NEWS! 2006 Ateneo Art Awards - WINNERS / Wawi Navarroza bags first-ever ART SMART Award

The Ateneo Art Gallery

proudly announces the winners of the 2006 Ateneo Art Awards

POKLONG ANADING
"Anonymity"
18-30 August 2005
Finale Art Gallery

MIDEO CRUZ
"Banquet"
2 February - 5 March 2006
Bulwagang Fernando Amorsolo,
Cultural Center of the Philippines
13 April 2006
Substation, Singapore

MAYA MUÑOZ
"Closer"
8-30 April 2006
Hiraya Gallery

The Awards were conferred to the three young Filipino visual artists for their outstanding contribution to the definition and development of modern and contemporary Philippine art at a formal ceremony at the Rockwell Tent on 8 August 2006.
ANADING was also bestowed with the 2006 Ateneo Art Gallery Sydney Studio Residency Grant, the only program of its kind organized by a Philippine cultural institution. It provides him with roundtrip airfare, allowance, accommodation and a work studio for three weeks, as well as an invitation to exhibit at The Cross Art Projects, a leading alternative art space in the Australia.

The other artists short-listed for the Awards were Yason Banal, Lena Cobangbang, Marina Cruz, Anton del Castillo, Bembol dela Cruz, Wawi Navarroza, Rodel Tapaya, Jay Ticar and Jevijoe Vitug.

NAVARROZA took home the first ever Art Smart Texter's Choice Award for the 2006 Ateneo Art Awards for her exhibition "Polysaccharide: The Dollhouse Drama." Muñoz and del Castillo received the second and third highest number of SMS votes respectively.

The Art Smart program, an innovative service provided by the country's leading wireless telecommunications company, Smart Communications, in partnership with the premier museum of modern Philippine art, the Ateneo Art Gallery, to bring modern and contemporary Philippine art to a wider audience, allowed Smart subscribers to vote for their favorite participating artist during the the "Ateneo Art Awards 2006: Outbound" exhibition at the North Court, Power Plant Mall from 1 - 7 August 2006. The same exhibition runs at the Ateneo Art Gallery from 16 August - 21 September 2006.

"Outbound," the theme of this year's Awards exhibition, is inspired by the winning and short-listed artists' tendency to eschew conservative acceptance as they work beyond society's comfort zones - challenging the status quo, reflecting, responding and, indeed, underscoring the Filipino's experiences and reactions to the vicissitudes of the everyday.

"Ateneo Art Awards 2006: Outbound" is presented by the Ateneo Art Gallery together with Metro Society, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Land, Smart Infinity and Y Style with the support of the Australian Embassy - Manila, Bega, Dairy Farmers, Jam 88.3, Wave 89.1 and NU 107.