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ACPI and KAMMI president and COO Dino Santos (right) with KTM artist Pete Jimenez

One of this year’s most prominent exhibits at the recently concluded Art Fair PH was from AC Automotive, which put the focus on four of the country’s most distinguished visual artists.

Now on its sixth year, Art Fair PH has been an invaluable platform for promoting local contemporary art, and this year, AC Automotive took the opportunity to lend its full support, and showcase its strong brands in a different light.

AC Automotive is part of the country’s oldest business house, Ayala, and is under its industrial and technology arm, AC Industrials.

Under AC Automotive’s wing are its four strong brands: Honda and Isuzu (dealership networks), Volkswagen (distribution), and KTM (manufacturing and distribution).

Ayala Corp. chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (6th from right) and AC Industrials president and CEO Arthur Tan (5th from left) with Art Fair co-founder Lisa Periquet (6th from left), the four artists, and AC Automotive associates

Through Art Fair PH, AC Automotive presented a creative perspective of the four brands.

Sculptor Reg Yuson chose Honda, and his striking installation, “Fear or Desire,” brings a familiar plaything for the car enthusiast to a totally blown-up scale, 1:1 to be exact.

His artwork evokes Honda as a symbol synonymous with speed and performance, utilizing the sporty fascia, side panels and racy wheels of the new Civic to represent a full-sized scale model kit.

It also shows his youthful appreciation towards the iconic Japanese auto brand.

“Abstract out of Concrete” is what painter-sculptor Dan Raralio’s pieces for Isuzu are collectively called.

By embedding select Isuzu truck components into concrete blocks, the artist communicates his visual language that treads from the figurative to the abstract, and from the classical to the modern.

HCMI and IADI president and COO Manny Aligada with Honda art installation artist Reg Yuson (right)

Both Yuson and Raralio are both Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists awardees for 2003 and 1988, respectively.

Art Lozano lovingly revealed his 18-year love affair with the Volkswagen Beetle via his captivating art pieces entitled “Urban Progress.”

His richly colorful three-dimensional paintings on Volkswagen hoods—including what is unmistakably a Beetle’s—portray the overwhelming hustle and bustle of urban life on the cars’ centerpieces.

Lozano is a true-blue Ilocano and Baguio native, who is part of the Tam-awan group of artists that reside there.

The KTM motorcycle’s most distinguishing part—steel tube frame in bright orange—was used by sculptor Pete Jimenez in “Racing Heart.”

Arthur Tan with Volkswagen artist Art Lozano (right)

Cleverly pounded into the shape of a heart, Jimenez filled it with KTM bike parts, creating a well-executed and playful visual pun.

Jimenez has had 16 solo exhibitions in the Philippines since 2000, and is one of the few who have chosen to consistently express their artistry using the challenging medium, scrap iron.

With motorized transport being an ever-integral part of our daily lives, AC Automotive through the profound talent of artists Yuson, Raralio, Lozano and Jimenez shares with us a view of what literally moves us in the most visually appealing manner that’s detached from the literal.

If you wish to learn more about the AC Automotive companies, log on to Honda makati .com.ph, Isuzuautodealer.com .ph, Volkswagen.com.ph, and Ktm.ph.