Leslie de Chavez next to ‘State of Your Liberty,’ 2014, Artist’s CollectionOn August 14, Leslie de Chavez, one of the featured artists of the museum’s previous exhibition Complicated, won the Fernando Zóbel Prize for Visual Arts 2014 held by the Ateneo Art Gallery.

Featuring two of his works from the exhibition, When the Medium Killed the Message and State of Your Liberty, de Chavez won an international residency grant funded by the Ateneo Art Gallery at Liverpool Hope University in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

The Fernando Zóbel Prize for Visual Art is a distinction given to the most significant works and exhibitions from the previous year, celebrating the best of contemporary Philippine visual art.

Out of 84 nominations, 12 artists and the exhibitions were chosen for this year’s shortlist. Jurors for the art awards included Ramon E.S.

Lerma, Director and Chief Curator, Ateneo Art Gallery; Fr. Rene Javella SJ, Associate Professor, Fine Arts Prgram, Ateneo de Manila University; Kiri Dalena, visual artist and 2009 Ateneo Art Awards winner; Tony Godfrey, Art critic and writer; Tessa Maria Guazon, Assistant Professor, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines-Diliman; Mark Justiniani, Visual Artist; and Lisa Periquet, President, Board of Museum Foundation of the Philippines.