The Chagallesque works of Marcel Antonio often involve mysterious themes, utilize fabular images that combine myth with reality, and inspire stories and imagination.
Influenced in the beginning by Dada artists and early modernism, for Antonio, “his work is a product of randomness and discovery, of playing with the work within certain limits and free-styling from there.” His process involves finding relationships and combinations between disparate images and texts that suggest a familiar memory or experience and building on it.
The impetus to be an artist was a natural one for Antonio. The son of Filipino painters Angelito Antonio and Norma Belleza, he grew up in an environment replete with music, good food, intelligent company, and art.
He launched his first solo show while still in college at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. It was followed by a string of sold-out exhibitions. Today, he is considered as one of the most influential artists of his generation. His paintings continue to be prized by collectors in the Philippine and Southeast Asian markets.
Antonio has exhibited in numerous major galleries in the Philippines including Galleria Duemila, The Drawing Room, Gallery BIG, Galleria Quattrocento, and AltroMondo Arte Contemporanea, as well galleries in Berlin, Australia, and Singapore.
Read why words and art matter for Marcel Antonio in Looking for Juan’s interview with him.
Quaderno by Marcel Antonio
Words Are What We Tell Our Children | acrylic on canvas (2019)
Insatiable Curiosity | acrylic on canvas (2019)
Literature Is What Makes Us Humans | acrylic on canvas (2019)
Words Make Nations | acrylic on canvas (2019)