Forty original acrylic paintings, all completed in just two and a half months, will be on exhibit at Art Lounge Manila (Ground Floor, Podium Mall in Ortigas Center, Pasig) from April 17 to 23, 2023.
Simply entitled “Portraits,” the collection features portraits of Filipino tycoons and entrepreneurs that painter Celeste Lecaroz created in a spontaneous realism style. Each portrait measures 5 feet X 4 feet and the works were painted from July to September 2019, in time for the 40th-anniversary celebration of Hi-Cool Engineering whose Chairman, Mr. Conrad Acedillo, is a staunch supporter of Filipino visual arts.
Through the paintings, Celeste depicts Filipino entrepreneurship in colorful and vibrant hues. The images also creatively preserve the legacy of key figures of Philippine business, one of which is of the late industrialist Leonardo Ty of Ajinomoto and Hitachi.
In the late 1960s, Mr. Ty hired the young mechanical engineer Conrad Acedillo as an employee of Hitachi and the opportunity ushered Mr. Acedillo into the dynamic air conditioning industry. Photos of Mr. Leonardo Ty (who passed away in 1995) are scarce and it took a bit of tracking down for Celeste’s researcher to find a photo of the businessman in the archives of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce. That photo was used as the reference for Celeste’s spontaneous realism portrait of Mr. Leonardo Ty.
“Portraits” is thus a celebration of perseverance and ingenuity. In a statement, the exhibit organizers said, “(As) Celeste Lecaroz unleashed her imagination for color, art lovers are invited to immerse themselves in the fruit of that creativity.”
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