Exhibit Features Artworks Inspired By Indigenous People In Panay

‘Tubok,’ an exhibit featuring clothing, accessories and artworks inspired by Panay Bukidnon, a group of indigenous people is now going on at the Casa Real Gallery in this city.

Driven with passion to see a future where Ilonggos embody their cultural roots, artist Kinno Florentino opened his first solo exhibit with a fashion show and reception on Sunday.

“I want to show how the modern women embrace their ethno-cultural identity and independence through fashion,” Florentino stressed.

“I aim to create a contrast between traditional and contemporary yet maintaining the same spirit in both,” he continued.

Each color, pattern, and materials were carefully taken into account by the artist in creating the contemporary designs as it is important to preserve the identity of the Panay-Bukidnon, and the stories that they tell.

Florentino stated that in order to deliver an impact and also introducing the fashionable public to the intricate patterns, the traditional Panubok, Panay-Bukidnon embroidery, are juxtaposed with clean-cut, minimalist designs suited for comfortable everyday wear.

“Fashion has been and will always be a form of art and culture, and an evidence of our evolution and development,” Florentino said. “It is a dynamic industry where simple yet genius ideas are translated into beauty,” he added.

He looks into Iloilo’s future, hoping that the citizens preserve and innovates the province’s rich history and culture with balancing smartly other countries’ influence on Iloilo.

Florentino is currently a fourth year Bachelor of Fine Arts student of the University of San Agustin here. After graduation, he plans to take fashion studies in Manila.

The exhibit is set to run up to March 10 and one of the series leading up to the much-awaited Visayan Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference 2016 in November. (PNA) BNB/PGL/PR/CBF