ARTIST PROFILE:

Jef Cablog is a young artist from Barlig, Mountain Province of Northern Philippines who believes in charting his future as a painter by looking to his past. Unlike most artists who strive to change the current, Jef look upon his elders to try to see a window to his people’s past.

Jef, an artist steadily gaining recognition in the Cordillera and national art scene, has always done his artistic creation in the mountains of Barlig and Baguio where he gets his inspirations. Art patrons always notice how Jef’s paintings are able to show aspects of the Cordillera culture in non-literal form, making them unique and distinctive.

His current works are realistic and expressionist. He envisions his work as a time reference to record the transition of conventional to the modern art using traditional medium. His composition and lightings are earthy and low lighted to express his dreamy and imaginative world free from the hectic routines of the modern world. Majority of his subjects shown are indigenous and mythical passed along by old folks of his community.

His works are recently valued and perceived by writers, researchers, critics, advocates and collectors as priceless mementos of their experience and interaction with the community of the Cordilleras.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The rice terraces of Northern Philippines are known for the meticulous and painstaking process it took to build them. When I paint, I adopt the same virtue of patience in my work. I can only hope the impact of the rice terraces as a grand cultural monument would be the same impact I will make in art through my paintings.