The Adoro Gallery and Museum is the newest addition to Iloilo City’s growing art spaces. It houses the collection of Ed Valencia, an Ilonggo, and one of the country’s top art collector. The Adoro is located inside the Iloilo Prime Estates and managed by the Valencia Family Foundation.

The Adoro organized a soft opening on February 26, 2023, with selected guests and art afficionados for a maiden exhibition titled Papelismo.

Curated by Liby Limoso, Papelismo features various works by renowned international, national, and regional artists that are rendered on paper.

The exhibit devoted a section to showing the works of some of the country’s National Artists.

The museum-gallery, however, is for private viewing as of this time. It will be accessible to the public eventually.

Viewing the maiden exhibit roused excitement among guests who were aware of the vast collection relocated to Iloilo City by Ed Valencia and the Valencia Family that is now in storage at the Adoro Gallery-Museum on top of what was loaned at the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art at the Megaworld’s Casa Emperador.

Adoro is endowed with meaning – #AdoroArte 

The gallery and museum name Adoro is meaningful to the Valencia family. The name was deliberated upon by family members, and a nephew suggested “Adoro,” a Spanish/Portuguese term that means “I adore,” which sits well for a family that adores art. In the same way, Adoro will allow them to express their love for art in a concise and popular language known as the hashtag: #adoroarte, or simply, “I love art!”

Inwardly, Adoro has a familial or intimate meaning to the Valencias because it is a portmanteau of the first names of the family matriarch, Adoracion, and patriarch, Doroteo; hence, Adoro.

The Adoro is a manifestation of the Valencia Family’s vision to share art with Iloilo City and to leave a legacy to the city and the arts community.

Papelismo at Adoro Gallery and Museum

In this slideshow are works of Vicente Manansala, Romulo Olazo, Manuel Baldemor, Ang Kiukok, and BenCab.

Paper is associated with the stage of art process in its most vulnerable: the artist contemplating on what to put on that blank – thinking, questioning, exploring, most often torn between idea options or even emotions and memories, but eventually faced with the reality that he has to put something on that blank – doodle, heavy strokes, thin lines, scrolls, shades, shapes, figures, black, colors, anger, happiness, lamentations, longing, and love.

In this slideshow are works by Cesar Legaspi, Juvenal Sansó, Ang Kiukok, and Anita Magsaysay

Paper is an artist’s constant companion; the go-to sketchpad, the study, the interpretation and exploration, the execution. Art on paper is raw; it could be a pursued, continued, or an afterthought following the abandonment of an art idea. And in the world of art collection where the focus is on canvas and paints, this reality of art process and its related material is oftentimes ignored.

But not in Papelismo.

In this slideshow you can spot the set of works by Charlie Co, Nune Alvarado, Renato Habulan, Vincent Navarro, Mark Justiniani, Alexander Calder, and Michael Babyak, among others.

This exhibit places primacy on paper, hoping it will lessen the exclusive notions of fine arts that are often understood in terms of just paints and canvas. From the artworks on paper of a handful of National Artists, select contemporary artists, international artists from the Modern Art period, and artists from Western Visayas, this exhibition hopes to inspire more artists to continue exploring and sharpening their craft, for the collectors to create more spaces where art can be appreciated and enjoyed, and for the community to develop wider appreciation for these beautiful expressions.