Representations and Recollections of Life and Tough Social Realities

Cesar Gueta’s body of work reveals the complexity of people and places. His experimentations with form and figure are the result of his fascination with the concept of art journaling as a method of visual research and as a creative process.

Cesar Gueta among his works in his studio

Produced before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, his art journals, sketches, paintings, and sculptures enable the attention of the viewers to be drawn to the entanglement of memory, time, space, and materiality with his subjects and themes.

His artworks attempt to bring to life far-flung places, pinpoint social concerns and issues, and showcase lesser-known facts about communities that would otherwise go undocumented. Even without photographs, as an artist, he uses the medium of sketching and painting to document daily life and to reproduce scenes that tell stories in which people can relate to, and remember events, cultures, and journeys. Documenting and articulating these as a personal artistic journey to explore and transform different ideas, offer a potent means of interpreting specific images of a particular moment, through his recollection and remembering of people and places.

Born in Masbate, Cesar Gueta is a scholar, teacher, and one of the awardees of the Outstanding Albayano for Visual Arts by the Provincial Government of Albay. As a teacher, he is currently mentoring budding artists through his art workshops, studio grants, and artist’s talks.

As a member of the Kurit-Lagting Art Collective, Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) Bicol Chapter, and Albay Arts Foundation, he is also an advocate of community-based art education by organizing community art programs to improve and empower disadvantaged groups of people.

Artist’s Contact Information

Email: ctguetastudios@gmail.com
Phone: 09458050852
Address: Purok 1, Centro Taysan, Legazpi City Besides St Roche Church
Studio Hours: Monday to Friday, 10-5 pm

About the author:

The curatorial notes were written by GERI MATTHEW “CHOI” CARRETERO for the Pagbutwa and Pagsid-ip exhibit. Himself an artist and curator, he is an active member of Kurit-Lagting Art Collective and Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) Bicol Chapter.