Filipino artist Bisai creates global impressions
Bisai is the first Filipino invited to showcase her art in the Synergy International Art Exhibit in Canada from October 11 to 31
By Irene Arsenia, Staff Reporter
CEBU - A spartan Japanese-style bed sits on the floor, two fluffy pillows piled neatly on well-ironed linens. On one wall is a rack of assorted paints. Some in tubes. Some in cans. All displayed in neat rows. But what really catches your attention are the paintings in the room. Big. Small. Lines. Forms. Bold colors. They’re everywhere, like a collective image of orderly chaos. They’re on the walls, stacked on the floor or rolled into plastic tubes. One is sitting on an easel, waiting to be finished.
I am at the art studio of Filipina artist Bisai. It’s a quick peek into the work of the very private artist who rarely lets people in her personal space.
"I was in college in Manila when my art sort of took the backseat. It wasn't until a few years ago when I began doing some work on canvas when it all started coming back,” Bisai said, explaining how she rediscovered her talent in painting.
Despite keeping a low-key debut in the art world in 2010, the Filipino contemporary artist has managed to create a big impression with enthusiasts and art specialists from around the world. Many of them stumble on her art through social media networks, her Facebook page in particular. “It’s always a nice surprise when people get in touch from various parts of the world to tell me they like my work. The internet has really broken down borders where art is concerned,” she said.
Creating firsts seem to happen naturally to Bisai. In 2013, she was featured in The New York Optimist, becoming the first Filipino artist to ever grace the publication’s art section. Her works were published by New York-based Fine Art photographer Heidi Russell and publisher John Sebastian. This year, she has been invited to showcase her work at a contemporary art gallery in Canada, and will be the first Filipino to be featured there. Bisai will be participating as one of 20 artists from around the world in the upcoming Synergy International Art Exhibit from October 11 to 31 at Toronto-based Studio Vogue Gallery.
"I was taken with the spontaneity of Bisai's style and the enthusiasm with which she posted her work. Her love for what she does is evident in the works she posts,” the gallery’s director, Joyce Fournier, told PilipinasToday.Net. "It is the quality and consistency of her artworks along with what we see as the meditative spirit of her works that drew us to Bisai. We then contacted her and invited her to join us for Synergy!” she added.
The artist has also been approached by a publisher from New York and UK. “They talked to me about publishing my art in a book," Bisai said. If she agrees, it will be the second project featuring her art. Her artwork "kalayo" (fire) was commissioned for a book published in New York last year titled "Biting the Big Apple". "It's great to know people can somehow connect to my art. It is the biggest kind of compliment," Bisai said.
She is glad she has taken a big leap of faith with her art, deciding to leave a corporate career behind in 2010. “There was always that feeling of something missing. Art was and is always a fulfilling outlet for me,” she said. So that year, she decided to give her art another chance. "I went out, got the best set of paints and brushes I could find and just started painting. I haven’t stopped since," she said. That year, she was adjudged one of the top 5 artists from around the world who competed in Singapore's Best of Asian Art Competition. Since then, the global invitations to exhibit her art have been non-stop. Her work has been showcased in the Philippines, Hawaii and in Cambridge University in England.
In 2012, she was one of five Filipino artists selected to showcase their work in New York's biggest group art exhibit. Two of her art pieces were displayed on giant monitors and LED billboards in Times Square, New York in the first exhibit of its kind in the art world.
"I was ecstatic. Being selected to display my work in the Big Apple's busiest street was a huge seal of approval for my art," she said. She describes her art as "spontaneous, transcendental and minimalist". Technically, she make heavy use of acrylics and oil, "playing on light and shadow approaches”.
She has established her own personal art brand Bisai Contemporary Art in the Philippines. This year or early 2015, she is hoping to showcase her first solo art show and is looking forward to staging collaborative exhibits with fellow artists in the Philippines and abroad.
