Jeho Bitangcor

Jeho Bitancor is one of the more important and astute contemporary painters in the country today. In the mid-1980s, he emerged with quasi-surreal paintings as his early explorations in art but has since made a mark as a purveyor of social realist paintings. In his breakthrough works, Bitancor imbues his statements, ironies, and epigrams in the hope that knowledge and awareness may serve as an impetus for change. His mature works, often of a personal and contemplative nature, have engaged the themes of society, the Filipino diaspora and other nexus of issues, experiences, and thoughts. Yet taken together, Bitancor’s works put the viewer’s attention to those aspects of migratory experience that shatter or reinforce the Filipinos attachment to its homeland and its readiness to adapt to a new country. After three decades of achieving a fairly notable position, patronage, and approval, Jeho Bitancor continues to improve himself as a painter and works harder for his works to address larger segments of its wider audience. In this November feature, Jeho Bitancor provides an account of his life and painting career, his artistic process and ethics and accompanies the lively discussion with his thoughtful body of works, giving a vivid portrait of himself as both an individual and a painter.