Monochromatic, with a single white sphere topped by an almost discernible tree and a figure resting underneath, with a bicycle strewn aside, the painting gives a relatively playful viewpoint of a disconnected world belying the crazed nervework beneath one’s personal utopia; rising above the world’s twists and turns, snakes and snarls, and knots and snags.

Born in Tarlac, the artist has nevertheless spent his entire life in Antipolo, a hillside pilgrimage town in the east that overlooks the sprawl of metropolitan Manila. The fact of his location and environment has been part and parcel of the artist's life and consequently his art. A founder of the Antipolo-based artist group Salingpusa, Montemayor has been active in the local community of artists, first as a collaborator for projects and works among local painters and peers and later as mentor to a younger ...

 

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