About – LEONARDO

About Bing Cariño

Leonardo Rey Bing S. Cariño is an artist, interior designer, curator, theater director, choreographer, cultural worker, researcher, and educator. He is one of the prime movers of the creative industries in General Santos City, and founder of the annual Teatro Ambahanon Summer Dance Workshop (TASDW), a training ground for upstart and pre-professional dance-theater artists.

Bing graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, and established his design practice in General Santos City. He started painting at about the same time as his design practice, and had one-man shows in the region, including Exhultations (his first one man show) in Cotabato City, followed by Birth at UP Art Gallery. He was elected executive committee member of the National Committee on Visual Arts (NCVA) of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in early 2000. He shifted to the performing arts and founded the famed Teatro Ambahanon (Hibiscus Prize for Excellence winner of China ASEAN Theater Week) of Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Colleges in General Santos City, where he also works as cultural development coordinator.

He found his way back to visual arts when he joined the Philippine Women’s College (PWC) of Davao Helena Benitez School of Arts and Design as chairman of PWC’s Interior Design Program. He soon joined group shows in Davao, Zamboanga, Cagayan De Oro, and General Santos, including two international exhibits Under One Sky during the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines (BIMP) International Festival of Cultures, and Selingan Seni (Artistic Neighbors), a show of Mindanao and Sabahan artists. In 2017 a two-man exhibition Duyog with Anoy Catague opened at the Francisco Demetrio Gallery of Museo de Oro at the Xavier Ateneo University in Cagayan de Oro City. He is among Region 12’s artists presented by Metropolitan Museum in My City, My SM, My Art group exhibit in February 2018. His most recent show was The Gift of Mindanao Music as Heritage at Museo Dabawenyo, held as a component activity of the museum for Heritage Month.

When not busy with design and painting, he curates for museums and other cultural institutions around the SoCCSKSarGen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos, also collectively nicknamed as SOX) area.

EXHIBITS

One-Man Shows

Indigenous Madonnas
The Gallery at Southern Brew, General Santos City
Oct 5-9, 2017

The Gift of Mindanao Music as Heritage
Museo Dabawenyo

Group Shows

Ocean’s Bounty
A group exhibit with ArtBrew Artists
National Tuna Congress, SM City General Santos
Oct 5-9, 2018

UGNAYAN
Artistic Impressions of Mindanao Life
Visit Davao Summer Festival
Abreeza mall, Davao City
May 7-12, 2018

MERGENCE Artistic
The Art Exhibit
The Gallery at Southern Brew, General Santos City
Feb 25-Mar 20, 2018

MY City, My SM, My Art
Metropolitan Museum of Manila for SM Malls
SM City General Santos, General Santos City
Feb 25-30, 2018

Selingan Seni
Visual Arts Festival
NCCA and Ateneo de Zamboanga University
Zamboanga City,
Nov 2017

Under One Sky
Budayaw Festival of Cultures
NCCA and Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines (BIMP) Mindanao Development Authority
General Santos City
Nov 2017

Handuraw Marawi (As curator/participating artist)
Museo De Oro, Xavier Ateneo
Cagayan De Oro City
Nov 2018