The works of the masters may belong to another time, but their influence continues to shape how artists see and create today. Their lines, colors and ways of seeing do not simply remain on old canvases; they travel from one generation to the next, taking on new meaning along the way.
In Cebu, that conversation between past and present takes center stage in “Echoes of the Masters: Masterpieces Revisited Through Contemporary Eyes,” where artists revisit celebrated works and reinterpret them through their own perspectives, styles and experiences.
Opened Aug. 6, 2026, at Galerie Raphael Cebu as part of Cebu Arts Month, the exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Progressive Artists Society of the Philippines Inc. (Paspi), bringing together established and emerging artists in a visual dialogue with the masters who came before them.
At the center of it is master painter Romulo “Molong” Galicano, the Carcar-born artist and internationally recognized portraitist whose career has helped carry Cebuano painting onto the global stage. For Galicano, the exhibition is less about reproducing the works of the masters than using them as a springboard for artists to test their own creative strengths.
“I brought them here to exercise their strength and creativity,” Galicano said in an interview.
The artists, he explained, were encouraged to create works that remain connected to the masters they chose to honor while retaining their own artistic identities.
“They have to be related to the masters, but they have to be very original,” he said.
Galicano himself approaches homage in much the same way. One of his works was inspired by Piet Mondrian after he encountered a restaurant in Cubao whose design reminded him of the Dutch artist’s geometric abstraction. Rather than reproduce Mondrian’s work, Galicano translated the encounter into his own painting.
That, for him, is the value of looking back.
The exhibition also serves as a platform for artists to develop beyond technical skill. Galicano said one of his main reasons for organizing the show was to explore the artistic capacities of younger talents and encourage them to keep strengthening their practice.
“I want them to surpass what I have achieved; that’s even better,” he said.
For Galicano, being part of the exhibition is not simply about having a work on display. He said artists were chosen for their sincerity toward art, willingness to learn and genuine commitment to their craft.
Featured artists
Among the guest artists is fellow Carcar native Walter Vestil, whose relationship with Galicano goes back to his formative years.
Vestil began oil painting at 11, studying under artists Stanley Señirez and Facundo Tallo Jr. He later painted at Galicano’s studio in Carcar, where he encountered the academic discipline that would shape his early development as a realist painter.
Vestil now works across realism, contemporary and conceptual painting, with his practice extending beyond Cebu. His works have been exhibited internationally, including in Switzerland and at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris in 2023.
For “Echoes of the Masters,” Vestil presents “At the Edge of Tomorrow,” a realist work inspired by American landscape painter Arthur Parton.
The painting looks at a familiar Carcar landscape through the lens of a place that may eventually disappear.
“The scene is before the progress of Carcar,” Vestil said. “Maybe 10 years from now, this scene will no longer be there.”
Rather than simply document the landscape, Vestil wanted to preserve the memory of it, imagining a future in which the scene exists only as something people can look back on
His choice of Parton was also personal. Vestil said he encountered one of the American painter’s works that reminded him of the landscapes of Carcar. The connection became the basis for his homage.
Still, the work remains distinctly his.
That distinction is central to the exhibition’s premise. The masters may provide the point of departure, but the artists are ultimately asked to arrive somewhere of their own.
For Vestil, the presence of Galicano in the exhibition carries another layer of meaning. He calls him “Manoy Molong” and remembers him not only as a master artist but as the brother of his own mentor.
“I grew up in the art scene of Carcar,” Vestil said. “He was someone I idolized and it happened that my mentor was his brother, so I would paint at his studio.”
That lineage makes the exhibition particularly resonant for the Carcar artist. The exhibition also includes guest artists Cesar Montano and Richard Gomez, alongside Cebuano artists such as John Paul “JP” Abejar, Boyet Auditor, Publio Boy Briones, Ariel Caratao, Ramon de Dios, Audie Estrellada, Carly Florido, J-Art Menguito, Clint Normandia, Kevin Tisoy Serad, Seven Snow, Mar Vidal and Marlowe Villagonzalo.
Guest artists also include Jonathan Abellana, Jonathan Galicano, Luther Galicano and Ruth “Dawn” Lozada, among others.
Together, the works ask viewers to reconsider what it means to engage with a masterpiece.
A masterpiece can be studied, remembered and revered. But it can also be questioned, translated and given another life.
“Echoes of the Masters: Masterpieces Revisited Through Contemporary Eyes” runs until Sept. 6 at Galerie Raphael Cebu, Level 2, Ayala Center Cebu.