TOYM DE LEON IMAO

TOYM IMAO is multi-media visual artist. He is a sculptor (brass, bronze and wood), painter, and has worked in both film and theater productions. He first trained in the arts under his father Philippine National Artist for the Visual Arts Abdulmari Asia Imao and Napoleon V. Abueva, considered the Father of Philippine Modern Sculpture. His formal training came from the University of the Philippines, and Maryland Institute College of Art under a Fulbright Scholarship. He studied film under premier Philippine director Marilou Diaz-Abaya. He credits his mentor National Artist for Literature Alejandro R. Roces for his passion for Philippine history and culture.

Toym manages his studio- Estatuarte Sculptures and Artwork and currently teaches at the College of Fine Arts, Studio Arts Department at the University of the Philippines, Diliman Campus. An avid hobbyist and toy collector, he fans build Star Wars characters armor, and restores WW2 vehicles as a founding member of the Philippine Living History Society.

He exhibits at TOYCON 2018 some selected sculptures from his ongoing exhibition “Super Robot- Suffer Reboot” at the Bulwagan ng Dangal, UP Diliman. The artworks are an allegory of his childhood who marveled at the 70’s super robots shows amidst the backdrop of martial law in the country and his creative reaction/protest to the anime’s being banned in 1979.