Filipino Painter Gary Carabio from Cebu, turning heads in the American art scene
Realist painter Gary Carabio’s first solo exhibit at the Edina Art Center, Minnesota, in 2017 sold out. His jaw-dropping exhibition turned subjects alive through his strokes. It woke the “deep senses” of the Filipino “deep culture.”
His one-person show, “Diversity,” showcased his oil paintings and rich watercolor works that made turned head to this immigrant from Cebu.
Gary Carabio’s painting style
Emotion runs deep in Carabio’s subjects. It’s melancholia but, in essence, exudes belongingness. Filipino pride, deeply rooted in his subjects, be it people, everyday life, or objects.
Self-taught realist pastel and watercolor painter
At 11, Carabio won first prize in an “on-the-spot” painting contest in Cebu City, where he was born. He took up Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines and won multiple times at the annual Jose Joya Awards.
Carabio’s Awards and Art Fellowship
He received a total of five first-place awards in the representational, figurative, and non-objective abstraction categories for three years in a row. Interestingly, Carabio is self-taught, inspired by his great grandfather, who was also a painter and a sculptor.
- Gold Award – 30th International Association of Pastel Societies Convention in New Mexico, 2017
- Gold Award – Jack Richeson & Co. Annual Pastel Society of America exhibition in New York, 2017
- First Place – UArt International Web Show, 2018
- Third Award – Third China (Suzhou) International Biennial Exhibition in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, 2018
He is also a resource master for PPA (Philippine Pastel Artists) and an active member of BINHI (seed), a Christian group of artists who supports by sharing portions of their exhibit proceeds to missions.
In the USA, Gary is a member of the Pastel Society of Tampa Bay, Pastel Society of America and is in the Master’s Circle in the International Association of Pastel Societies.
Gary will be on his third one-person exhibit in Dunedin, Florida, come December 2020
Gary Carabio’s paintings were exhibited at the National Arts Club in New York, the Butler Institute of American Arts in Youngstown, Ohio, and the IAPS Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In 2021, he will study an intensive course in representationalism at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy.
