Latest news with #LeonGallery
GMA Network
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
PDL artworks up for auction at Leon Gallery
The artworks of persons deprived of liberty (PDL) will be featured at the Leon Gallery in Makati City from July 12 to 18, 2025 in the run-up to a special auction on July 19. (Photo from BAGA FB post) The artworks of persons deprived of liberty (PDL) will be featured at the Leon Gallery in Makati City from July 12 to 18 in the run-up to a special auction on July 19 at 2 p.m. In a statement, the Bagong Buhay Group of Artists (BAGA), a community of former PDLs and individuals from marginalized sections of society united by their transformative journey through art, said the auction will feature the the winners, finalists, and entries from the First National PDL Art Competition, which was held from July to October 2024, as well as artworks by the BAGA. The competition was participated in by more than 180 PDLs from various jails and correctional facilities across the country and spearheaded by the Justice Sector Coordinating Council. The council is composed of the Supreme Court, Department of Justice, and Department of Interior and Local Government. The Bureau of Corrections, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Karl Miranda also took part in the event. 'The competition and the auction aim to highlight the artistic talents of PDLs and provide a unique platform for them to showcase not only the rehabilitative power of art but also their exceptional talent and creativity,' BAGA said in a statement. Miranda said that the Leòn Gallery, through its director Jaime Ponce de Leon, agreed to waive commissions from the auction, which means 100% of the proceeds will go to the PDL artists and their families. "This auction is not only our way of giving back to the community, but our way of celebrating these up-and-coming talents in the hopes of giving them the chance to really flourish and thrive through their creativity,' de Leon said. The panel of judges for the art competition was composed of Salvador Ching of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Jualim Vela of the Department of Humanities of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and Liping Zheng, an artist and retired senior officer of the Asian Development Bank. "Through this activity, we hope to emphasize that incarceration is not the end-all and be-all of the Philippine justice system, but rather a step toward the rehabilitation and reintegration of PDLs into society," said Joey De Leon, president of BAGA and former PDL. 'Through this special auction facilitated by Leon Gallery, the quality of PDL artworks will be elevated so that people will patronize them not only out of empathy for their plight but also because of their artistic quality,' he added. De Leon founded BAGA in 2021 to assist ex-PDLs in their reintegration into mainstream society.—Llanesca Panti/LDF, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
08-06-2025
- General
- GMA Network
Fernando Amorsolo paintings, Malolos Constitution sold at Makati auction
At the Leon Gallery in Makati, more than 160 historical items and artworks were up for sale at its latest midyear auction. According to a "24 Oras Weekend" report, the auction includes valuable pieces such as a copy of the Malolos Constitution, personal belongings once owned by Filipino heroes, paintings of Fernando Amorsolo, as well as select artifacts from the collection of renowned Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo. Amorsolo's "Burning of Manila" painting sold for P30 million while his "Harvest-winnowing Rice" painting sold for P8.5 million. Another painting sold during the auction is Anita Magsaysay-Ho's "Water Carriers," which was sold for P50 million. It is one of her rare egg tempera works, which uses egg yolks in the painting process. Meanwhile, the Malolos Constitution was sold to Senator Loren Legarda for P2.2 million after a starting bid of P100,000. —Hermes Joy Tunac/MGP, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
Artifacts from Ambeth Ocampo's collection up for auction at Leon Gallery's Spectacular Mid-Year Auction in June
Select artifacts from the collection of renowned Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo will be up for auction at Leon Gallery's Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025 on June 7. As seen in the museum's auction catalog, the treasures from what Ocampo calls his 'Cabinet of Curiosities" that will be up for auction include Emilio Jacinto's silver quill, which the national hero won as a prize possibly while a student at San Juan de Letran. 'Emilio Jacinto celebrates his 150th birthday in 2025, and the silver quill was a prize as a top poet of his university. In modern terms, being the top influencer, meme-maker of his time,' Leon Gallery consultant Lisa Nakpil told GMA News Online. According to Nakpil, the silver quill symbolizes the importance of communication in nation-building. 'He was 17 at the time and 18 when he put up the Kalayaan newspaper, recruiting 30,000 Katipunan members. It's a symbol of what communication can do in building a nation,' she said. Other artifacts from Ocampo's collection are the Malolos Constitution, which Nakpil described as a 'very rare artifact' of the First Philippine Republic. There are also Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo's tortoiseshell walking stick and personal bank draft, a rare set of Wenceslao E. Retana's "Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino," and other important books on Philippine history, geography, and botany. More curiosities include photographs of Jose Rizal and Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, photographs of Juan Luna's 'Odalisca' and 'Hymén, oh Hyménée" paintings, and paper currency of the Malolos Republic, among others. Nakpil underscored the significance of these artifacts as markers for people to understand and learn from the past. '[These are] important because they are touchstones of Filipino history, its heroes and our identity – curated by the country's most beloved historian, former chair of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and an international scholar and expert Ambeth R. Ocampo,' she said. The Spectacular Mid-Year Auction 2025 will be held at the Leon Gallery in Makati City on June 7 at 2 p.m. View the complete catalog. —CDC, GMA Integrated News
