Collection: Rai Cruz

Rai Cruz, a visual artist from Las Pinas City. He's a graduate of University of Santo Tomas, Bachelor of Arts- Fine Arts, Major in Painting, Manila, Philippines. He's currently working as a part-time instructor at the School of Multimedia Arts, Asia Pacific College, Magallanes, Makati City, Philippines. His current contemporary art practice is mixed media paintings on functional art objects made out of layers of cut wood. He also work with the utilization of public space, mostly in the form of painting street murals and art installations.

His contemporary art practice mainly draws inspiration from my coalesced observation and experience of urban living conditions. He then transform and synthesize those encountered images by depicting the subject matter in my art as amalgams of mechanical and organic materials. These are then painted on multiple layers of cut wood. The manner and process of applying various media such as: acrylic, graphite, oil paint on multiple layers of cut wood aims to visually represent several concepts. Some of these are: weathered paint on city walls, formation of our identity crafted from multiple influences, the functionality of art in a third world context, the nuance of how we perceive and interpret ideas in an environment wherein we constantly encounter various sources of information.