Nelfa A. Querubin is a renowned figure in Filipino contemporary art, celebrated for her exceptional mastery of ceramics. Her enduring legacy is honored by the UP Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage, which established the Nelfa Querubin Gallery. This gallery is dedicated to showcasing her pottery and stoneware, highlighting her innovative spirit and creativity of blending traditional techniques with both conventional and modern technologies.

Since its opening in 2022, the Nelfa Querubin Gallery has emerged as a vital hub for the study and appreciation of ceramic art. Its inaugural exhibition, Gindáp-ung, featured masterpieces from the UP Visayas art collection together with some pieces loaned from Central Philippine University. The collection offered a captivating insight into Nelfa Querubin’s evolution as an artist, spanning three decades—from the 1970s to the 1990s. The works on display exemplified how Querubin skillfully fused indigenous Filipino aesthetics with contemporary artistic sensibilities.

Each of the pieces in the exhibition also reflected a distinct decade of practice, showcasing works made from local clays and fired in a wood-fired kiln, alongside colorful pieces that were created in her studio in the United States, which were processed using electric and gas kilns.

Querubin’s ability to blend rich cultural heritage with her own artistic vision has earned her a reputation as a pioneer in Philippine ceramics art. Her work is not just about form and function; it is an expression of identity, creativity, and innovation. Through her unique approach, Nelfa A. Querubin continues to inspire both the art world and future generations of artists.

Pulus – Function and Form

The second exhibition titled “Pulus” celebrates the functionality of Querubin’s pottery and stonewares; thus, the term “pulus,” a Filipino word for “usefulness.” It is also expressed in Hiligaynon as “mapuslanon.”

The collection encapsulates the artist’s evolution from creating purely functional items to crafting works of art that transcend utility. Through her ceramics, Querubin invites viewers to experience the profound beauty that arises when art and function come together in harmony.

The development of pottery was primarily due to its practical use – pulus – as containers for food and drinks. In due time, while the making of pots and bowls continued, a usefulness that caters to the human need to be surrounded by beauty evolved. Pottery became a vehicle for creative expression and serving beyond functionality, a usefulness – pulus – that is intangible but experienced – aesthetics.

The pottery and stonewares also shares the life’s struggles of the artist as Querubin also faced obstacles as an artist, especially considering the medium, clay, as “lowly”. But Querubin has triumphed by elevating the art form in the Philippines and making her mark on the global art arena.

While she probably did several functional pieces to ensure a sale perhaps during her early days as a potter, she never went commercial.

Her bowls, pitchers, teapots, cups, and plates made in her wood-fired kiln took on personal and imaginative touches. An artist-apprentice once said that a visit to Querubin in her studio residence in Miag-ao, Iloilo, in the 1980s was not only about enjoying the food she had prepared but also relishing the chance to behold and hold her one-of-a-kind dining utensils.

As an artist with a deep-rooted connection to the fine arts, Querubin’s desire to create art from local clay was inevitable. Her early work included free-standing sculptures of people and animals, which eventually led her to experiment with the forms of bottles and vases. These pieces often featured surface details drawn from the abstract patterns found in her printmaking, particularly her etchings.

Also revisit: The Dionisia Rola Art Collection at Hanas Gallery

Later, during her time staying at the foothills of Golden, Colorado in the United States with husband Michael Tompkins, Querubin’s focus shifted to creating intricate ceramic reliefs. Her works during this time where she used gas and electric kilns allowed her to truly flourish as a clay sculptor.

Querubin’s success as an artist lies in her ability to blend function with beauty. Her work demonstrates that the boundaries between utility and artistry do not need to be distinct. In her hands, both can coexist, resulting in pieces that are not only functional but also deeply beautiful.

About Nelfa A. Querubin

Nelfa Querubin (b. 1941) hails from Concepcion, Iloilo. Before she ventured into working with clays, she was a painter, and studied printmaking under Manuel Rodriguez, who is touted as the Father of Philippine Printmaking. It was from Rodriguez that she learned about textures, which she applied to her works. She and her classmates in the printmaking workshop of Rodriguez became the core group that organized the Print Association of the Philippines (PAP).

In 1969, at the PAP’s Second Annual Graphic Arts Competition and Exhibition, her prints won first and third prizes. This was followed by first prize in etching in 1970, and first prize for intaglio in 1971, also from the PAP Annual Competition.

Her first solo exhibition of paintings and prints was held at Museo Iloilo in October 1971.

Her passion for clay was kindled when she was shown how ceramics were made by Leonardo Villaroman, an art teacher at the Philippine Women’s university.

In 1973, she returned to Iloilo and began working with locally-sourced clay and experimented with kins and firing temperatures.

In 1975 she won first prize in the National Ceramic Contest.

She set up her wood-fired kiln and pottery studio in Barangay Dingle, Miagao, Iloilo. There she experimented with all sorts of available clay, glazes, and pottery techniques. Although her early pieces tended to be functional, she also made ceramic sculptures that are deconstructions of vases and jars. Figures of humans and animals in stylized forms were also recurring subjects in Querubin’s incipient clay pieces.

Querubin, in 1980, received the Thirteen Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

She continued working in clay after moving to Colorado in the late 1980s. She won a string prizes for her ceramics that were produced in her studio there: among them the Juror’s Award,

1990 National Greely Art Exhibition; First Prize in Ceramics, 1995 Castle Rock Art Festival; and First Prize in Ceramics at the 2003 Colorado Arts Festival.

Querubin’s works at the Nelfa Querubin Gallery at UPV-MACH are significant because they are germinal. They not only represent one woman artist’s endeavor to express herself through a medium that few fine artists dare to master. Most importantly, they are attestations of the development of a world class artist who is a native-born Ilonggo. One can say, both Querubin and her ceramics are home-grown although they have flowered even beyond Iloilo.