Roy Veneracion

Artists statement: The Webster Dictionary defines syncretism as the attempted blending of irreconcilable principles or parties, as in philosophy or religion; grammar: the merging of two or more different categories or inflection forms into one.
SYNCRETISM as Andre Breton would have put it, had no artistic currency, until the artist picked it up and gave it that currency.
SYNCRETISM is the fusion of opposing art principles employing polystylism, multimedia, pastiche, appropriation, assemblage, installation, etc. To combine tromp loeil and bricolage, painting and installation, abstraction and representation, etc.
To define SYNCRETISM is to bring it back to the context-background of its evolvement. Four hundred years of colonization erased all our links with our so-called Heathen and savage past through the burning of all vestiges of that culture by the colonists-missionaries whose religious zeal was matched only by the Spanish Inquisition back home. After the 2nd World War, and after we've won our Independence from our second colonizer, the United States- in the early 1950s, Manila was a-buzzed with Modernism, as we engaged in the rebuilding of our Nation ravaged by war and the re-inventing of a culture disrupted by coloniz...

I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. And since my first one man show in 1974, I have dedicated myself to creating and exhibiting my works in my country and abroad. To date, Ive had more than 20 one-man-shows in various venues and galleries including the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Amorsolo Hall, and the Juan Luna Hall for which I did a mural project show in 1989. In 1990, I received the prestigious CCP Award for the Visual Arts or the CCP 13 Artists Awards. My most recent one-man-shows were at the L.A. Artcore and the Jack Miller & Associates Gallery in Los Angeles, California in February and March 2008. Ive also been active in group shows and international art festivals including: the Museum of Philippine Art (MOPA), the CCP Annuals for the Visual Arts, San Agustin Museums Marian Festival, the Metropolitan Museum, Ateneo Museum, and various galleries and alternative venues. Two of my paintings are on exhibit as permanent collections of the Philippine National Museum. Exhibitions in other countries include: L.A. Artcore, Union Center for the arts, L.A. Ca. U.S.A.: Jack Miller & Asso. gallery, L.A.Ca. U.S.A.; Gallery 8 Bergamot Station, Santa Mon...