Ochre
to White
The works of Vinluan provide an abundance of visual pleasure, not through evocative imagery but through the sheer amplitude of color pulsing in the air. Even its deliberate formlessness is the source of its own formal strength. The viewer seems to swim in a sensation of space and light as he imagines his physical body inhabiting the spatial terrain. The viewer is at once within and outside the pictorial frame. One pays particular attention to the ground, which is overtly subjected to the intensity of pointillism. From a distance, the colors red and ochre blend, vibrating with each other and endowing the painting with a more brilliant effect. However, up close, the viewer notices that the artist separately applied one color and allowed it to dry before adding the other.
Retinal Presence
Vinluan weighs the quantity and consistency of liquid paint by instinct. For this artist, nothing is accidental. He measures everything with delicacy, sensitivity, and restraint. He never lets infelicities of color that histrionically seek attention fool his eyes. Therefore, a work such as “Red on Ochre to White” is remarkable for its poetic plasticity and pliancy. Despite lacking any reference to a figure, landscape, or human expression, the painting firmly establishes itself as a retinal presence, emulating a natural phenomenon or a spiritual experience. This abstraction convincingly reconciles material and meaning.
Pointillism
Pointillism, also known as divisionism, was an offshoot of Impressionism; it is easy to see why. Impressionism is characterized by “small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color, and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.” Pointillism simply brought Impressionism to its logical extreme. This idiom applies each dot or dab of paint individually, dividing it, and avoids the traditional method of mixing colors in a palette beforehand. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were the two painters who actively practiced this technique, and the intriguing nature of this new painting vision inspired other painters, such as Matisse and even Van Gogh, to adopt it.
COP - 20483
Red on Ochre to White (I-A)
acrylic on canvas
182.80 x 182.80 cm / 72.02 x 72.02 in.
Vinluan, of course, does not apply his paint dot by dot—that task would have been monumentally overwhelming. Another artist might use a spray gun for practical purposes, but for Vinluan, that signifies a loss of human connection with the act of creation. Instead, one would call his technique “symphonic sprinkling.” Like an orchestral conductor with his baton, Vinluan vigorously flicks the fully loaded brush, covering an area, or arena, of the ground he has designated for a particular color, collecting the dribbles of dots until the surface is flooded, whence the multitude of infinitesimally small particles of paint crystallizes into a coherent shape and achieves a desired density. One imagines that in executing these works, the artist, with no selfconsciousness, enters into a kind of trance, intensely focused on the job at hand, in total possession of himself, and not wanting to lose that thread of connection with his creation, which, being so frail, can instantly snap with that unexpected rude intrusion—a domestic necessity, say—of the real world. Painting ceaselessly long into the night, Vinluan ceases to work at the insistent behest of his wife Marithel, who, being a physician, knows the toll that such physical exhaustion and lack of rest and sleep can inflict on the human body.
The Blueness of Blue
Looking at a Vinluan painting, such as “A Pond in Blue,” is an absorption of the senses, and depending on the color whose values the artist is exploring—in this instance, blue—the artist romances all the emotions and memories associated with the color. The artist draws from memories of calmness, stillness, and serenity in this blue painting. It is imaginable, too, for the viewer to set himself and surrender to the “blues,” the sadness and depression, but the specific stimulus to that experience is entirely the viewer’s willed prerogative. The painting is charged with expressing a particular color only if the artist, as Vinluan does here, invests the color with a life of its own.
COP - 20486
A Pond in Blue acrylic on canvas
122.00 x 122.00 cm / 48.07 x 48.07 in. 2023
x 122.00 cm / 72.02 x 48.07 in.
COP - 20470
From the Flowing Form Series Through White (In Ochre, Copper, and Amber)
acrylic on canvas
182.80
2024
COP - 20468
From the Flowing Form Series in B/W (Through Silver)
acrylic on canvas
182.80 x 122.00 cm / 72.02 x 48.07 in. 2024
COP - 20469
From the Flowing Form Series in Sienna, Amber and Blue acrylic on canvas
182.80 x 122.00 cm / 72.02 x 48.07 in.
