PRIDE OF TARLAC

Perfecto Mercado, born on August 4, 1950, in Concepcion, Tarlac, was destined not to be an ordinary artist. He was fated to be a legendary artist, The type of artist who has to be celebrated given his immense talent. He is the multi-dimensional creative: llustrator, portraitist, painter, muralist, interior decorator, and installation artist. He never knew of any other profession but to create. And he did create relentlessly. From the 1970s to 2011, until his death, he filled people’s lives with beautiful and meaningful art pieces that are now found in homes and offices here and abroad. In every retrospective exhibits mounted after he passed on, people saw the breadth and depth of his body of works and how he built a strong legacy for the people of Tarlac. This legacy, undoubtedly, has a national significance. This is the reason behind the publication of his art-biography book, Dreamscape: The Art of Perfecto Mercado, and the mounting of a 2019 exhibit in Museo ng Tarlac, the heart of Tarlac. It is time for the people of Tarlac and the Kapampangan region to discover their
pride and treasure. Mercado had done a great job and it is now up to the Kapampangan people to value his legacy and contributions to the creative history and to the present and future generations of Filipinos.