DAVAO CITY - Internationally renowned painter Ega Carreon recently opened an art gallery in Barangay Tambo, Babak District, Island Garden City of Samal.

According to Carreon, the gallery named Pinta IX (Pinta Nueve) aims to provide a home for artists in the island where they can showcase their artworks.

“Pinta nueve’s name is symbolic, it is about wisdom. The number nine is the maturity stage sa kinabuhi (life) kaning maturity stage kabalo ka na musabot sa meaning sa kinabuhi (you can now understand the meaning of life),” Carreon, the curator of Pinta IX said.

He said the wisdom of maturity stage guides Pinta IX where there is compassion to human life which is much valuable than the self-serving way of life.

“In art making, number 9 symbolizes completion, the process of art making which undergoes conceptualization, execution of idea and the last stage completeness of the whole idea,” Carreon said.

The featured artists in the gallery include Ryan King Jim Uy, Juliet Samante, Jasmin Cabilla and Ega Carreon.

Jasmin Cabilla, part owner of Pinta IX art gallery said this is the only art gallery in the Island Garden City of Samal.

“It all started nine years ago, tong panahon na depress and puno-puno ng confusion akong life tapos gitukod ang mga building sa Mambago tapos nagkalat ang mga paints (the time I was depressed and I was filled with confusion and when the building was built in Mambago there were some paints scattered all around) then I started to play around with black and white paints, there it all started when I started to love my art,” Cabilla recalls the origins of the art gallery.

The gallery is located in a hilly property in the rural part of Samal Island. Cabilla’s husband Engineer Elias Bermejo provided the building and the land for the gallery in support of his wife’s artistic endeavors.

Carreon said aside from exhibits they are planning to hold art workshops in the island and they will be organizing a landscape painting competition highlighting the beauty of Samal Island.

“For your reference you should be the one to shoot the landscape for your reference and do not get it from the internet, this Samal landscape competition is a big opportunity for serious artists,” Carreon said.

Davao City-born Carreon spent four years as an artist residing in New York City, He also held exhibits in Spain, Canada and Japan.

Among his accolades include: finalist in the Can Serrat International Artist Residency in Barcelona Spain, alumni merit award for artist residency in Vermont Studio Center in Vermont, United States; Finalist in Canada’s Dracoblu’s The Dreamer and the Dreamed; Winner of the Asian Freeman Painting Competition in Vermont Studio Center; First Place in Print with Entry “Breath” organized by the Hudson Artists of New Jersey Annual Painting Exhibition. (PIA/RG Alama)