COP - 20488
From the Morning Mantra Series V acrylic on canvas
122.00 x 122.00 cm / 48.07 x 48.07 in. 2023
From the Morning Mantra Series VI (With Vertical) mixed media on canvas
122.00 x 122.00 cm / 48.07 x 48.07 in.
COP - 20489
- 20490
From the Morning Mantra Series VII mixed media on canvas
122.00 x 122.00 cm / 48.07 x 48.07 in. 2023
COP
Flowing Form
Prescinding from the optical and opalescent mirages of the drizzled works, Vinluan then ventures in another direction. The “Flowing Form” series allows the artist to access a more linear composition through the playful undulation of his paintbrush, with the bristles barely dipped in paint. The dancing energy of this series is captivating as the eye relishes the delightful motion of fine lines like the dried skid marks of a vehicle navigating a sudden tremor. The stillness of the white ground creates a marked contrast as if the afterimages left by the waving serpentine brush continue to manipulate the retina.
The “Flowing Form” pieces support the concept that even the most basic gesture, motion, mark, or outline within a void can transform into a form. The slightest disturbance of a void dissolves its existence. When the artist implodes his space with the vitality of a line or a mark, the form can instantly emerge, even though it begins to search for its completeness.
Morning Mantra
The “Morning Mantra” works, on the other hand, are pure immersions in monochromatic white. There is a singular pleasure in viewing a reductive kind of painting. White is a metaphor and a visual experience of purity, simplicity, and minimalism. White is also a paradox, as it represents the complete integration of all colors. Physics defines white as the light the human eye perceives when all visible spectrum wavelengths come together.
As white lacks hue, it may be an achromatic or neutral color, though a disturbance to it with a small amount of brown turns it off-white. A drop of black turns white into gray, giving off a different vibe.
In art history, the Russian painter Kazimir Malevich created the now-famous “White on White,” which is considered one of the finest examples of Suprematism—the “supremacy of pure artistic feeling.” Malevich believed white was “the color of infinity and signified a realm of higher feeling, a utopian world of pure form that was attainable only through nonobjective art.” Vinluan has seized on the same conviction as Malevich in his square work, introducing another square in off-white that is left floating askew and angled, asserting geometry in the form of a dominant circle. This two-dimensional, closed shape serves as a “framing” device to counterpoise against the openness of the painting. More than just a compositional element, the circle, centered right in the middle of the pictorial space, is rich in its visual resonance, referring to the universe—the sun, the moon, the earth, the planets. Moreover, it functions as a raking light that draws attention to the constellation of studded nodules that the artist has scattered over the pristine surface. Inspiringly titled, one imagines this series as Vinluan’s salutation to the sun, the source of all energy.
Beyond the Borders
In “From Earth and Green Series,” a golden brown, torn between sienna and mustard yellow, asserts itself against a blanketing green, exhibiting the fine qualities of nourished vegetation and foliage. The orientation of this work inevitably resembles a landscape, with the surface constantly shifting visually. Vinluan’s use of sprinkling and splattering brush ensures control over chance. It’s an all-over work—ruggedly mottled and wholly abstract—that renounces a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it can continue to exist beyond the borders of the canvas.
122.00 x 182.80 cm / 48.07 x 72.02 in.
COP - 20492
From Earth and Green Series I
acrylic on canvas
122.00 x 182.80 cm / 48.07 x 72.02 in.
COP - 20491
Tree/Cloud and Pond III
acrylic on canvas
Found Shapes
The “Found Shapes” paintings are ironic because the word is associated with a physical object. In these works, the shapes created by chance take on a life of their own, giving the impression of continuous motion yet abruptly stilled by the twodimensional medium. These “Found Shapes” are an intriguing exercise in form-making, as they wiggle and wriggle, shape themselves into distorted forms, proliferating into a multitude of variations. As the artist behind these images, Vinluan marvels at the abilities of paint.
Found Shapes A-1
40.00 x 29.50 cm / 15.76 x 11.62 in. 2024
Found Shapes A-2
40.00 x 29.50 cm / 15.76 x 11.62 in.
