Piece of work
Artful retail brand Artwork teams up with 10 of the country’s most exciting visual artists for their latest collection of tees.
MANILA, Philippines - We want to share with our market how alive our local visual arts scene is and how we are very much inspired by it,” Artwork’s Tinay Villamiel tells us. “We hope to inspire them with this collection too.”
Artwork Collab + Collab! is a special project between the brand and 10 of our country’s most exciting visual artists. Artwork asked the artists to collaborate in pairs and the artists came up with interesting designs that managed to combine their respective styles into very wearable T-shirts.
Pop artist JP Cuison, he of the famous gig posters, collaborated with good friend and noted comic book artist Apol Sta. Maria. The local art scene’s King of Punk Romeo Lee worked with Ryan Villamael, known for his work with intricately cut paper. Dex Fernandez, an interdisciplinary artist famous for his Garapata street art, collaborated with Lynyrd Paras, an artist who says he draws inspiration from the chaos of Manila. Husband-and-wife team Mariano Ching and Yasmin Sison-Ching, both major contemporary artists in their own right, work together. Meanwhile, Ryan and Garovs Vergara continue the project that’s taken then from college to a thriving career in art, design, and photography — Everywhere We Shoot.
“Some of the artists are ones we’ve already successfully worked with,” Tinay explains. “This time we decided to make something different and chose based on the idea: ‘artists as friends.’ So the pairs were either BFFs like JP and Apol; real couples like Mariano and Yasmin; or simply good friends in the art scene.”
The project was initially intended for February (couples, Valentine’s) but delays in production moved the schedule of release to the holiday season. All the better, if you’re asking us. Now, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
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Artwork Collab + Collab will be available in selected Artwork stores starting Nov. 28.
