Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi recipient Jose Tence Ruiz delivers ArtSpeak session, “Defying Gravity for Non-Billionaires”

On 4 May 2024, the Ateneo Art Gallery hosted an ArtSpeak Session featuring the 2023 recipient of the Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi Award, Jose “Bogie” Tence Ruiz—painter, sculptor, editorial illustrator, performance artist, graphic designer, writer, and curator. Entitled “Defying Gravity for Non-Billionaires,” the ArtSpeak session was an inquiry and examination of the ways in which art has been affected by technology, and how this has changed the way we view and create art. 

The session began with Tence Ruiz contextualizing social realism through the work of Antipas “Biboy” Delotavo, an important figure of the movement. One of Delotavo’s most prominent works is his 1978 painting, “Itak Sa Puso ni Mang Juan,” a piece which remains iconic and relevant to this day when referencing the Social Realist Movement. 

With several artists in attendance, including Antipas Delotavo himself, National Artist for Film Kidlat Tahimik, Wig Tysmans, and more, the ArtSpeak session was primarily a roundtable discussion of a question posed by Tence Ruiz—“Who does art serve?” 

Attendees got to talk about a bevy of topics, whether in relation to art or in general, from artificial intelligence, GMOs, and space travel. 

This event was organized in line with the 2023 Traditional University Awards and the Department of Fine Arts’ FA Fest. Tence Ruiz is an alumnus of Ateneo de Manila, with a degree in Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Sto Tomas. His exhibition, “Litanya, 1972–2022: The Works of Jose Tence Ruiz,” ran at the Ateneo Art Gallery from May to September 2023. The virtual tour may be viewed online, and copies of the book are available for purchase at the Ateneo Art Gallery museum shop with four cover variants to select from.