It has been a long journey for artist Dominic Rubio from his days at the University of Sto. Tomas where he was busy pursuing studies in Fine Arts a little over two decades ago. Little did he know that in his search for self, he would end up being a major voice in helping define Philippine identity with his now iconic paintings of the Filipino, his surroundings, his customs and concerns.
Rubio thought he would make a mark in the advertising world where he worked as an artist for one of the major multinational advertising agencies Puris Lintas of Manila. A true adventurer, he then sought work as the resident artist of the Pearl Farm, an upscale resort in Davao del Sur where he found time to learn more about the different tribal communities at the Caraga Region in Northern Mindanao such as the Mandaya and the Tiboli tribes as well as the Badjaos and the Bilaans in Southern Mindanao.
In his sojourns, he was already sharpening his keen observatory skills of peoples, their customs, traditions and manner of living which would become the essence of his success as an artist today. Today, Rubio’s works are among the most popularly collected by our art loving population. Not only Filipinos like his works, Rubio having developed collectors from the United States, Canada, France, England, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand. He has had major shows in the United States and Canada, Hong Kong and in Singapore.
Focusing on the Artist’s Message Dr. Reuben Canete, in a scholarly essay titled “Dominic Rubio: Valuing Heritage, Mirroring the Self” zeroes in on one of the major reasons for Rubio’s unprecedented success. He claims this is in Rubio’s capability of making his collectors and his public “see themselves” through his works. Although he paints nostalgic scenes depicting our colonial past, Rubio is in actually painting the Filipino today. Dr. Canete posits that Rubio’s paintings have “struck a deep chord of nostalgia among his publics, who recollect from these paintings memories of their own recent ancestry, as well as the nascent space of national becoming.” “Viewers retrieve from his paintings a dialectic sense of individual and collective identification that only help to emphasize the significance of the established present.” In a word, Rubio is painting the past as present.