Artist's Resume

Solo Exhibitions

• 2018 Estrellitas, Art Elements Asian Gallery (as Guest Artist)
• 2017 Revellers, ArtistSpace, Ayala Museum
• 2016 Pistá, Galeria de las Islas
• 2015 Aquarium, Sigwada Gallery
• 2014 Remix, Canvas Gallery & Garden
• 2013 Horselords, CCP
• 2012 Tinta, The Alcove, Filipinas Heritage Library
• 2011 Horseplay, Looking For Juan Art Space
• 2010 Loop, 1/of Gallery
• 2009 Smalls, Sigwada Gallery
• 2008 Scalewings, Prose Art Gallery
• 2008 Tagak, The Space at Art Informal
• 2007 Romp, One Workshop Gallery 
• 2006 Jig, One Workshop Gallery 
• 2005 Mamaw, Boston Gallery

Selected Group Exhibitions

• 2018 reTALE (Ang-InK Exhibit), Sining Makiling Gallery
• 2017 Brave New World (Ang-InK Exhibit), Arts Above
• 2017 Kristo, Canvas Gallery & Garden
• 2016 Tinker Tales (Ang-InK Exhibit), Ayala Museum
• 2016 Kristo, Artes Orientes
• 2015 Alterno (Ang-InK Exhibit), Shangri-la Plaza 
• 2015 Kristo, Arte Pintura Gallery
• 2014 Kristo, The Art Center, SM Megamall
• 2013 A Curious Buffet (Ang-InK Exhibit), Post  Cubao X (formerly Pablo)
• 2013 Kristo, The Art Center, SM Megamall
• 2012 Kristo, The Art Center, SM Megamall
• 2011 Where Reading Takes You (Ang-InK Exhibit), Filipinas Heritage Library      
• 2011 20 Taon (Ang-InK Exhibit), Ayala Museum
• 2011 Year Zero: The Cubicle, The Cubicle Creative Space
• 2011 Relevant Rizal, Vargas Musem
• 2011 Kristo, Looking For Juan Art Space
• 2010 Moneyobra, The Art Center, SM Megamall
• 2010 Everyday Filipino Heroes, Vargas Museum
• 2009 Forever RENEver (Ang-InK Exhibit), CCP
• 2009 Yellow Democracy, Sigwada Gallery
• 2009 Pagalingan Pinay Finalists Exhibition
• 2009 New Beginnings, Verdana Art Gallery Studio
• 2008 TutoKKK, blanc compound, blanc art space
• 2008 Tsubibo (Ang-InK Exhibit), Shangri-la Plaza, UP College of Fine Arts
• 2007 The December Show, blanc art space
• 2007 Ibang Klase (Ang-InK Exhibit), Power Plant
• 2007 Boxed, CCP
• 2007 F, The Space at Art Informal
• 2007 Hands That Feed (Tintero Exhibit), Pan Pacific Manila
• 2006 Tipon (Ang-InK Exhibit), MET
• 2006 Spacelaunch, The Space at Art Informal
• 2006 Sa Tabi-Tabi Po (Annual Ang-InK Exhibit), One Workshop Gallery
• 2006 Cuadros y Cuerdas (Ang-InK Exhibit), Crossroad 77, British School
• 2005 Alay IX, Boston Gallery
• 2005 Armour, Corredor, UP Diliman College of Fine Arts
• 2004 Meme Na (Annual Ang-InK Exhibit), Shangri-la Plaza
• 2004 World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Exhibit (Ang-InK Exhibit), Hotel Intercontinental, Glorietta
• 2004 Security Blanket, Donada Art Gallery Katipunan
• 2003 Studio Arts Thesis Exhibit
• 2003 Ladies and Gentlemen, Likha Diwa
• 2002 Wala Ka Sa Lola Ko! (Annual Ang-InK Exhibit), Korben House
• 2001 InkTEN (Annual Ang-InK Exhibit), Shangri-la Plaza, CCP, MET
• 2001 Faces, UP College of Arts and Letters
• 2000 Tuklas Sining, Ayala Museum
• 2000 Poink! (Annual Ang-InK Exhibit), Shangri-la Plaza, CCP
• 2000 The Secret Diaries of CD and Jill, Surrounded by Water
• 2000 Masskara, Gallery MSG
• 1999 May Nakita Ako (Annual Ang-InK Exhibit), Department of Tourism
• 1998 InKuwento (Annual Ang-InK Exhibit), Ayala Museum, CCP

Awards

• Samsung KidsTime Author's Award Grand Prize (for illustration), 2015
• Finalist, Pagalingan Pinay, 2009
• Best Non-Children's Book Illustration 2005, Ang-InK
• Semi-finalist, Metrobank Art and Design Excellence 2005

