PINGOL, Aljo

Alexander Jorge “Aljo” Pingol was born in Malabon took his fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas. After school, he went through the usual search for an idiom. He started with caricature for advertising and animation, such as Toonworks. He also did illustrations. Pingol had more than the usual talent. He had been second place winner at the 1989 Nuclear Free Philippines, spot poster competition, and was 1st placer at the Far East Broadcasting National Christmas Card painting competition of 2002. But Aljo was searching for something more, a direction he had yet discover. He joined some art groups while going through this early transition, notably the Guevarra Group in San Juan. Painting initially under the influence of Pabo Picasso and Odion Redon, it was when he saw the works of the Russian-Jew surrealist Marc Chagall that Pingol discovered what he wanted. Suddenly he knew how to proceed, and every canvas since then has been a moment of exicitement. Pingol’s folk-figurative works are neo-surrealist renditions of seductive and sensuous women today with luscious lips and ripe figures surrounded by ordinary objects that are presented as cryptic symbols that hide and reveal the mysteries of life. Aljo sustain the glowing color of his works, whether using pastel on balour of thickly applied oil on canvas. He has the Kalipunan ng Sining at Kultura ng Pasig award 2003.