Bio
John Frank Sabado (b. 1969, Mankayan, Benguet, Philippines; lives and works in Baguio City, Philippines) is a self-taught artist whose works show a remarkable deftness at using the painstaking pointillist approach to forming images. Over the years, his works have become more textured and nuanced, revealing his intellectual and spiritual growth as an artist.
His meticulously detailed pen and ink drawings lend his surfaces “a peculiar mesmerizing effect.” Far from merely mesmerizing his viewers, John Frank’s works in this exhibition have a story to tell. The visual elements are more than embellishments as each represent something about the subject’s life and work. The portrait in its entirety is so rich in imagery that even after looking at it for long periods, a viewer sees more when he/she returns to it.
Beyond the ability to unify and assemble varied elements to become a composite image, his works bear evidence of the artist’s active processing of his subject’s life and work in forwarding cultural art forms, beliefs, and traditions.
He succeeds in using a visual language that resonates with his conviction that the arts should continue “to provide imaginative, moral, and spiritual sustenance for individuals and communities.”
John Frank, born to Ilocano parents, grew up in a largely Kankana-ey community in Lepanto, Mankayan, Benguet. He would spend every summer for three consecutive years in Hapao and Guhang, Ifugao. When he was 16 years old he joined his father’s road construction project and lived as part of those communities. Only several years later did he realize how his exposure to traditional practices of the Kankana-ey and the Ifugao left an indelible imprint on his consciousness. His works in this show usher in an entirely new phase in his growth as an artist.
He is a member of the group Kalasag formed in the early 1990s with fellow artists Leonard Aguinaldo, Gen Alangui, and Jordan Mang-osan.
He has mounted 15 solo exhibitions since 1994 and joined over 40 group shows. He was a finalist in the Philippine Art Awards in 2000, 2003 and 2014 and Juror’s Choice in 1999 and a recipient of the Thirteen Artists Award (2000), Cultural Center of the Philippines. He has exhibited in Japan, Australia, China, Malaysia, and in other Southeast Asian countries.
John Frank Sabado (b. 1969, Mankayan, Benguet, Philippines; lives and works in Baguio City, Philippines) is a self-taught artist whose works show a remarkable deftness at using the painstaking pointillist approach to forming images. Over the years, his works have become more textured and nuanced, revealing his intellectual and spiritual growth as an artist.
His meticulously detailed pen and ink drawings lend his surfaces “a peculiar mesmerizing effect.” Far from merely mesmerizing his viewers, John Frank’s works in this exhibition have a story to tell. The visual elements are more than embellishments as each represent something about the subject’s life and work. The portrait in its entirety is so rich in imagery that even after looking at it for long periods, a viewer sees more when he/she returns to it.
Beyond the ability to unify and assemble varied elements to become a composite image, his works bear evidence of the artist’s active processing of his subject’s life and work in forwarding cultural art forms, beliefs, and traditions.
He succeeds in using a visual language that resonates with his conviction that the arts should continue “to provide imaginative, moral, and spiritual sustenance for individuals and communities.”
John Frank, born to Ilocano parents, grew up in a largely Kankana-ey community in Lepanto, Mankayan, Benguet. He would spend every summer for three consecutive years in Hapao and Guhang, Ifugao. When he was 16 years old he joined his father’s road construction project and lived as part of those communities. Only several years later did he realize how his exposure to traditional practices of the Kankana-ey and the Ifugao left an indelible imprint on his consciousness. His works in this show usher in an entirely new phase in his growth as an artist.
He is a member of the group Kalasag formed in the early 1990s with fellow artists Leonard Aguinaldo, Gen Alangui, and Jordan Mang-osan.
He has mounted 15 solo exhibitions since 1994 and joined over 40 group shows. He was a finalist in the Philippine Art Awards in 2000, 2003 and 2014 and Juror’s Choice in 1999 and a recipient of the Thirteen Artists Award (2000), Cultural Center of the Philippines. He has exhibited in Japan, Australia, China, Malaysia, and in other Southeast Asian countries.