Premier sculptor Edwin Layug and Andre Josef “Totek” Layug, son of Presidential Merit Awardee for Ecclesiastical Art Willy Layug over the weekend hosted a clay sculpture workshop for senior high school students of Guagua.
The event was made possible in cooperation with SM City Pampanga and the Municipal Government of Guagua led by Mayor Dante Torres.
The training brought together the expertise of the two Layugs in the field of sculpture. Totek Layug is the youngest son of Willy Layug and has recently come home from his studies in Unibersidad de Barcelona, Spain. Dubbed as the “heir” to the Layug legacy in the field of the arts, he is among the top students of his class and is currently in a year-long vacation before going back to Spain.
Meanwhile, his equally able uncle Edwin Layug is among the awardees of the Gintong Pulilenyo Art Awards.
The Guagua-born artist, who now resides in Pulilan town in Bulacan, is one of the most renowned artists in Bulacan and the region having made a mark in the field of ecclesiastical art.
Layug is now one of the most popular names in the local wood sculpture industry. The artist is famous for his use of traditional polychrome style mixed with an obvious Spanish influence in polychrome technique, something which he has acquired from a recent training in Spain.
He is already considered a master in his art. Facebook pages devoted to religious art collectors refer to him as among the “young masters” of the craft.
Layug is the first Filipino to install a full altar in Singapore. He made the Pope Pius X Priory retablo along Upper Thompson Road in Singapore. The priory is under the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which is an international traditionalist Catholic organization founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The SSPX has presence in various countries in Europe and Asia.
Layug said he was honored to have been given the trust to craft and install the new altar, which was a fusion of baroque and classical art.
Both artists said that the event aims to inspire students to pursue the arts. Most of the senior high school participants come from the Humanities and Social Sciences strand of the K-12 program.
“We need more artists now more than ever. Art is part of the humanizing force that makes us understand who we are and what we can accomplish,” the elder Layug said.