COP - 20442
acrylic on canvas
COP - 20443
acrylic on canvas
COP - 20465, 20452, 20466, 20471, 20476
Found Shapes A-3, A-4, A-5, A-6, A-7
30.50 x 23.00 cm / 12.02 x 9.26 in. 2024
acrylic on canvas
COP - 20448
From Watching Skies (Counting Stars)
acrylic on canvas
122.00 x 122.00 cm / 48.07 x 48.07 in.
2024
Adieu, Academe
On March 17, 2024, Nestor Vinluan celebrated his 75th birthday. In recognition and gratitude for the service he rendered as Dean of the UP College of Fine Arts (UPCFA) for nine years in a historic three-term assignment, over 60 of his contemporaries, colleagues, former students, mentees, and alumni of UPCFA paid a tribute show to him, the “Nestor Vinluan: Diamond Jubilee Exhibition.”
Nestor “Vinluan,” who is “healthy, joyful, enthusiastic about life,” possesses the energy of younger artists half his age. Now, away from academe and with time on his side, he will be found in his studio the next day. As the American painter and teacher Robert Henri wrote: “The object is not to make art; it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
Nestor Vinluan, the modern maestro, is inevitably hard at work.
Cid Reyes is the author of choice for five National Artists: Arturo Luz, BenCab, J. Elizalde Navarro, Napoleon Abueva, and Fernando Amorsolo. His latest books are “Ramon Orlina: Visions in Glass” and “Lydia Velasco: Faith and Flesh.” He received a “Best in Art Criticism Award” from the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP).
COP - 20484
Teal/Lavender and O
acrylic on canvas
122.00 x 122.00 cm / 48.07 x 48.07 in.
2024
COP - 20485
In Deep Greens and Blues
acrylic on canvas
152.40 x 122.00 cm / 60.05 x 48.07 in. 2024
From Watching Skies (As I Breathe I See Circles)
182.80 x 274.30 cm / 72.02 x 108.07 in.
COP - 20481
acrylic on canvas
COP - 20477
Through Red O acrylic on canvas
101.60 x 76.20 cm / 40.03 x 30.02 in. 2023
COP - 20475
Plant Life
acrylic on canvas
101.60 x 76.20 cm / 40.03 x 30.02 in. 2023
COP - 20482 Through Gold acrylic on canvas
182.80 x 182.80 cm / 72.02 x 72.02 in.
COP - 20487
With Cadmium Yellow acrylic on canvas
182.80 x 182.80 cm / 72.02 x 72.02 in.
COP - 20467
On Blue Flowing Form
acrylic on canvas
140.00 x 140.00 cm / 55.16 x 55.16 in.
2023
Nestor Olarte Vinluan
Professor Emeritus, Professor XII of Painting
Academic Background
1982, Master of Fine Arts in Painting, Minor in Printmaking, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York (Fulbright-Hays Scholarship)
1972, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting, UP College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman, Quezon City
Selected Professional Appointments
2015, Professor Emeritus, UP Diliman, Quezon City
1989–1992, Dean (1st term), UP College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman, Quezon City
1992–1995, Dean (2nd term), UP College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman, Quezon City
1995–1998, Dean (3rd term), UP College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman, Quezon City
1987–present, Thesis Adviser for the graduate program
1983–2014, Thesis Adviser for the undergraduate program
Selected Awards and Distinctions
2015, Professor Emeritus, UP Diliman, Quezon City
2012, UP Artistic Productivity Award (Artist III)
2008, Most Outstanding Fulbright Alumni in Arts and Humanities, Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association
2007, Artist in Residence, Stadt Atelier, Künstlerhaus, Salzburg, Austria
2006, KNP Citation for Arts and Culture, Kaluyagan Nen Palaris, Confederation of Pangasinan Associations
2004, Artist in Residence, Sculpture Square, Singapore
2004, Fernando Amorsolo Professorial Chair Awardee, UP College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman, Quezon City
2002–2005, Vice Chairman, National Museum Panel of Experts on Art (Authentication and Evaluation)
2001, Gawad Chanselor para sa Pinakamahusay na Alagad ng Sining, UP Diliman, Quezon City
2000, Honorary Member, Asia Society Philippines
1997–1998, Member, Board of Trustees, Philippine Fulbright Scholarship Association
