Lloyd Tronco is back with his larger-than-life art

As part of the Visayas Art Fair 2021, the country’s largest abstract painting is currently in Cebu.

“Alab ng Sining” by Lloyd Tronco is again a temporary art fixture seen along Archbishop Reyes Avenue—a major street in Cebu City that leads to the venue for the November 25-28 art fair that has brought together artists from the three regions of the Visayas.

“Art in public spaces is a huge part of what keeps us all energized and inspired,” says Lloyd, an advertising executive who hails from Negros Occidental province.

Lloyd’s acrylic on billboard vinyl work first appeared along Edsa and Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong City last February for the celebration of National Arts Month.

For Lloyd, the 40 x 62 feet painting’s presence in Cebu is part of his continuing advocacy in bringing art closer to the people.

“Art is for the masses. Our streets and highways are the largest galleries in the world—free for all to engage with,” Lloyd tells Manila Bulletin Lifestyle.

“Alab ng Sining” is also a testament to art in times of COVID-19 pandemic, wherein many museums and art galleries had to close or that only a limited number of people are allowed entry as health protocols have to be followed.

In a way, the billboard-size painting also connotes the pandemic’s new safety norm of physical or social distancing.

“Given the size, one has to stand from afar to truly appreciate it,” adds Lloyd.

Art runs in the blood

The large abstract painting is Lloyd’s own way of going back to his artistic roots and a linkage to his late father, the artist and art professor Larry Tronco.

His father’s contemporaries included National Artists for Visual Arts Arturo Luz , Cesar Legaspi, Victorio Edades, and J. Elizalde Navarro. The elder Tronco won a scholarship to study at Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, Spain in the 1950s. When his father returned to the country, he taught at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). Among his father’s students was the abstractionist Raul Isidro.

Lloyd initially tried to distance himself from his father and wanted to be an architect. He was an architecture student at UP Diliman, but he was forced to move back to Negros Occidental in 1985 with his father’s untimely death.

While Lloyd pursued a fine arts degree at La Consolacion College in Bacolod City, he would later venture into the world of advertising with a family-run billboard business. He also worked for the famed McCann Erickson in the 2000s.

“Alab ng Sining” combines Lloyd’s expertise in both the arts and advertising.

Lloyd hopes to bring “Alab ng Sining” to other parts of the country including Mindanao as well as in Negros Occidental or Iloilo.