BACOLOD CITY – The Negros Museum here has opened its door to those who want to see the artworks of National Artist for Visual Arts Larry Alcala.
LARRY Alcala’s son Engr. Lauro Alcala (center), Armita Rufino (right), president of the Filipino Heritage Festival Inc., and Bacolod City First Lady Dominique ‘Nikki’ Benitez (left), lead the ribbon-cutting of Larry Alcala’s Slices of Life, Wit, and Humor-Travelling Exhibition 2023 exhibit along with Negros Cultural Foundation president Lyn Gamboa, Councilor Em Ang, and Provincial Tourism Officer Cheryl Decena at the Negros Museum in Bacolod City on Monday, May 15. (Glazyl Masculino)
The art exhibit entitled Slices of Life, Wit, and Humor-Travelling Exhibition 2023 kicked off this year’s National Heritage Month. Alcala’s son Engr. Lauro Alcala, Armita Rufino, president of the Filipino Heritage Festival Inc., and Bacolod First Lady Dominique “Nikki” Benitez led the ribbon-cutting of the exhibit on Monday, May 15, with Negros Cultural Foundation president Lyn Gamboa, Councilor Em Ang, and Provincial Tourism Officer Cheryl Decena gracing the occasion. Co-produced by Filipino Heritage Festival Inc. and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (The M) and National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the exhibit will run from May 15 to July 31. It is also featured at Museo ng Makati from May 11 to June 3 to broaden the audience reach and engage with communities on a national level through the arts. Curated by award-winning artist and former student of Prof. Larry Alcala, Ruben “Totet” de Jesus, who is currently a faculty member of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts, the exhibition brings together a significant collection of Alcala’s works from the 1980s up to his retirement, after which he devoted his time to mentoring young artists whom he inspired. Gamboa said the exhibit pays tribute to Alcala’s remarkable contribution to art and literature, as well as his legacy to inspire Filipino artists. “Through his exciting work, Mr. Alcala captures the essence of Filipino life. His wit and humor captures everyday moments and turns them into visual masterpieces,” she added. Lauro, in his message, said his father’s artworks celebrate the Filipino culture and identity through laughter and humor. “It’s only fitting that the exhibit in the Visayas leg begins here, in the city which my father called home for the last decades of his life,” he added. Alcala began his career in comics in 1946 while still a student in UP, where he later graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1950. He was also best known for his illustrious career as a cartoonist and comic artist, for which the Philippine Board on Books for Young People called him the Dean of Filipino Cartoonists. His works have included the comic strips “Islaw Palitaw” and “Kalabog en Bosyo,” which later held the title for the longest-running comic strip by a Filipino, and a weekly cartoon series called Slice of Life. He passed away at the age of 75 on June 24, 2002, and he was posthumously conferred the title of National Artist for Visual Arts in 2018.