1995–1998, Executive Committee Member, National Commission on Culture and the Arts, Committee on Visual Arts
1995–1996, Member, Board of Trustees, Philippine Fulbright Scholarship Association
1996, Lecturer, “The Education of Artists,” VIVA
ExCon IV, The 4th Visayas Islands Visual Arts
Exhibits and Conference, Iloilo City
1995–1998, Chair, Subcommittee for Fine Arts, Commission on Higher Education Technical Panel for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Communication
1995, Gawad Chanselor as Outstanding Faculty Administrator as Dean of UP College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman, Quezon City
1995, International Visitor Program of the US Information
1994, Speaker, Art Education in the Philippines
Today with paper entitled “The Filipino Artists: Problems and Direction,” The Art Association of the Philippines Symposium, Metropolitan Museum of Manila
1993, Professorial Achievement Award in the Arts (Fine Arts / Painting), University of the Philippines Alumni Association
1993, Keynote Speaker, “The Use of Indigenous Materials in Art Making,” ASEAN Conference and Workshop on Research, Documentation, and Exchange on Indigenous Materials, Manila Hotel
1992, Outstanding Faculty Administrator as Dean of the UP College of Fine Arts, UP Chancellor Award, First UP Diliman Week
1991, Australian Cultural Awards Scheme
1989, Represented the Philippines, ASEAN Traveling Exhibition and Symposium on Painting, Photography, and Children’s Art, Jakarta, Indonesia
1985, Represented the Philippines, 2nd Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan
1980, Fulbright-Hays Grantee (January 1980–December 1981)
1980, Seven Artists, Slide Presentations and Exhibition of selected graduate students (Richard Martin of Arts Magazine as the invited critic), Higgins Hall, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
1979–1982, Critic’s Choice, Ma-yi Gallery (Leo Benesa, Rod Paras-Perez, Emmanuel Torres)
1977, Represented the Philippines, Hong Kong Arts Festival
1974, Thirteen Artists Award, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1973, Grand Award, Art Association of the Philippines, APP Competition and Exhibition (Painting Category)
1971, Celia Diaz Laurel Scholarship, UP College of Fine Arts
1971, 1st Place, On-the-Spot Painting Tilt, Sponsored by Shell Philippines
1971, Honorable Mention, Southeast Asia Art Society, Singapore
1970, 7th Place, On-the-Spot Painting Tilt, Sponsored by Shell Philippines
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024, Paintings/Installations/Objects V, Galleria Duemila, Pasay City
2019, A Sphere, a Line, and Other Recent Works, Crucible Gallery, Mandaluyong City
2017, Paintings/Installations/Objects IV, Galleria Duemila, Pasay City
2016, Vertical on Configuration and Other Recent Works, West Gallery
2014, From the Artist Studio, Corredor Gallery, UP College of Fine Arts, UP Diliman, Quezon City
2014, Heaven and Earth: Works from 2011–2013, Now Gallery & Auctions, 2305 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City
2013, New Works, Inaugural Exhibition, Now Gallery & Consulting, 2305 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City
2010, Mystical Space, Sining Makiling Art Gallery, DL Umali Hall, Los Baños, Laguna
2009, Radiance: New Works by Nestor Olarte Vinluan, Ground Floor, Ayala Museum, Makati City
2008, Salzburg Impressionen: Künstlerhaus, Salzach River, Mozart and the Arcs, Stadt Atelier, Künstlerhaus, Salzburg, Austria
2007, From Künstlerhaus and Other Recent Works, West Gallery and Finale Art File, The Artwalk, Fourth Level, SM Megamall
2006, From Sculpture Square and Other Recent Works, Mag:net Gallery, Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights, Quezon City
2007, Paintings/Installations/Objects III, Sculpture Square Limited, Singapore
2004, Paintings/Installations/Objects II, Mag:net Gallery, The Loop, ABS-CBN Compound, Quezon City
2003, Recent Paintings, The Luz Gallery, Makati City
2002, From Blue to Earth with Red, Ayala Museum 2001, Of Earth, Sky and the Spirit, Art Center, SM Megamall
1999–2000, The Luz Gallery
1999–2000, Pinaglabanan Gallery