Art Projects

• Akalatan Pambata mural design
• Young Minds Bookfair Booth design
• Academies Manila classroom interior design
• Cradle to Crayons Pre-School exterior design

Teaching

• 2008 to 2012 Instructor for Art Workshops, Artists in Residence, Inc.
• 2007, 2008 Instructor for Art Workshops at Carewell
• 2007 Instructor for Art Start, Painting Explorations, Comic Book 
• Illustration Workshops, Art Informal
• 2006 Instructor for Summer Art Workshop, Mother Goose Playskool
• 2006 Substitute Instructor for Painting Explorations for Children workshop, Art Informal
• 2005, 2006 Instructor for special interest activity - art, Academies Manila
• 2001 Instructor for children's summer art workshops, Our Lady of Victories Church
• 2000 Instructor for children's summer illustration workshop, Young Minds

Publication

• Two Big Ways to Save Water: Collection and Conservation
• How Long Till September?
• Judith and the King of the Sea
• Mga Tambay Sa Tabi-Tabi
• Business World
• Kulturati Magazine
• Kid, Panahon Na! Workbook on Climate Change
• My Mother is a Stewardess
• Philippine Daily Inquirer
• Mabuhay Magazine
• The Climate Change and Energy Workbook
• OWGallery.com
• Malaya
• malaya.com
• Haluhalo Espesyal
• globalnation.inq7.net
• irn.columbia.edu/alumni/enews
• amazon.com
• Manila Bulletin
• mb.com.ph
• adarnahouse.com
• goodnewspilipinas.com
• Backpack Magazine
• Manila Times
• manilatimes.net
• abs-cbnnews.com
• Philippine Star
• ink.group.ph
• RCBC Kuwentong Kalikasan ng Kabataan
• World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Workbooks for Children
• InKuwento: Stories Told to Filipino Children Postcard Book 
• Greeting cards for Museo Pambata
• Christmas cards for Ang-InK
• WWF postcards
• lessons.ph Magozine
• Ang-InK website
• Metro Working Mom
• 2001 Christmas Philippine postage stamp

Art Education

• 2008 HAO Artists Summit, Sentosa, Singapore
• 2005 Barlaya Illustrating for Children Workshop, Vargas Museum
• 2005 Young Artist's Career Workshop, Pinto Art Gallery
• 2003 BFA Fine Arts, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
• 1997-2000 Escuela sa Museo, Ayala Museum
• ca 1992-1993 Galleries of Fine Arts

Art Affiliations

• Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang-InK) (inactive)

Art-Related Work Experience

• 2011 Good Nature comics
• 2009, 2011 WWF posters
• 2009 Bright Kids logo and applications (WWF)
• 2008 Kid, Panahon Na! Workbook on Climate Change (WWF)
• 2008 My Mother is a Stewardess book cover
• 2007, 2008 illustrations for Backpack magazine
• 2007 The Climate Change and Energy Workbook (WWF)
• 2006 Haluhalo Espesyal children's book
• 2006 Magazine cover, illustrations and lay-out for Backpack magazine
• 2004-2005 Character and colouring book design and flash animation storyboards at Adformatix, Inc.
• 2007, 2005, 2000 World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Workbooks for Children
• 2005 Cradle to Crayons Pre-School exterior design
• 2004 Academies Manila classroom interior design
• 2001 lessons.ph Magozine illustrations
• 2000 Young Minds Bookfair Booth design
• 2000 Metro Working Mom illustration
• 1998-1999 Lay-out and character design at Publicis Philippines, Inc.
• 1999 RCBC Kuwentong Kalikasan ng Kabataan

updated January 2019

About Jill A / Artist's Statement

Divided, She Stands: Jill Arwen Posadas

"I paint monsters," she says, "because I want people to look beyond physical appearances." Jill Arwen Posadas has been drawing and painting monsters since she was very young. Growing up with lavishly illustrated books from all over the world, one could say it was inevitable for Posadas to start making her own pictures based on what she has read and seen.

To Posadas, "monster" is a general term for any creature that is not human or readily found in the natural world. More often than not, Posadas' monsters can be found in popular Western mythology and literature, with unicorns, mermaids, centaurs and various winged beings frolicking across her paper and canvases. Though her preferred medium is watercolour, many of her monsters are rendered in acrylic, oil pastel and acrylic, as well as oil.

Growing up, Posadas thought nothing of her gift of giving tangible form to the creatures and other fantastic images in her head. After all, everyone in her family could do it with scarcely a thought. She was, however, the only one among her many siblings who decided to pursue this ability to extent of making it a full-time career and indeed, her life's work. Posadas' decision to become a full-time artist was not made overnight. With a capitalist father and a parallel talent for writing, she divided her time between her brush and her pen. A degree in Communication Arts from the University of Asia and the Pacific led to a copywriting stint for one of the biggest corporate accounts at two of the country's leading ad agencies. In between writing copy, radio shows and magazine features, she somehow made time for painting workshops at Ayala Museum and contributions to exhibits with Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang-InK), of which she is still a member.

