Art has always been considered a celebration of humanity.
Honoring this truth is this year’s rendition of the Xavier Art Fest (XAF). Hosted by the Xavier School campus, the highly anticipated art event is an annual opportunity for creative Filipino talent to be showcased in all sorts of mediums. This year, embodying the theme “Mind, Body, and Heart,” XAF raises the bar ever higher by serving as the year-long culmination of events planned by the Xavier Alumni Batch of 1996, who had also organized learning sessions and fundraisers to aid the medical frontliners of the Philippine General Hospital. In order to make the event more accessible, XAF will also be making use of a hybrid model comprising a public three-day exhibit, a six-day online market, and an auction featuring the works of renowned artists.
With this, XAF has welcomed over 40 galleries and 15 featured artists into their fold. Among these, of course, are the women who have made it their dream to express their creative individuality. In light of International Women’s Month, we believe it’s more than fitting to direct the spotlight toward some of our country’s best female artists.
So without further ado, here are four talented Filipino-Chinese women who are now making their mark in both the local and global artistic spheres:
Winna Go
Taking inspiration from the history of Chinese diaspora and the contemporary issues found in the Philippine setting, Winna Go is an award-winning artist who embraces the richness of culture and her own personal identity in the Filipino-Chinese context. In 2018, she became a regional winner of the Philippine Art Awards and placed as a finalist for multiple competitions, including the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence Competition, the Shell National Student Art Competition, and the LRT Art Competition. Her works have since been featured in exhibits across Taiwan and the Philippines.
In 2019, Go graduated magna cum laude from her undergraduate degree in the multimedia arts at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. She is now pursuing her master’s studies in cultural and creative industries at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan.
Tiffany Lafuente
Tiffany Lafuente is an artist who believes that relentless passion is what is needed to challenge her imagination and create breakthroughs. Ultimately, this is what feeds her work, which are renowned for their whimsically provocative depictions of reality and convention. Since graduating cum laude from her fine arts degree in University of the Philippines-Diliman, Lafuente has set herself on the fast track to becoming a trailblazer among contemporary Filipino artists, having presented in over eight solo exhibits in just four years of her professional career.
Yandra Po
Having graduated with a degree in interior design from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, Yandra Po debuted her painterly works in 2021. The sculptural paintings, which were noted to have invoked remembrance, were a manifestation of Po’s experiences as a daughter of two cultures. This is why, as a full-time artist under the Ysobel Art Gallery, Po now constantly finds herself revisiting her handwritten journals and curation of historical images in her endeavors to create a purposeful body of work that celebrates an unwavering devotion to ethnicity and nationality.
Clairelynn Uy
No one shines brighter in contemporary pop art than Clairelynn Uy. Defined by a sense of impish quaintness and wonder, Uy’s eye-catching works celebrate modern art within the liberating contexts of freedom and fantasy, incorporating a kitschy aesthetic onto imagery derived from popular culture. Through what many consider to be an artful challenge against the rigidity of life and its daily structures, as well as decades of experience to her name, Uy’s pieces have since been featured in both local and international exhibits, as well as in globally renowned auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
All four talented women will be having their works displayed in the 2022 Xavier Art Fest, which will be physically held from March 18–20 at the Xavier School Fr. Cortina Sports Complex. The event is also slated to include an online viewing on March 23–29. For more information, stay tuned to updates on CHiNOY TV and Xavier Art Fest!
