R. C. MananQuil

Art Statement

The gift of art is a language, which is not given to everyone. The artist should use it with honesty and commitment.
A true artist must create only to bare his soul. If in so doing, he earns money out of it, he gets a bonus.

Biography
Romeo Castillo MananQuil graduated in 1963 from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, cum laude. He worked in a couple of advertising agencies but later distinguished himself as a top illustrator for books, comics & magazines. He went back to serious painting in the early seventies joining numerous group shows.

Later, he joined the faculty of the College of Fine Arts as Instructor and later on became Chairman of the Department of Visual Communications as Assistant Professor. He was appointed Artist-in Residence in 1985.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas commissioned him, together with two other artists, to design the 1983 series of bank notes and coins, which included the P1,000 bill that is still in circulation today. Highlight of his design in the series is the independence declaration scene originally featured in the now demonetized 5-peso bill and adapted again in the P100,000 Philippine centennial commemorative note.

Mananquil played an important role in organizing Filipino artists in northern America when he migrated to Canada in 1985. He founded the Philippine Artists Group (PAG) and was President for 14 years. His group aims to unify Filipino artists and propagate Philippine visual arts in the region. In 2004, he organized the 1st PAG show in Manila followed in 2006 by a 3-man show with former UP classmates, Dan Dizon and now National Artist Bencab. MananQuil is now one of the more established Filipino artists in Canada. He has been a member of the prestigious
Portrait Society of America for several years now. Recently, he was the only one from Canada to be invited as gallery artists, composed predominantly of Americans at the new Bridges gallery in the U.S.