Random Illusions

RANDOM ILLUSIONS
A one-man exhibition by Lloyd Tronco


Lloyd Tronco is an artist from Bacolod, Negros Occidental whose work hardly belongs in Negros.

While a number of acclaimed artists have risen out of this Visayan province, it is undeniable that the movement of visual art in Negros flows in two streams. The first has to do with the conservative and well-calculated renderings of old hacienda houses, scenes from canefields, fishing villages and shanties, all treated in the oft-recurring style emulated from Botong, Blanco, or Manansala. The other stream by which art has taken its course in Negros is that of social realism. In a province where social unrest is prevalent due to the enormous gap between the rich and poor, SR's popularity in Negros has been emphasized further through award winning works by acclaimed Negros artists, Nune Alvarado and Charlie Co.

Between the two tributaries there appears to be no place for the art of Lloyd Tronco. Though raised in his primary years in Bacolod, the fact that Lloyd Tronco was born in Manila, as well as having studied high school here contributes to his affinity for art that is modern and not traditional...art that is urban and not provincial...art that is kinetic and not laid back.

His is a form of abstract expressionism tempered with a keen sense of balance and composition. Perhaps this may be attributed to the fact that on ordinary days, Lloyd Tronco is an advertising professional involved with outdoor advertising and large format billboards - a purely visual medium wherein balance and composition definitely count a lot. Furthermore, the inclination to put the elements of each painting in its proper place within the canvas may have to do with his passion for architecture...a passion which took a detour upon the demise of his father, the late Larry Tronco who was a former art professor in the UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts.

Lloyd Tronco's exposure to the world of art began at a very young age. Apart from the early scribblings done under the watchful eye of his father, Lloyd would also be present in the numerous exhibition openings during the early and mid 1970s. Tagging along as a child, the Hidalgo Gallery, the Galerie Bleue, and the Luz Gallery served as Lloyd Tronco's first classrooms in art. In his grade school years, he would spend his summers helping out in the family business painting images of San Miguel Beer on billboards made of galvanized iron panels.

Many seasons have gone by since those initial years of learning. High school at the Philippine Science High School (where upon graduation he was awarded a medal for Excellence in Art by then First Lady Imelda Marcos); a semester at the UP College of Architecture, a few years of taking up Fine Arts under professors who were themselves students of Larry Tronco; a couple of years in Europe (mainly the UK); and of course the daily rigors of advertising. With these in mind, it is of little surprise that the modern and progressive images of Lloyd Tronco stand out as random illusions in the remoteness of Negros Occidental.