garnered accolades from several institutions and competitions, notably the Art Association of the Philippines annual exhibitions and the Shell National Students Art Competition.
Through the Liongoren family, Tin-Aw Art Projects, Ateneo Art Gallery, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the public had the opportunity to view the exhibition without any charge.