Kapitan

Manila-based artist, Alber Tabanao, also known by his artist name “Kapitan", has arisen from the art scene in recent years for his pop culture surrealism paintings.

Despite starting to draw since his childhood, it was not until university years did he start to hold paint brushes. Navigating between various styles at the earlier days of his painting journey, Kapitan eventually found his own style in the genre of pop culture surrealism.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the artist utilised the lockdown and community quarantine time, dedicated into finding himself and into curating his own style. Since he started to receive recognition from collectors towards the end of 2020, he grew more certain of his style and has since continued to grow his portfolio of works. His works portray moments of his childhood that he shared with his loved ones, to reminisce how happy and content he was during his childhood life. Through childlike characters, for example his robot character named Goybot, he wishes to convey to viewers through his childhood lenses – to cherish the moments in which we are all living in, and for viewer to relate to his stories.

He obtained his degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Technological University of the Philippines Manila.