Gallery

Kenneth John Montegrande is distinctly one of the few young Filipino painters with an international reputation. He’s the first Filipino and also the first Southeast Asian artist whose works are housed in the prestigious collection of Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese tycoon and mega art collector who founded and currently directs the Contemporary Art Foundation, based in Tokyo, Japan.

Montegrande is, in fact, the youngest artist whose work forms part of the Malacañan Palace collection. Last July 15, 2019, two of his large-scale master works—TRANSFIGURINGS OF FRESHEST BLUE and PERLA DEL MAR DE ORIENTE—were welcome into the palace with a formal turnover ceremony held at The Old Main Office, Kalayaan Hall, Malacañan Palace Compound. The rite was officiated by Director Edgar Ryan S. Faustino (Head of the Presidential Museum and Library ), and witnessed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea (who stood on behalf of the President of the Republic of the Philippines). On that occasion the name Montegrande became a word of national distinction and began to share a significant place in the imagination of the Filipino people.

On that day and in that same venue, he was accorded the signal honor of having his eighth exhibition, entitled “A Glimpse of Montegrande,” opened and displayed in such a place and occasion of distinction. The eight paintings selected for the Palace exhibition were culled from no less than 40 Montegrande artworks in the David Jonathan Bayot family collection. The exhibition was open for all Palace visitors to view, from July 15 to August 16, 2019. And it’s notable that this exhibition is the first of its kind in the institutional history of Malacañan Palace.

One of the most noteworthy things that mark this painter’s life-story, is the fact that he has not had an easy life. But by sheer talent, determination, and the capacity to dream against the harshness of life, he has developed and become the self-taught artist that the art world has grown to respect and admire.