Sio Montera, or Dr. Dennis Montera, is a visual artist and professor at the University of the Philippines in Cebu. His own brand of process-oriented abstraction narrates the sights, interactions, and experiences that are masterfully translated onto the canvas using acrylics and non-traditional tools. He experiments with industrial processes that lend an esoteric yet grounded feel to his paintings. The artist finds it essential to dissociate the process of image-making from any preconceived idea, thus creating non-representational art that are characterized by open color fields, excoriated layers, and gestural marks of varying intensity. The artist has an MFA in painting from UP-Diliman and a PhD in Creative industries design from the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan. Sio has exhibited in various local and international fairs and biennales and currently serves as the Head of the National Committee on Visual Arts of the National Commission of Culture in the Arts (NCCA) in the Philippines.

 

Sio was received the Outstanding Individual Award by the City Government of Cebu for his invaluable efforts to uplift arts and culture in Cebu and the entire country.