- Dante Enage

Visual artist from Tacloban City

Dante Enage is a mixed-media, visual artist hailing from Tacloban City, Leyte. His works carry motifs and patterns symbolizing cultural diversity, such as the Pintados tattoo patterns, heavily inspired by his hometown, and the Baybayin accents, the traditional script used by the Pre-colonialized Filipinos. He also expresses his environmental advocacy through geometric and organic shapes, found frequently in his artworks. Throughout his career, he has had numerous exhibits, thirteen of which are solo shows, both in the local and the international scene. Dante first gained artistic recognition ten years ago, when his work, “Paint Not Bomb”, won 1st Place in the 2013 Philippine Visual Arts Festival (PVAF) of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA) in Pagadian City. Later that year, his works were exhibited at the Philippine Embassy and the Art Expo in Malaysia. Two years later, he was part of the group of exhibiting artists for the 4th International Group Exhibit of Malalayang Alagad ng Sining at Adhikain (MASA), entitled #Artimismo, at the One World Institute in Bitonto, Italy. Later, his exhibited pieces were included in the Art & Collectible Auctions held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2017, his hometown, the City Government of Tacloban, and the Sangyaw Foundation Inc., jointly declared him the “Sangyaw Awardee” for Visual Art. In the same year, Greenpeace East Asia lauded him as a climate change “art-ivist” in one of their articles, for his art installation supporting Greenpeace’s “Break Free” Movement. He is also an avid participant in art competitions. During the 2022 GSIS National Painting Competition, he won an honorable mention in the non-representational category. The following year in the same competition, he placed as a finalist, this time in the representational category. Nowadays, Dante’s works can be found in various acclaimed galleries across the country. He also serves as the founder of Kolor han Biswal Arte Nga WAraynon - Kolor Banwa (launched in 2005), an art group based in Tacloban City, Leyte, whose primary aim is to uplift new Waraynon talents and strengthen bonds between existing ones.