Loven Ramos and the Saffron Spirit
Rofel Parreño, Loven Ramos
and Jet Jiz Yap
Marichel Magalona and
Jackie Tinsay.jpg
Dr Luisa Mabunay, Vinnie Tan
Joy Sumagaysay, Bill Vargas
and Celia Parcon
Vinnie Tan, Dr Glen Aguilar,
and Alfredo Roca during
the ribbon cutting
Loven Ramos is an avant garde artist whose works have constantly evolved from art lamps, furnitures, installations of kitchenware and dinnerware, wearable paintings, to all sorts of materials and nuances that give a unique life to things that are otherwise considered mundane. Dabbling on oil and acrylic, photography, graphic design, sculpture and most of the time, a combination of all of these, he constantly reinvents visions of his world.
With no formal education in art, he started his foray in photography and painting with oil and acrylic in his hometown in Iloilo. Later on, he began experimenting on conceptual art and later on put on a major exhibition with his wall sculptures, lightings, jewelry and installation works entitled "Hunger" almost made entirely of spoons, forks, ladles and miscellaneous dinnerware from his mother's former catering business.
He moved to Manila in 2002 and began his affair with art and fashion through beadworks and embroidery – an inspiration from his late grandmother who used to design wedding and evening gowns from the 1050's. He began incorporating them on canvas with his acrylic paintings and delved on to the dark and Gotham-esque shades and nuances of the big city. Calling it "wearable art," his canvasses were either punctured in the middle to fit as a collar, a sleeve and even collapsible as bags.
In 2005, he packed his bags and ventured to Cambodia where he immersed himself into a different cultural environment. His first Cambodian exhibition in 2006 at the Linga Bar showcased his newfound affinity for colors, where he fused photography with graphic arc and lighting. His works, touching on everyday Cambodian life, were printed in silk and further interpreted with acrylic painting techniques. Then, he framed them in aluminum boxes with fluorescent lighting from inside embodying light boxes commonly used in advertising purposes.
The later series of works he has done encapsulates his affinity for layering his art in different sequences never with just one medium, but with a merging of one process to another. He starts with photography or painting then slowly builds on each piece as if he is building a home, a message that say his work is constantly changing, ever transforming itself into different entities. This technique has given him a voice, which he can foster the different aspects of his art into a single vision.
Recently, the University of the Philippines in the Visayas' Art Gallery was home to Saffron Spirit, an exhibit of Ramos.
The exhibit featured the monks that Ramos interacts with during his daily morning walks from his house to his former office where he would pass by several pagodas by the riverside in Siem Reap. There, he would walk with monks on th way from their classes to their alms-begging rituals. He has befriended them and learned of their stories not just as monks but like any other human being. He recounted an instance when a monk is being forced to disrobe because of his mother's leg accident, wherein nobody is left to take care of her. Others are coming in terms of their plight of being forced into monkhood by their parents so as to earn merit. Some stories bridge their susceptibility to pop culture where they share beaming interests in the World Cup, dubbed Asian soap operas, learning European languages and even Angelina Jolie.
Loven still calls Cambodia his home, with his wife, Faith and son Freedom. He can be reached through spoolworks@hotmail.com.