Filipino wins Canadian bank’s $25K painting tilt prize
Patrick Cruz won the RBC Canadian Painting Competition in Vancouver.
SAN FRANCISCO—Filipino Canadian artist Patrick Cruz won the 2015 (Royal Bank of Canada) RBC Canadian Painting Competition’s $25,000 prize, besting 615 entries.
He was declared the winner on November 17 at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Cruz’s work, “Time allergy,” was selected as the winner among 15 finalists. The 28-year-old’s acrylic on canvas abstract work is a map-like network of what could be roads, buildings and organic forms, with various colors fighting for attention on the canvas.
Cruz’s winning entry, “Time Allergy,” was “inspired by Manila.”
Cruz told the Vancouver Sun that it was inspired by Manila, where he was born. He described it as a “very chaotic and dense” metropolis of 12 million people.
He left Manila at 18 and moved to Vancouver where he attended Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Cruz is now working on his MFA at the University of Guelph. He said he will use his winnings to help create exchanges between artists in the Philippines and Canada.
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