The Philippine Online Chronicles

With an artistic career that spans several decades and continents, mixed-media artist Duddley Diaz has gone a long way from being National Artist Napoleon Abueva's budding 11-year-old apprentice.

To honor the work of one of the country's premier talents, Diaz's art will be showcased in an exhibit at the University of the Philippines Jorge B. Vargas Museum from October , 2009. This day will also mark the launch of The Art of Duddley Diaz, a book written by renowned art critic Alice Guillermo.

The exhibit will represent significant themes and periods in the development of sculptor Duddley Diaz as an artist and as a Filipino working within an Italian setting. The exhibition will include his early works as a student at the UP College of Fine Arts and the Accademia de Belle Acti in Florence, as well as some of his sculptural works using wood, cast bronze, silver and bone.

Diaz has made his mark in the international art world as a gifted sculptor, tackling subjects such as mythology and religion. He takes Roman Catholic figures and cloaks them in the visage of Filipino pagan myths and vice-versa, creating a language through his art that speaks directly to the soul.

Guillermo's book, to be launched October 24, 4:00 p.m., coinciding with the opening of Diaz's art exhibit, charts the progress of the sculptor's work not only in terms of technique and medium but also the themes that permeate his pieces. Diaz juxtaposes Western and Eastern influences, from the heavy influence of European Catholic art in Stations of the Cross to his interpretation of Philippine mythological figures such as Mebuyan, a Bagobo fertility goddess, and Haliya, goddess of the moon.

“In the context of contemporary sculpture,” Vargas Museum curator Patrick Flores said, “Diaz has unsettled the notion of religion in the largely Catholic culture in the Philippines, and has profoundly probed the intricacies of wood and sculpture in his portrayal of the human and the mythology of its becoming.”

The Art of Duddley Diaz is part of Vibal Foundation Inc.'s “Philippine Art Now” series of books, featuring contemporary native and foreign-born artists of the Philippines. The series covers a broad range of media including visual arts, sculpture, architecture, photography, graphic design, animation, For more information about the book and VFI's other publications, you may call 712-2722 or 712-9156.