Internal Fortitude II

Dennis 'Sio' Montera (Cebu, Philippines 1972), is among the most recognized Philippine contemporary visual artists. Known for his generally sparse non-figurative abstraction which uses negative space to create a dynamic support to the palimpsests of color created through his unique “addition by subtraction” technique of peeling off, scraping, and scratching layers of paint to reveal what is mysterious underlay.


Inspired by the weathered and peeling paint surfaces of centuries old buildings building he admired in Taiwan, where he studied, he applies careful consideration to the urge to create a balanced, yet dynamic composition, that is almost opposed to predominant Philippine cultural compulsion for ornate elaboration, and provide a foil, twice over, to the belabored, narrative-driven mimetic works for which his home city of Cebu is known for.


Relinquishing the brush, the worn down look of the works hint at nostalgia, providing ambiguous imagery which opens the mind to pareidolia which he tempers with definite borders that his titles provide: most of which are authoritative, even admonishing, hinting at life lessons hard earned; and the diaristic nature of some of the works; reminding us that the unpacking is not just aesthetic and visual, but more so, ontological and ethical.


Montera has had numerous solo shows with Qube Gallery. He represented Qube Gallery for Visayan Art Fair 2021 and 2022 in Cebu City, as well as the Modern and Contemporary Art Fair 2022, in Makati, Philippines.