By JOHN PAUL OLIVARES, Lakan Sining – artist/designer/advocate/teacher

Reprinted with the artist’s permission

Joselito (Lito) Barcelona is a naturalist painter from Labo, Camarines Norte; one of the practitioners of the “magic realism” of idealized scenes of rural life. Barcelona’s influence comes from the artists’ family, from his father who was a part-time musician and painter of portraits, his brother a full-time painter, and now his daughter who does commercial design. In his youth, Barcelona would earn his keep by painting cinema billboards, and he would eventually transfer to Manila to take his formal studies at the University of Santo Tomas (UST). In Manila, Barcelona stayed at his godfather’s home, Ger Viterbo Sr., who owned a painting shop, in Quiapo. Under Viterbo, Barcelona did silkscreen work, and he took other side design projects from his teacher, Larry Tronco. After graduation, Barcelona would work at the advertising firm J. Walter Thompson. Years later, he would transfer to the J. Romero & Associates, where he would meet Nestor Leynes, Emmanuel Liado, and Jaime Roque; who would eventually form the Magic Realist Group, with Ely Gajo and Ger Viterbo Jr. Exhibiting extensively in solo and group shows, Barcelona still maintained his profession in commercial design, working as the art director at Filcapital Development Corporation and the Jardine Davies, and vice-president of the Conceptlab Design Studio.

Recent works by Lito Barcelona