When being an artist is in your blood
When I finished high school, I told my parents I wanted to take fine arts at UP, but my father thumbed it down, saying that being an artist is no way to earn a living. So I ended up as an English/Journalism major.
During the martial law years, I hobnobed with all the masters in their weekly merienda meetings at the then Taza de Oro across the US Embassy. Luckily, I ended up with many paintings which they gifted me.
Sadly, though, when our ancestral house was totaled in flames in June 2001, I lost at least 2/3 of all my collection. Among them, portraits of myself, by UP College of Fine Arts Dean Jose Joya, the late Cesar Legaspi, a magnificent “Mother & Child” by National Artist Ang Kiukok, and many others. Presently, there are many younger artists.
One I am constantly reminded of is Igan D’Bayan as one of his “Headshot” series, oil on canvas, hangs right beside the main door of my son Vernon’s residence. In 2012, it was exhibited at the Ayala Museum, together with paintings of Don Jaime Zobel.
Presently, Igan, who was a member of The Philippine STAR’s Lifestyle section, mainly in charge of art, for 20 years, has his oil paintings as part of an exhibit in Taipei.
In his latest series titled “Torment Nexus,” artist D’Bayan confronts a disturbing idea: The dystopian future isn’t coming — it’s already here. Drawing from speculative fiction, digital culture, and political reality, D’Bayan’s work merges dark satire with visual chaos, portraying a society that’s turned its own suffering into spectacle.
D’Bayan is known for exploring what he calls “Old, Weird Filipinas,” a mix of local folklore, horror films, historical oddities, and pop culture. His aesthetic has always been anchored in the uncanny. D’Bayan’s first solo exhibition was held at The Crucible Gallery in SM Megamall. His succeeding ones included “Dioramas of Doom” at Secret Fresh Sky Gallery in 2017, “Death by Audio” at West Gallery in 2017 and “Ficciones” at Pinto Art Museum in 2019. His work has also been featured in group shows in Manila and abroad.
With this year’s “Torment Nexus” series, that sensibility evolves into a sharper critique of our digitized, post-truth era.
The title of the series itself is a reference to a meme — a phrase once used to mock the way tech companies ignore dystopian warnings and build dangerous things anyway. D’Bayan takes that idea seriously. These paintings are filled with neon and decay, fables and fairy tales, classical references and Internet fragments, advertising gloss and existential dread. Each image invites viewers to decode layered contradictions: beauty wrapped around despair, humor twisted into horror.
In some pieces, tweets and memes are rendered with old master precision; in others, synthetic emotions ooze through cheerful cartoon characters. There are nods to Greek and Asian mythology, filtered through the lens of corporate branding and influencer culture. The result is a body of work that feels both timeless and very much of this moment.
Two of his paintings are currently on view until June 28, in a group show titled “Wreckage & Wonder” at Whitestone Gallery Taipei. The show, presented in partnership with Cloudgrey Gallery, is curated by Ruel Caasi and includes works by Keb Cerda, Ronson Culibrina, Olan and Manok Ventura.
By choosing to work only with painting, D’Bayan pushes back against the hyper-speed of digital media. In a world of swipes and scrolls, he forces viewers to slow down and confront discomfort head-on. His canvases act like visual traps: cartoonish on the surface, but layered with torment, irony, and buried violence.
“Everything happens so much,” the artist writes, quoting an old tweet with new resonance. With “Torment Nexus,” D’Bayan doesn’t warn us of what might happen; he maps out the nightmare we’re already part of.
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For information, visit https://www.whitestone-gallery.com/blogs/gallery-exhibitions/tw-philippine-group-show-052025.
