Artabang The artists of ArTabang

CEBU, Philippines - While it is often said that visual artists can be ineffectual dreamers who go to obsessive lengths in presenting and defending their inner dichotomies as creative visionaries, this proverbial notion often banded with artists doesn't mean that they are numb to the virtue of altruism.

The successful run of the one-night-only ArTabang art sale - held last December 5 at the ballroom of the Cebu Country Club in Banilad - proves this point to a tee.

The brainchild of Cebu's internationally acclaimed master visual artist Rumolo "Mulong" Galicano, ArTabang gathered more than 200 works donated by visual artists from different parts of the country, each made available to art enthusiasts and serious art collectors their works at half their normal market price - with the event's proceeds set to benefit the rebuilding efforts intended for the victims of super typhoon Yolanda.

Showcasing works that are marked by delicacies verging on the love for life, along with pieces intent on ushering viewers to the punctuations that deem the borders of molten depths from the purity of humble hues, contours and shades, ArTabang's success managed to go beyond attaining its goals as a benefit fundraiser - affording its visitors with a vibrant sampling of works that says a lot about where the Philippines' visual arts scene currently is in terms of aesthetic scope, goals and direction.

With its overall staging spearheaded by the Sacred Heart School Ateneo de Cebu Batch 1985  and the active participation of the Art Association of the Philippines, Portrait Artists Society of the Philippines, Cebu Artists Inc, PUSOD, Sayno Artlink, Gallery Orange Artists and the Mugna group, ArTabang easily stands out as the biggest Cebu-based gathering of different works made by the country's top artistic talents of the year - heralding to one and all that visual art is more than a product steeped in the babel of impressions, but also about being of service to those in need.