1986, The Luz Gallery
1985, Small Gallery and Museum Hallway, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1984, Graduate Gallery 107, Higgins Hall, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
1980, Gallery I–Gallery II, Sining Kamalig
1975, Small Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1974, Shop No. 6, Sining Kamalig
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024, Connecting Bodies, Breaths, and Minds: Nestor Olarte Vinluan’s 75th Year (Part 2), Gravity Art Space, Quezon City, July 12–
August 10
2024, Nestor Olarte Vinluan: Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, White Walls Gallery, March 23–April 20
2023, Aviado + Junyee + Vinluan, ManilArt 2023, SMX Aura, October 11–15
2023, Elusive Edge: Philippine Abstract Forms, 3F North Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, June
2015, RROAR: Ricco Renzo’s Art Rage, Ricco Renzo Art Gallery, SM Aura, Bonifacio Global City 2014, MET OPEN, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Manila
2012, Six Diliman Abstractionists, Galerie Anna, Art Center, 4th Level, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City 2011, Une Pleiade d’Artistes: Recent Works, Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea, Third Level, Greenbelt, Makati City
2009, Daloy: We Said Our Piece, 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Cultural Center of the Philippines
2009, Unos at Banaag, Liongoren Gallery, an exhibition for the victims of Ondoy, Quezon City
2009, Art After 40, Sining Kamalig Gallery, Gateway Mall, Quezon City
2008, Salle de Pas Perdus, Maison de l’UNESCO, 7 Place de Fontenoy, Paris
2008, TRANSMISSIONS: UP Artists and the CCP Thirteen Artists Awards, Cultural Center of the Philippines
2008, Works from the 80s, Avellana Art Gallery, Pasay City
2008, Inaugural Exhibition, Galerie Anna, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City
2007, Peers Ensemble, Pintô Art Museum, Antipolo City
2006, The 20th Asian International Art Exhibition, Ayala Museum, Makati City
2003, From the 17th Asian International Exhibition, Ayala Museum, Makati City
2002, Philippines Paintings, From the 17th Asian International Exhibition, Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art, South Korea
2002, Homage to the Masters II, Tall Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Manila
1999, Fulbright Master’s Suite (Abueva, Kasilag, Imao and Vinluan), Manila Peninsula, Makati City
1993, Best Contemporary Philippine Art, Empress Place Museum Lobby, Singapore
1988–1990, First ASEAN Exhibition of Painting, Photography and Children’s Art, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei
1989, Sikat: Two Decades of Philippine Art, Main Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1988, Subject Matter: Color, Pasilyo Victorio Edades, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1987, Reality According to Artists, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1986, Seoul Contemporary Asian Art Show, The National Museum of Modern Art, Korea
1985, 2nd Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan
1985, 10th CCP Annual, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1984, 3rd ASEAN Exhibition of Painting & Photography, Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok
1984, Asian Art, Bangladesh
1984, CCP Annual, Main Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1980, Seven Artists, Slide Presentation and Exhibition, Higgins Hall, Inter-Art Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
1980, Museum Artists 1980, Museum of Philippine Art
1980, Philippine Painting Old and New, The Hague, Netherlands
1980, Exhibition of Philippine Contemporary Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art
1979, A Decade of Developmental Art, Main Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1979, Critic’s Choice, Ma-yi Gallery
1979, Work No. 4 at the Farm, An International Exhibition, The Farm, San Francisco, California
1979, Critic’s Choice, Ma-yi Gallery (Leo Benesa, Rod Paras-Perez, Emmanuel Torres)
1979, Philippine Contemporary Art, Washington, D.C.
