1.

Nona Garcia

Nona Garcia is perhaps one of the best-known artists in the Philippine art scene. She won the Grand
Prize in the Philip Morris ASEAN Art Award (2000) and is also a recipient of the Cultural Center of the
Philippines (CCP) Thirteen Artists Award (2003).

This is her one of her artworks called ‘Crater, 2017’. The medium used is sculpture, oil on cement. Nona
Garcia is known for employing the use of stark realism to bring into question what the true meaning of
representation is. Her use of photorealism centers everyday objects, cultural artifacts, or people, inviting
the viewers to explore the environmental, sociopolitical, and personal histories of her subjects.

2. Lea Salonga

Multiple award-winning actress and singer Lea Salonga is renown across the world for her powerful
voice and perfect pitch. She is best known for her Tony Award winning role in Miss Saigon. In addition
to the Tony, she has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards, in the
field of musical theatre. She was also the first Asian to play Eponine in the musical Les Misérables on
Broadway and returned to the beloved show as Fantine in the 2006 revival.
One of her albums is ‘Bahaghari’, the medium is through singing. “Bahaghari,” an album of traditional
Filipino songs. The album serves as a reflection of all the intricate and different languages found in the
Philippines and aims to help preserve the island nation’s dynamic culture.

3. Freddie Aguilar

Born on February 5, 1953 in Sto. Tomas, Isabela, Philippines, Freddie Aguilar moved to the old capital
city, Manila. He started writing songs at 14.

His famous song is ‘Anak’, the medium is through singing. Freddie Aguilar left home at the age of 18
without graduating from school. Realizing and regretting his mistakes five years later, Freddie
composed "Anak", a song of remorse and apology to his parents. He went back home and asked for
forgiveness from his parents, who welcomed him with open arms.

4. Juan Luna

Juan Luna is without doubt the most famous and celebrated Filipino artist in the history of Philippines.
His famous artwork is ‘Solarium’, the medium is in the form of painting. Spoliarium was the kind of
painting that lent itself to the patriotic needs of the Filipinos and on which Rizal and others projected a
nationalistic symbolism that helped rouse the Filipinos to rise up against the political oppression of their
Spanish colonizers. In Rizal’s words, Spoliarium was a symbol of “our social, moral, and political life:
humanity unredeemed, reason and aspiration in open fight with prejudice, fanaticism, and injustice.”

5. Benedicto Cabrera

Benedicto Reyes Cabrera or BenCab, as he is more popularly known is widely hailed as a master of
contemporary Philippine art.

One of his famous artworks is ‘Sabel’, the medium used is oil on canvas. According to him, “Sabel” was
the woman she saw scavenging around his Bambang neighborhood in 1964. She took a photo of him
and sketched it. To him, Sabel is a representation of not just a homeless woman but of any Filipina as
well. Now, Sabel is a major subject that recurs through BenCab’s works through the decades.

6. Ang Kiukok

He was a Filipino painter who attained prominence for his distinct portrayal of cubist, surrealist and
expressionist concepts.  He was named a National Artist for Visual Arts in 2001 for his figurative
expressionist style.  Ang Kiukok was known for his non-mainstream portrayals of the mother and child
and the crucifixion of Christ.
One of his artworks is “The Fishermen”, the medium used is through painting, oil on canvas. This
painting depicts the hope and struggle of fishermen. The Fishermen shows a group working together as
they haul a net telling us their struggle. While the crimson sun above is an emphatic symbol of constancy
and perpetual energy. 

7. Anita Magsaysay-Ho

Anita Magsaysay-Ho was a Filipino painter best known for her Social Realist and post-Cubist portrayals
of Filipino life and culture, notably and frequently portraying groups of women engaged in labor.

One of his artworks is “Fish Harvest at Dawn”, the medium used is through painting, oil on canvas. “My
life and, therefore, my paintings are so enriched by these vacations,” Anita said of those summers. She
not only observed rural life, she took delight in actively participating in it. She went fishing with her
mother along the mangroves, joined her brother, Mike, in pulling the nets of the fishermen, picked
native fruits like mangoes and sineguelas, planted flowering shrubs, tried her hand in mending fishing
nets, gathered chicken eggs and played with the children of the farm. As to why she limits her subject to
Filipinas, she declares, “I paint Filipino women because I know them well. That is why I never attempted
to paint the Japanese, Brazilian, Canadian, or Chinese women. I cannot presume to know them.”

8. Jose Joya

National artist Jose Joya was a pioneer modern and abstract artist who was active as a painter,
printmaker, mixed-media artist, and ceramicist. It has been said that it was Joya who “spearheaded the
birth, growth and flowering of abstract expressionism” in the Philippines.
One of his artworks is “Granadean Arabesque”, based from his statement, “The medium was immaterial.
I used ink, washes, even color, provided the graphic characters that took shape on paper were directed
by my intuition and imagination.” The “Granadean Arabesque,” a masterpiece by Filipino famous painter
and National Artist Jose Joya, is a horizontal Philippine abstract art which showcases different shades of
yellow, broad strokes and an impasto mixed with sand. This masterpiece is an embodiment of Joya’s
talent as a mixed-media artist and pioneer of modern Filipino paintings and art in the country.

9. Carlos “Botong” Francisco

Francisco studied at the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Fine Arts. Before the war, he did
illustrations for the Tribune and La Vanguardia, and later, with Victorio Edades and Fermin Sanchez
painted sets for the Manila Grand Opera House, and the Clover Theater. He was also a member of the
“Thirteen Moderns” a group formed in 1938.
One of his artworks is “Filipino Struggles Through History”, The medium used is through painting.
“Filipino Struggles through History” chronicles the history of Manila from the first great Rajahs of Tondo,
the Spanish colonial period, Balagtas, Rizal and the Revolution of 1896, up to the American colonial
period which becomes the history of the entire nation itself. In this work Francisco often integrated
several historical episodes, in smaller scale, under one period. The episode groups, however, are not
static but flow into each other by means of various linking devices, such as a winding river,  flames
branching out, or clouds coiling in spirals. The murals are marked by artistic vigor and
inexhaustible inventiveness, a lively characterization of the numerous historical figures, and unifying all,
a strong sense of design. Andres Bonifacio’s figure makes a compelling visual impact as he is shown
forging forward, leading the Katpunero with their long bamboo spears, rifles, and bolos. Among the
many dynanic scenes is the encounter between Limahong and the Spanish soldiers as they thrust their
weapons at each other.

10. Fernando Amorsolo

Fernando Amorsolo was born May 30, 1892, in the Paco district of Manila. At 13 he was apprenticed to
the noted Philippine artist Fabian de la Rosa, his mother's first cousin. In 1909 Amorsolo enrolled at the
Liceo de Manila and then attended the fine-arts school at the University of the Philippines, graduating in
1914.

“The Making of the Philippine Flag” by Fernando Amorsolo, the medium used is through painting.
Fernando Amorsolo’s The Making of the Philippine Flag  is one of the most famous paintings in the
Philippines. It shows three women (Marcela Agoncillo, her daughter Lorenza, and Delfina Herbosa de
Natividad, Dr. Jose Rizal’s niece). This Filipino painting may be the most notable but there are some
stories going around saying that Amorsolo’s depiction is not accurate because one of the three women
sewing the Philippine flag is a child.