Onib Olmedo’s world is filled with the denizens of marginalized society, lurking like lepers on the suburbs of active high life. They are depicted in darkened shadows, their faces misshapen sulky, sullen and framed in a scowl, with a kind of ennui and desolation about them. At times, their eyes are accusing, like the cover of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. He is remembered as one of the Philippines’ Figurative Trinity, with Ang Kiu Kok and Solomon Saprid. He used art as a tool to probe the depths of the human character, and critic Alice Guillermo wrote that his distortions were “to entrap the fierce and elusive demons of the private psyche”. His widow, Bettina, had said that Olmedo “created a body of works that utilizes the figurative expressionist technique of distortion to portray the inner torment experienced by modern. His paintings have a disturbing but ennobling effect on the viewer, celebrating the ultimate triumph of the human spirit in the face of intense pain and anguish. His paintings are soul portraits of the denizens of Sampaloc and Ermita, Manila’s red light and entertainment district man, as well as people from the upper strata of society.” Onib Olmedo studied for his BSc in Architecture at the Mapua Institute of Technology but after 12 years, switched to fulltime painting in 1970. He won gold medals in two Art Association of the Philippines competitions and a Mobil Oil Award and he was one of the 13 Artists honoured by the Cultural Centre of the Philippines. He also won an award in the Cagnes Sur Mer art competition in France in 1992. Works of Onib Olmedo were featured in the Art Fair Philippines 2020 recently.