CLENG Sumagaysay’s works oscillate between the juxtaposition of concepts—the mundane and the surreal, reality and dreams. The emphasis on introspection through the subtle and apparent symbolism and archetypes in her paintings merged with the viewers own subconscious & subjective interpretation reveal the meaning of her works.
CLENG SUMAGAYSAY aka Cathlyn Sumagaysay-del Rosario received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts from the oldest university in Asia, University of Santo Tomas, in Manila, Philippines in 2001. She taught Mass Communications at Palawan State University for a year before migrating to the United States in 2002. She attended the Los Angeles City College in 2005 to study art and transferred to California State University, Long Beach in 2008 to major in BA Studio Art. From 2007 to present, she has been exhibiting and working on various art-related projects both in the United States and Asia. Her self-portrait painting, “At the Forefront of an Archaic Yet Seemingly New Paradigm” (2011), became the cover of the book, “KOMENTULARYOS”, by an award-winning Filipino poet and writer, Tomas F. Agulto.
CLENG was chosen as one of the 10 Most Outstanding Palaweno Artists for the first ever “My City, My Sm, My Art” juried by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in 2018. She also became one of the Top 10 Philippine Contemporary Artists from the Regions (Palawan) in 2020.
Sumagaysay’s self-portrait mural at Wild Feather in Lower Haight, San Francisco, California helped launch the historic Paint the Void project in 2020; it was also featured on Fox News and mentioned in Forbes and several articles.
The artist often paints self-portraits emphasizing introspection in her work.