1978, Philippine Contemporary Art, Sepia Workshop, New York
1978, 3rd Annual for the Visual Arts, Main Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1978, Windows, Small Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1977, 20 Artists, Museum of Philippine Art
1977, Museum Artists, Museum of Philippine Art
1977, Roots, Basics, Beginnings, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1977, Hong Kong Arts Festival
1977, 40 Filipino Contemporary Artists, Museum of Philippine Art
1977, Seasons and Generations, Small Gallery, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1976, Group Exhibition, Philippine House, Mainz, Germany
1976, Group Exhibition, Philippine House, Cairo, Egypt
1976, 1st CCP Annual of Recent Paintings and Sculptures, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1976, Contemporary Art in the Philippines,
Museum of Philippine Art
1975, Contemporary Philippine Art, Tokyo, Japan
1975, AAP Grand Award Winners, Metro Manila
1974, New Directions in Philippine Abstract Painting, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1974, Subject Matter, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1974, Thirteen Artists, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1973, Grand Award (Painting Category), AAP Competition and Exhibition
1972, Summer Exhibition, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1972, Two-Man Show, Galerie Bleue
1971, 4-Sight, Hotel-Inter-Continental Manila
Painters Five, Red Gallery
Selected Lectures
2024, Artist Talk: Establishing a Career in the Art Field, Gravity Art Space, Quezon City, August 2
2008, Conversations with Nestor Vinluan, Ayala Museum
2008, Painting Workshop with Nestor Vinluan, Ayala Museum (Philippine High School for the Arts)
2007, Shell Art Interaction Program, University of Northern Philippines, Vigan, Ilocos Sur 2004, Sculpture Square, Singapore
2004, NAFA, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore 2004, La Salle–SIA College of Arts, Singapore 2004, National Institute of Education, Singapore 2004, National University of Singapore, Singapore 2000, On Abstraction/Figuration, Asia Art Society, Ayala Museum
2000, Fernando Amorsolo, Realities: Representation or Abstraction, Ayala Museum 1991, Artists and Their Role in Modern Everyday Life, organized by SPAFA, Silpakom University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
1980, Seven Artists, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, Graduating Class
Selected Curatorial Works
2016, Line Between Gesture and Color, Finale Art Gallery, Mandaluyong City 2016, UP Art Expo @ BGC, University of the Philippines, Bonifacio Global City 2014, Identity/Place/Fantasy, Galleria Duemila, Pasay City
2009, Old Dogs, New Tricks by Paulo Vinluan, Tall Gallery, Finale Art File, Mandaluyong City 2008, Folk Lore by Paulo Vinluan, Blanc Gallery, Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City 2006, New Paintings and Selection of Small Collages, Benjie Cabangis, Mag:net Gallery, The Loop, ABS-CBN Compound, Quezon City
2006, Mapping the Field: Virginia Dandan, Pintô Art Museum, Antipolo City
2005, Box Environment SFA 120 Z / SFA 120 V, Ayala Museum, Makati City 2004, Paintings by Antonio Daroy, Mag:net Gallery, Makati City
2003, Maningning Soliloquy at CCP, Home Coming/Coming Home, Cultural Center of the Philippines
2001, Fulbright Artist Exhibition, Manila Polo Club, Forbes Park, Makati City 1991, 1st ASEAN Traveling Exhibition of Painting, Photography and Children’s Art, National Museum, Manila
Selected Commissioned Works
2017, Painting for Grand Hyatt lobby, Bonifacio Global City
2015–2017, UP Covenant Monument, UP Diliman, Quezon City
2007, Paintings for Heritage Hotel, The Heritage Hotel Manila
2007, Millennium Hotels and Resorts
2006, Greenbelt 5 Wall Project, Ayala Land Inc. Collection, Makati City
1995–1996, Public Sculpture, “Rock and Columns of Heroes,” DENR Compound, Quezon City
Selected Bibliography
Albano, Ray. “Forms, Colors, and Ancient Window Structures,” Daily Express, November 1975, p. 25
Albano, Ray. “Nestor Vinluan Comes Home,” Arts Monthly, July 1983, p. 23
Benesa, Leo. “Nestor Vinluan as Painter’s Painter,” Daily Express, July 1979, p. 17
Benesa, Leo. “Vinluan Inscape-Landscapes,” Daily Express, October 1977, p. 25
CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, vol. 4, “Vinluan, Nestor Olarte.” Makati City: Cultural Center of the Philippines, 1994
Defeo, Ruben David F. “Nestor Olarte Vinluan,” The Carillon, November–December 1972, pp. 4–5
Gatbonton, Juan T., Javelosa, Jeannie E., and Roa, Lourdes Ruth R. Art Philippines. Pasig, Metro Manila: Crucible Workshop, c. 1992
Guillermo, Alice G. “Sining Biswal: An Essay on Philippine Visual Arts,” Tuklas Sining, 1991, pp. 319–321
Paras-Perez, Rodolfo. “A Real Art Movement,” Philippine Panorama, April 1976, p. 12
Shell Reunion Artists: The Spirit of the Shell Art Competition Winners, 1951–1992. Makati City, Metro Manila: Shell Companies in the Philippines, 1993
Syjuco, Cesare. “Raising Abstraction from the Dead,” Manila Times
Torres, Emmanuel. “Nestor Vinluan,” Kayamanan, 1981, p. 165
Zafaralla, P.B. “Four Young Artists in Earnest Search of Individual Styles,” The Manila Chronicle, March 1971
Selected Collections
Ayala Museum, Museum of Philippine Art, National Art Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippine Budget Commission, Steven Leach and Associates, Telecom Plaza, Citibank, Manila Hotel, Shell Philippines, Hong Kong Bank, Central Bank of the Philippines, Prudential Bank, First National Bank of Chicago, Active Banks, Museum of Bangladesh, National Museum, Hotel Intercontinental, ColgatePalmolive Philippines, St. Luke’s Medical Center – Global City, Mayor Imperial Hotel, Philippine Heart Center, Chase Manhattan Bank
Biography
Nestor Olarte Vinluan was born in Pozorrubio, Pangasinan, in 1949. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1972. In 1980, he received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, on a prestigious Fulbright-Hays Scholarship.
Selected for the CCP Thirteen Artists Awards in 1974, Vinluan’s work was described by art historian Rodolfo Paras-Perez as “strangely mesmerizing,” a highly refined manifestation of subjective imagery of nature. In 1979, prominent art writer Leonidas Benesa heralded Vinluan as “an artist who had uncompromisingly committed himself to high abstraction.”
In 1989, Vinluan took on another significant role as dean of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, a position he held until 1998. During his stewardship, the college found its permanent home, and he was instrumental in elevating the college curriculum to a higher level. His artist residencies include the program at Sculpture Square, Singapore, in 2004, and three years later, at the Stadt Atelier at the Künstlerhaus in Salzburg, Austria.
Perennially inspired by “the natural world,” Vinluan continues to create works that embody an unparalleled quiet spirituality and ethereal sublimity. With a career spanning five broad, triumphant decades, Nestor Olarte Vinluan is a highly respected force in Philippine art.
Galleria Duemila was established in 1975 by Italian born Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz. Duemila means “twentieth century” and it was this vision that inspired the gallery’s advocacy in promoting and preserving Philippine contemporary art. To date, it is the longest-standing commercial art gallery in the Philippines maintaining a strong international profile.
Galleria Duemila takes pride in being the only local gallery to publish and mount retrospectives of artists as part of its advocacy in pursuing art historical research and scholarship.
210 Loring Street
1300 Pasay City, Metro Manila
+63 908 307 9972
+63 2 8831 9990
+63 2 8833 9815
gduemila@gmail.com art@galleriaduemila.com www.galleriaduemila.com
With the collaboration of institutions, Galleria Duemila has mounted the retrospectives of Roberto M. A. Robles (Ateneo Art Gallery, 2011), Duddley Diaz (Vargas Museum, 2009), and Julie Lluch Dalena (Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2008). It has also published a book on Diosdado Magno Lorenzo (National Library of the Philippines, 2009) and produced a major Pacita Abad exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2004.
The gallery is a presumed important cultural property through Article III of the National Heritage Act of 2009 (R.A. 10066) and is listed as a local cultural property of Pasay under City Ordinance No. 4624 series of 2019.
Gawad Parangal para sa mga Alagad ng Sining ng Pasay (2023) Plaque of Local Cultural Property (2023)
