Michael Villagante is a full-time artist based in the Philippines. Born in Uson, Masbate, a province located near the midsection of the nation’s archipelago, he was then raised in Maypajo, Caloocan, north of capital Manila. He studied Fine Arts at...
Read MoreMichael Villagante is a full-time artist based in the Philippines. Born in Uson, Masbate, a province located near the midsection of the nation’s archipelago, he was then raised in Maypajo, Caloocan, north of capital Manila. He studied Fine Arts at the University of the East (Caloocan), where he received the Exemplary Performance in Visual Art Award in 1997, the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2012 and the Artistic Excellence Award 2022. His awards are many, with Third Honorable Mention in the 30th Shell National Students Art Competition 1997, Grand Prize in the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence 2012 and the First Prize Lorenzo il Magnifico Award (Gold) XIII Florence Biennale 2021 in Italy as the most notable. A work from his exhibition, Higher Ground, was wall featured in the November 2018 issue of Hi-Fructose Magazine.
Much of his inspiration comes from his community with its incessant noise, furious activity, and thronging crowd, which moves him to paint its various sides, both negative and positive. His style is characterized by its extensive use of earth colors, evoked through dry-brush technique with a pointed brush. A recurrent image in his works is a bird whose beak is a megaphone, a symbol that offers a reminder to and a warning of what has yet to come. “My works,” the artist states, “ are an expression of my philosophy on life and reality. I try to tackle various themes relevant to our everyday occurrences. I take inspirations from snippets of day to day happenigns and human experiences.” For him, it is important that figures and elements express emotion, as they fuse together surface beauty and deep meaning on the universe of the canvas.
