“’Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr.”’ is a Filipino surrealist painter born in Davao City in the southern island of Mindanao, the Philippines, on June 7, 1962. Having suffered from mild childhood autism and attention deficiency disorder, he became a fine example for parents with special children as he rose to comparative international prominence when he was counted in as one of early 21st century’s greatest living surrealists by Terrance Lindall, president and executive director of the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in New York.
Overview
College Years
At The Learning Center of the Arts (now Ford Academy of the Arts) Ben came under the watchful eyes of national artist Victorio C. Edades, Jr. (now deceased), who, along with school president Aida Rivera-Ford, was the soul behind the establishment of the arts institution.
Later, Ben became associate professor of Fine Arts in his college alma mater and at the Philippine Women’s College-Davao which, following the success of the Ford Academy, had opened its own Fine Arts department.
Ben began to participate in the annual competition launched by America’s largest international artist community, the Vermont Studio Center based in Vermont, USA. Ben complied. After two tries he won first place in said competition and, by October 2002, flew all-expense paid to the USA for his grand prize. [http://books.google.com/books?id=elZCg0E6eWgC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=bienvenido+bones+banez+jr+lexikon-surreal&source=bl&ots=uiXcwSaHpk&sig=s5ymIJIAFCKLvVDduhKlCMCwe5s&hl=en&ei=BxTYTun5LsTy0gHiuMDEDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBzgo#v=onepage&q&f=false]
American Period
Bienvenido Bones Banez, Jr., spent two months of artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT., October and November of 2002, as main part of his prize. There He also had a one-person exhibition in the community’s Red Mill Gallery. After his VSC stint, he applied for working permit and tutored special children in California. In 2004 he proceeded to New York.
The Thematic Focus of the 666 Art World
Ben desired to see the Antichrist with admiration because of his strong belief in Almighty God, as told by Judeo-Christian metanarrative about the Devil’s rebellious power dominating over the world. Ben claimed that when he was younger he had been witness to a supernatural phenomenon where a possessed woman levitated from bed as Bible-bearing exorcists swarmed around in futility. Conversion that very moment became irreversible for him. The irony however was he began to see the Devil’s work all around. What his brain saw activated latent receptors through his being and expressed as forms and colors that later evolved with masterful rendition on canvases. Lucifer for Ben was real and became a spontaneous subject for his compositions.
With striking colors he shifts viewers’ consciousness out of the ordinary; then, as their eyes focus on details, confronts them with guilt, horror, and fear, astounding them along the process, something like a kind of astral mallet, if there were such a thing, stunned their minds. Ben felt he and the Antichrist were somehow destined to meet each other in human form. Searching nooks and corners of the city, Ben one day stepped inside the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The Terrance Lindall Association
At the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Ben met Terrance Lindall, the organizer of the world renowned Brave Destiny exhibit in 2003 and a John Milton scholar and illustrator of Paradise Lost.
Ben’s Warlock Dreams was exhibited in the Brave Destiny exhibit in 2003 [http://www.wahcenter.net/exhibits/2003/surreal/BD_artists.html] Ben was the only Filipino featured in Milton’s world’s largest ever celebration for John Milton’s 400th birthday, the 2008 Grand Paradise Lost Costume Ball and Exhibition, organized by Lindall with one of Milton’s descendents Clive Milton present.
Selected Exhibitions
Brave Destiny,”Brave Destiny”[http://www.wahcenter.net/exhibits/2003/surreal/] 2003
Around the Coyote Winter Arts Festival. 2003, Chicago IL. USA
Paradise Lost Festival and Ehibit Celebrating Milton’s 400th Birthday, 2008 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n40CoySmS94&feature=related][http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQZNMTBRjI&feature=user]
Fifty Year Fantastic, The Society for Art of Imagination, United Kingdom, London, 2010 [http://www.artofimagination.org/]
International Surrealist Show, 2006, 2008 [http://www.surrealismnow.com/]
Selected Contemporary Works From The Permanent Collection, PART 2 (2002-Present), Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA[http://wahcenter.net/exhibits/2009/collection2/]
A Peaceful Aftrenoon Birthday Toast for Terrance Lindall & Yuko Nii
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA
[http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154258231279742]
WAH Salon Art Club, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, 2002, Johnson, Vermont, USA [http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org/vsc-galleries/]
Mark Gallery, 1993, Davao City, Philippines
Victoria Gallery,Victoria Plaza, Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines
April 1984, Ford Academy of the Arts, 1984, Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines
WAH Salon Art Club, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011[http://www.wahcenter.net/salon/]
Amarin Café, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Reviews and Publications
Paradise Lost Elephant Folio, 2011 [http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrance_Lindall#The_Paradise_Lost_Elephant_Folio]
LEXIKON-SURREAL (Gerhard Habarta), Encyclopedia of Fantastic & Surrealistic & Symbolist & Visionary Artists, 2009, Internationales Archiv Fantastischer Kunstler
[http://www.lexikon-surreal.com]
WHO’S WHO in VISUAL ART 2010-2011, 2010, Art Domain Whois Verlag, Leipzig
[http://www.amazon.com/Whos-Who-Visual-Art-v-2010-2011/dp/3981347404]
WHAT’S NEW IN THE SURREAL WORLD (Terrance Lindall), Art & Antiques Magazine, /March 2006/ [http://www.kellynewcomer.com/pdf/0603Surrealism_Lindall.pdf ]
VISIONARY ART YEARBOOK 2010-201, By Otto Rapp, [http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1732179]
‘’INDEX OF PAINTERS & SCULPTORS BIOGRAPHY & WORKS AROUND THE WORLD’’[http://www.settemuse.it/pittori_index/B05.htm]
PANANAW-2 Book of Mindanao Artists 2000, Philippine Journal of Visual Art
DAVAO HARVEST –TWO / 2008, Edited by: Ricardo M. de Ungria & Tita Lacambra Ayala, National Commission for Culture and the Arts
CROSS BREED & ÉMIGRÉ, VISUAL FLUX 200, Documentation Project of National Commission Culture & Arts
The Terrance Lindall Association: Ben’s Warlock Dreams was exhibited in the Brave Destiny exhibit in 2003 [http://www.wahcenter.net/exhibits/2003/surreal/BD_artists.html] Ben was the only Filipino featured in Milton’s world’s largest ever celebration for John Milton’s 400th birthday, the 2008 Grand Paradise Lost Costume Ball and Exhibition, organized by Lindall with one of Milton’s descendents Clive Milton present.