CEBU has long welcomed visiting artists. Their artworks are give new sight and add new perspectives to the landscapes done by local painters.
Perfecto Mercado is a senior painter from Manila and toured his body of works around Metro Cebu recently.
The collection of paintings he showed at TGU Tower at the Asiatown I.T. Park in Lahug was composed of varied styles. They ranged from surreal landscapes, to figures in cubism and even symbolist paintings. The delightful mixtures of styles make Mercado an enigmatic artist, difficult to pin down to one art movement. There can be no singular definition as to what artistic style or movement he belongs to. Yet common all throughout his subjects is a keen interest that focuses on nature and habitat.
Here the message of environmental protection is evident. The artist takes on environmentalism as an advocacy. In his cubism and abstract works, stylized forms of flora and fauna animate the canvas.
His landscapes stand out for creative composition. In the artworks you can sometimes see hidden figures and faces that morph from the obvious to the hidden images.
Some paintings are like puzzles that need to be closely inspected for them to be discerned. Mercado’s art is a many splendored thing, indeed.