Muted tones on canvas, iron wires shaped into forms. Paintings and sculptures by two women artists, both recognized in their own genre, both conferred with Datu Bago Award for Visual Art, the highest recognition to bestowed to individuals for their significant contributions to Davao City. Ann Pamintuan and Josie Tionko join together to exhibit their art in Flora + Fauna at the Davao Museum of History & Ethnology, Insular Village 1, Lanang, Davao City, until June 30, 2025.
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| Josie Tionko & Ann Tuikinhoy Pamintuan |
Exhibition notes:
The world of nature-its wild forms and precious colors-serves as subject matter and inspiration for two Davaoeña artists, Ann T. Pamintuan and Josie C. Tionko. This exhibition brings together their distinct yet complementary artistic visions.
Both Ann and Josie have practiced their art for decades with a shared sense of discipline. This year, they each received a Datu Bago award for their shining achievements in creative arts and visual arts, respectively.
Expect tranquil elegance in Ann's sculptural metalwork and Josie's oil paintings. Flowers and foliage, as well as creatures of land, sea, and air, all live in quiet beauty.
This exhibition affirms David Attenborough's idea of the natural world as "... the greatest source of excitement; ... of visual beauty; ... of intellectual interest, and ... of so much in life that makes life worth living.”
Come forth into the light of things, let these two artists be our guide.
About the artists:
Ann Tiukinhoy Pamintuan
A naturally gifted artist with a degree in Business Administration from Silliman University, Ann discovered her passion for metal in 1991 while taking electroplating seminars. This was the spark that ignited her hands-on mastery of the medium.
What began as delicate jewelry-blossoms, leaves, roots, and vines preserved in gold, silver, and copper-evolved into bold furniture, and then large-scale sculptures. She forged her own artistic language in galvanized iron wire.
Her signature metal weave was key in the making of the iconic Cocoon Chair in 2000. This earned her a historic distinction as the first Asian woman designer to be featured in the International Design Yearbook (2002, 2004). Award after award poured in. By 2013, she had designed a series of life-size wire horses, a tribute to her 13 siblings. Since then, her menagerie of interwoven wire and stainless steel creatures-each piece enduring beyond the fragility of life-has captivated collectors worldwide.
Beyond her studio, Ann channels her creativity into advocacy. As founder of The Gilded Expressions in the 1990s and first President of the Mindanao Trade Expo Foundation, Inc. (1996-2006, 2009-2015), she championed economic growth for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across Mindanao.
This year, her visionary artistry and leadership were honored with the prestigious Datu Bago Award for Creative Arts, cementing her legacy as a pioneer in art and design and community empowerment.
Josie Tionko
Though academically trained in Social Work at the Maryknoll College (now Miriam College), Josie's artistry is self-fashioned. Rather than instruction, intuition and instinct fueled her artistic journey.
Josie began not with a brush, but with a mission: to create spaces for Davao artists. In the 1980s, she founded Asiatic Gallery and Liburon Gallery, vital platforms that nurtured the city's emerging talents.
Guided by countless art books and fellow creatives, Josie soon developed a luminous, layered technique in oils. Her long and meditative glazing process transforms canvases into homages to nature's quiet grace-each stroke, each color a reverence for the divine.
A gentle presence in Davao's art scene, Josie has exhibited widely, from her solo debut at Victoria Plaza (1993) and a two-woman show in Le Soufflé in Makati (2000), to shows at the Davao Museum (2008), Abreeza Mall (2020), and La Herencia (2024). Josie focuses on coaxing radiance from layered pigments that preserve fleeting beauty.
As founding president of the Dabawenyo Artists Federation, Inc. (2020-2024), Josie spearheaded initiatives to enrich the city's cultural landscape, fostering collaboration among visual artists, their groups and galleries.
Like Ann, Josie was recognized this year with a Datu Bago Award for Visual Arts—a testament to her dual legacy as a painter of serenity and a pillar of the arts community.
(with PR)
