Edgar Carabio

Edgar Carabio is a Florida-based artist who is originally from Bantayan Island in Cebu,Philippines. He grew up in a family of skilled artists and craftsmen. As a youngster in his hometown, he showed an innate skill and early promise which proved true in 1978 when at a tender age of 11, he won his first prize in an on-the-spot painting contest held in Cebu City. A self-taught artist who looked-up to his great grandfather who was a painter and a sculptor, he took up Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines where he made record winnings at the annual Jose T. Joya Awards. Winning consistently for three years, he garnered a total of five first place awards in the representational, figurative and non-objective abstraction categories. While in college, he staged his first solo art exhibition in 1991 entitled "Bantayan" at the Casa Gorordo Museum in Cebu. The exhibit was a tribute to his hometown. Following this, he went through multiple successful art exhibits throughout the Philippines and internationally. 

Carabio has the gift and mastery of painting in a most realistic manner, these works connotes a reality of forms, colors, and perspective. His  art evokes a feeling of restraint and melancholy but offers his viewers a sense of belongingness to subjects that are always close to his heart. Most of his subjects are reminiscent of his childhood living in Bantayan. He finds fascination in painting people depecting everyday life and portraiture. He is also at peace with any medium, be it oil,watercolor,pastel or acrylic. For him, nurturing one's creativity should not be limited to one medium of choice, it is also a way to enjoy painting while exploring new ideas in art. 

Having moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 2012, he has involved himself in multiple juried art exhibits and art festivals in the twin cities and other states in the US. He has accumulated multiple awards from different juried shows he participated in. Some of these awards included the Gold Award which he won at the 30th International Association of Pastel Societies Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2017, the Jack Richeson & Co. Gold Award at the Annual Pastel Society of America exhibition in New York which was also in 2017, and a First Place Award in the 2018 Uart International Web Show. He also won Third Award in the Third China (Suzhou) International Biennial Exhibition in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. He was a member of the Minnesota Artists Association and Lake Country Pastel Society before moving to Tampa, Florida. His most recent participation in exhibits included the National Arts Club in New York, the Butler Institute of American Arts in Youngstown, Ohio and the IAPS Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Carabio is currently a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Pastel Society of Tampa Bay and in the Masters Circle in the International Association of Pastel Societies. Highly endowed with the gift of creativity and the cultural life of the Philippines, his paintings today are still reflective of the genre, even as he is now based in the urban landscape of the city where he and his family lives.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.