After three years of "saving up to go to art school", Posadas got her fondest wish to be accepted into the College of Fine Arts at the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines. Her time was then divided between school, where she worked on completing her Studio Arts major in Painting, and the FM radio station where she continued to work as a writer-newscaster. After her second college graduation, Posadas returned to what she calls her "old life" as a marketing and advertising writer for one of the country's leading banks, and one of the top Filipino-owned ad agencies. Soon, however, sleep-deprived nights and weekends failed to satisfy Posadas' need for self-expression as a visual artist, and in 2005 Posadas finally chose the brush over the pen. In July of that year, at a Young Artist's Career Workshop at the Pinto Art Gallery, Posadas was told that "for an artist to have any kind of career, he must have at least one solo show and join at least one group show every year." Taking those words to heart, Posadas mounted her debut solo exhibition that same year titled "Mamaw," featuring monsters rendered in watercolours at the Boston Gallery in Quezon City.

Since then, Posadas has held a total of six solo exhibitions in addition to her participation in numerous group exhibitions at venues such as the Ayala Museum, the Metropolitan Museum in Manila and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. After having spent a lifetime painting monsters hailing from Western culture, her recent series of works in oil pastel and acrylic, oil and acrylic on canvas have featured monsters found in local and other Asian traditions, such as the tikbalang and the diwata of the Philippines, the kappa and the tengu of Japan, and the elephant-headed god Ganesh of India. Posadas also spends much of her time "inventing" monsters of her own. "My approach to creating monsters is two-fold: by extrapolation and by interpretation," she explains. "By extrapolation, I mean science: what would a monster look like based on its habitat or its prey?" Interpretation, Posadas says, is how she creates images based on processes such as word play, cultural association and personal opinion. "What would the concept of hunger look like as a monster? Or if the concept of anger were walking around incarnate, what would it look like?"

On a formal level, Posadas' work favours the basic elements of line, colour and texture. "I love bright colours -- that I got from my mom, who likes colours vivid and despises anything anemic... that's not to say I don't like black or brown, but when I use them, I use them to the max!" With regard to texture, she says "I like making pictures that make you want to touch them somehow. I was told in school that suggested texture is usually better than actual texture, but personally I find the actual more fun." Though this is immediately apparent in Posadas' works on canvas, where she favours the use of palette knives and thick brushwork, a love of texture can also be seen in her lush watercolours. Apart from the techniques beloved of most watercolourists, texture is likewise expressed with an almost decorative use of line in rendering features such as hair, scales or feathers.

Posadas' artistic achievements extend beyond the art gallery into the world of illustration, a matter of course considering her longtime association with Ang-InK. Her watercolours and other drawings have been featured in a popular children's book, workbooks, magazines, postcards and greeting cards. The design for the mural at the Children's Library in Quezon City, based on her watercolours, won Ang-InK's award for Best Non-Children's Book Illustration. Another of her greeting card designs was also featured on a national postage stamp in 2001. Despite all this, Posadas insists that she is primarily a painter, and not "just" an illustrator. "Though I have never intended it, many people seem to think my work is for children. I don't mean for my work to be just for children, although I will admit that much of it may seem to be readily appreciated by them. I got into illustration as a way of applying what I can do to something socially responsible, which is to share art with children or communicate positive things to them via art."

Because of the many ways in which her art or her career may be seen to be "divided," Posadas currently feels she is an "artistic fencesitter" of sorts.  "There are painters and other visual artists who classify me as an illustrator, and there are illustrators who think my work is too painterly. A lot of my work may have a childlike feel to it but a lot of my other works look a lot more grown-up. And I am an Asian artist whose work is heavily influenced by the West." Even so, Posadas maintains, her body of work remains unified in theme and purpose. In any style, technique or medium, "I paint monsters," as she has mentioned, precisely "because I want people to look beyond physical appearances." Posadas says that most people feel a natural or ingrained revulsion upon seeing others with unusual characteristics. "It's easy to judge people when they look weird or different -- I do it myself, all the time," she admits. With her monster images, Posadas not only wants to present an escapist view of a world that can never be, but wants to challenge her viewers with a series of "what if's." "What if you actually met a person covered with fur, or scales or horns? What if he wanted to make friends? What if he asked for help? Would you run, poke fun? Would you hurt him, put him in a cage? Or take the trouble to at least try to overcome your prejudices against what is unfamiliar?" Posadas stands by the possibility of monsters being people too, with feelings and personalities. "In fact," she quips, "some people who look normal are more like monsters in real life than the monsters in any of my works." In art, as in everyday life, Posadas says, one must always look beyond the surface.

December 2008

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