I love museums, if there was a job that I could do it would probably be to curate museums and just roam around the halls of my workplace. To be surrounded by art, sculptures, artifacts feels like a perfect way to enjoy the day. So far I've been to some of the best and the classiest and I've also been to some of the more dreary and miserable ones. Nevertheless museum trips have always been an enjoyable experience and the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo doesn't fail to astonish and to amaze.
Antipolo is known for three things: retreat centers, traffic and your pick of resorts; I have never actually heard of a museum in Antipolo until I saw my sister's instagram posts of the Pinto Art Museum. Of course this got my radar and my feet itching to go there. However it would be a month or so before I could actually come up since I didn't want to go there at the height of summer. Yesterday was the perfect opportunity, it was Tricia's birthday and we wanted to celebrate in a unique place.
Entering the museum was like stepping into a time portal, the architecture made me feel like I was in Pancho Villa's time, the Mexican inspired architecture housed all of the galleries and there were five of them. Some were quite large housing murals and others a deeply personal affair with select art pieces and sculptures made from a variety of art materials and mediums. Trawling the blogs for some things to watch out for, I definitely saw the hallow man installation and the ladies flying/dancing about in the garden wall, these pieces were really beautiful to look at.
The most impressive installation for me was the "forest" a darkened room with bamboo poles forming a forest and in the middle of some of those poles were rocks hanging in midair with water dropping into a basin of water. An arresting experience complete with the sounds of a forest and probably accentuated with the sounds coming from the natural environment. The forest installation was probably one of the best art pieces that I saw in the entire museum.
I loved how the museum was open to the elements, the galleries felt like living rooms where one could just simply lounge around and have a siesta. When we went there the weather was not at its best, the sun was up in the sky and made the whole place feel like an oven then later on gray and overcast made it a little bit cooler and interesting. Nevertheless the beauty of the museum really lay in the buildings, the white and uneven wall finishes with picturesque views punctuated by random art fixtures were eye-catching. The earthy colors and the lush gardens were gentle reminders of the still present Spanish influences today.
Touring the museum is quite easy, there is no starting point in the museum and we were just free to roam around. The downside to this is we didn't get to know the history behind many of the paintings and sculptures inside the museum. There were just small little plates of information beside each installation but nothing else. However if we had arrived earlier we would have been able to join the tour group, the museum has its own tour guide and when we were able to hear some snippets of the tour it was really an explanation behind the work. If the traffic in Antipolo hadn't been so bad we could have made it. At its price the museum without the tour (and even with it) was well worth it, there were a lot of eye-catching exhibits and the chance to really walk in the gardens and terraces was worth it. Just a word of advice, don't go there at the height of summer unless you want to spend the entire day fanning yourself.
The Pinto Art Museum can be found at 1 Sierra Madre Street, Grand Heights Subdivision. Antipolo City
The museum is open daily from 9am to 6pm and can be reached at 697-1015.
You may also visit their Facebook page here.
The museum is open daily from 9am to 6pm and can be reached at 697-1015.
You may also visit their Facebook page here.