Lockdown by Anton del Castillo

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        Anton del Castillo is an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines Integrated School in Quezon City. He received his degrees in Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, and he has undertaken training in the restoration department of the National Museum of the Philippines. His paintings are mostly composed of oil and metallic leaf, rendered in the style of Byzantine icons, and they portray strong allusions to contemporary issues. He also received a prestigious award internationally and locally. He was one of the finalists in the Sovereign Art Contest in Hong Kong and a grand prize winner in the national contest of the Metrobank Foundation in 2003. He received an award from the Asian Cultural Council and a Sovereign Art Foundation Fellowship to undertake research on Byzantine icon painting in American collections and a residency in the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York, USA in the year of 2006. He had his first solo show called “Under One Roof” at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the year 2005 and by that he has more than 20 group and solo exhibition locally and internationally art scenes.


      In the year 2020, COVID-19 invaded the country of the Philippines. Months had passed, the cases in the Philippines suddenly increased, so the government decided to put the whole country on lockdown, where no one is allowed to go out of their respective houses. In the painting titled "Lockdown" by Anton del Castillo, he shows how it feels to be isolated. The painting "lockdown" is an exposition on isolation. In the painting, it shows the experience and the life of every person isolated during the pandemic: bottled up. Everybody is hiding their true feelings and emotions while being in a lockdown. We are forced to have physical limitations with one another because of the lockdown, and it is alarming because it can affect our human spirits. During the lockdown, everybody is bottled up.


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