BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Architect Jose “Joe” Dureza launched his book “Places and Faces in Time: An Architect’s Journey as Visual Artist”, at the Bacolod City Government Center recently.
He wrote the book containing some of the places and different people he painted or sketched, to serve as his legacy to his family, friends and art lovers, for them to remember him by.
Some of his paintings, drawings and sketches contained in the book have not yet been exhibited or published. His last solo art show was in 2015 and he is less likely to launch another one in the “new normal” times, Dureza said.
He has exhibited in 11 solo and dozens of groups exhibits in New York, Washington DC, Delaware, Oxford Mississippi, Yemen, and in Bacolod, Kalibo, Iloilo, Metro Manila, along with the State of New Jersey where his family lived for 20 years.
In 2007, he and his wife, Mahal, an English teacher, retired from their jobs in New York City and settled in the secluded seaside barrio of Cawayan, New Washington, Aklan, the hometown of his wife.
Most of his works are in transparent watercolors, the medium that he dedicated his life mastering. In the process, his watercolors won prizes in juried shows, especially the coveted Artist of the Year from Hudson Artists Inc. in New Jersey in 1999.
The United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) conferred him the honor of Fellow of UAP in 1982 and the Baliktanaw Award in 2016 for his lifetime achievements in the field.
The City of Bacolod also conferred him the “Ang Banwahanon Award” in 1978 for his contributions to the city as volunteer architect for many years.
His Alma Mater, the University of San Agustin added a feather on his cap as one of the “100 Outstanding Alumni of the Century”, during its Centennial Celebrations in 2005, in the Culture and Arts category. He was the only architecture of the 100 alumnus recognized.
Dureza served as president of the Hudson Artist Association where he had been a longtime member, and was co-founder of the Society of Philippine American Artists, Inc., and was also a member of the Art Association of Bacolod.*
