Exhibitions

Deeply embedded in everyday life, Jovan Benito’s works for “World of Wonder” is conspicuous and powerful in its ability to chart historical continuity and differences through its organizing forces.

“World of Wonder” is devoted to telling the story of the day-to-day Filipino life. The exhibit seeks to capture moods and feelings in the rural setting and to take the viewer into that environment. As a visual artist, Benito continually tries to come to her own conclusions about the customary townsfolk and convey what they are feeling. The end result are artworks that transport the audience to another environment and an interesting view into the human condition.

Benito often uses color theory, placing complementary colors near each other to create a visual contrast. The artist’s use of colors invokes emotions and subject matters that match the depicted life experiences. Jovan Benitos’ artworks portray elements associated with a more leisurely life and are in direct contrast with nature. Meanings are found in the common motifs used; all referenced to the stories of ancestral connections to the land which offer both a personal and collective interpretation to every Fillipino.

Taking a cue from her own life growing up on in the rural community of Pakil in Laguna, Jovan Benito’s (b. 1982) canvases are examples of folk life simplified. Always in abundance in her joyful works of art are happy and idyllic figures that Benito paints in a colorful, attractive, and cheerful way.

As a young artist, Jovan Benito has carefully grown and matured from being an apprentice to her husband, Filipino surrealist, Jerry Morada. She has, however, quickly discovered her own style, technique and palette of colors. Benito’s talent for observing the world surrounding her started as a child watching her artist father work on paintings of movie billboards. But, whatever she picked up from her father, her husband and other Laguna artists, ended there.

Benito paints her signature renderings of quotidian scenes. Using a bright palette, her works display Fiesta panoramas and classical scenes that demonstrate her astounding technique. Dominated by that same idyllic glow that exemplifies an Amorsolo but adapted to suit a contemporary aesthetic style, Benito shows that she has mastered a classical Philippine art tradition.