Wala Lang The “Genesis” curtain by H.R. Ocampo, Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo, CCP Enter the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Nicanór Abelardo and you’re greeted by a blaze of red, a giant tapestry. The artist, Hernando R. Ocampo, would have been 110 years old last month and...
Wala Lang THE IMPORTANCE OF TREES Geff Cedeño amid kalumpit trees that he planted in 2012. The internet is a marvelous invention and I learned a lot in just a few days of texting and emailing with Gerardo “Geff” Cedeño, the man behind Facebook’s Philippine Native Hardwood Tree Seedlings...
Wala Lang (PART I) Salad bowls, giant spoons and forks, man-in-a-barrel, anyone?Our handicraft shops have plenty.Carved from our best woods, they attest not only to our ignorance of the value of what we have but also to our low regard for our natural endowment. Native forest tree seedlings ready...
Wala Lang I received a message after my article last week hit the streets. On collectors feeling rich while tracking auction results, Jayson Ong texted, “It’s really very joyful to compute for the present estimated value of our collection but it’s also very hard for us to let go of pieces we...
Wala Lang BLURB I made it a point to sit beside fellow Dean Jose Joya during UP University Council meetings. It took a while for him to sell me a painting but he finally did, one of his first collages. Later, not knowing any better, I asked him for something in pink to match the bedroom wall of our...
WALA LANG VIEWS OF MANILA by José Honorato Lozano (photo courtesy of Leon Gallery) With a starting bid of five million, the super rare letras y figuras Views of Manila must have sold for an eye-watering sum in last Saturday’s Leon Gallery auction. It was painted in the 1840s by José Honorato...
WALA LANG Seniors old enough remember cannon booms, smoke, and flashes of light reaching Dewey Boulevard from across the bay, from Bataan and Corregidor where Filipino and American soldiers were making a stand against Japanese invaders. That was exactly 79 years ago in February 1942. Manila and...
How the Cultural Center of the Philippines is marrying tradition with modernity INSTRUMENTAL Kubing , a Philippine jaw harp from bamboo With well over 50 years of providing and preserving our cultural heritage through the arts, once again, CCP is opening its doors to Filipino artists who crave to...
WALA LANG PICTURES OF MARTYRDOM A Japanese print representing Takayama Ukon. Photos from Google Images. February is not a happy month in Philippine-Japan relations. The Battle of Manila raged 76 years ago in February 1945 and a persecuted Japanese feudal lord died here in February 1615. By the late...
WALA LANG IMPORTANT CULTURAL PROPERTIES: NCCA invitation for comments on the delisting petition. The latest excitement in heritage circles is over a temple in Santa Ana that a Ms. Chloe Chizu Go , wants removed from the National Museum’s “Important Cultural Property” list. How she became...
COVID-19 has spawned a new generation of planters. Not sugar barons or coconut tycoons, but plantitos and plantitas growing super expensive plants often with weird-looking inedible green-and-white leaves. Spare time while in self-quarantine made me an accidental farmtito. I had tossed overripe...
The cognoscenti ’s weekend paradise Why Rue Angelique will be a treasure trove for Home Improvement fans and art collectors ‘A weekend in early February at the Palacio de Memoria should be the true destination of all interested in Filipino culture and the Arts. Plus the promise of great food...
