This series was exhibited in 2004, entitled "Shaman". It featured ceramic (stoneware) masks, which I painted with underglazes before firing to create different characteristics/personae.

This is my breakthrough series, in terms of my own growth as an artist. I had been experimenting in my studio with abstract expressionism processes and techniques before. But they felt distant and somehow alien to me. I then started painting circles onto my canvases, and I have been using the circle motif ever since. Currently, I'm looking for new ways to bridge east and west, ornament and minimalism, chaos and order in my work.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT: I have always had a multi-disciplinary approach to art. I felt that any artwork I would create, to be of worth, needed to be highly nuanced, textured and layered. As such, my work draws upon my experience of the creative process, not only as it manifests in the disciplines I am engaged in on a regular basis (art, architecture, business, poetry, music, writing), but also in terms of how it operates in my life as a whole. How my life is shaped by my art and ideas about art, and how my artworks are created from my experiences in life. I think it was natural that as an outcome of this philosophy, my art gravitated towards the creation of mandalas. Mandala in Tibetan means "wheel", and in Sanskrit, "circle". As I worked with this new series, I found that there was something very grounding about organizing and creating an artwork around a circular format. Consciously or not, because of its very shape, the artwork made me more attuned, more introspective. All aspects of my life were then subject to my awareness, and, faced with the truth about myself, the art became my teacher, pointing the way to change and self-realization, two choices that I now had the freedom to make. Making art for me now is more of a spiritual practice, a way for me to get in touch with my own mysteries and my own deep beliefs.

JOJO BALLO

926 Herrera St., Brookside Hills Subd., Cainta, Rizal, PHILIPPINES 1900

Contact Nos: (632) 6551239, +639176050812

Email: jojo_ballo@yahoo.com

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

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• Talisman

     Paintings

     Frio Mixx, 5th Flr., Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Ortigas

     September 2006

• Poems and Mandalas

     Recent Works

     Boston Gallery, Cubao

     August - September 2006

• Musings

     Paintings in Acrylic

     Boston Gallery, Cubao

     October - November 2005

• Shaman

     Ceramic Masks

     Pinto Art Gallery, Antipolo

     March 2004

• Season in Bardo

     Ceramic Tile Paintings

     Boston Gallery, Cubao

     August 2003

• Ceramic Paintings

     Pinto Art Gallery, Antipolo

     February 2003

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

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• Punla Benefit Exhibit

     Center for Arts, Timog

     July 2007

• Boxed Exhibition

     Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas, Blvd., Pasay City

     April 2007

• The Hands That Feed

     Pan Pacific Hotel, Manila

     March 2007

• Tutok: Dos Por Dos

     Boston Gallery, Cubao, Quezon City

     December 2006

• Space Launch

     Art Informal, Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City

     September 2006

• Boxed

     Big Sky Mind, E Rodriguez St., MM

     May 2006

• Art on Violin

     The Art Center, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City

     December 2005