: Ambit Mendoza

Featured Artist: Ambit Mendoza

Ambit Mendoza is a contemporary artist hailing from Rodriguez, Rizal. Her artist name derives from her nickname in the Igorot dialect, with “Ambit” meaning “little girl”. She draws inspiration from life’s treasures: her family and childhood to her love for nature, especially for its meditative qualities and implications. This eventually roused her inclination to meditative walking, stillness practices, mindfulness, attention training in bonsai, and creating art.

Her imagery comprises recurring themes of preservation, introspection, and wonder. With symbolical glass jars containing bonsai trees, women and children, Ambit creates a thought-provoking terrain that piques the curiosity and interest of its audience. “I prefer a slow, conservative, "breathing" life – appreciating every detail that connects me to the world. Thus, my stories on canvas often depict the vastness of space, no element of time, my childhood dreams, aspirations, and experiences.” The artist states. Much like how Bonsai culture is a miniature replication of nature, Ambit preserves and elicits a deep-rooted symbolism in her compositions. The idea of her subjects being confined in a replicated environment links to the concept of living in harmony, which is unspoiled from outside forces.

Raising her cognitive awareness of the psyche and the environment, her imagery further converses a reflection of her younger self and guides her virtue of reasoning, which molded her mind on how to manage emotion, mindset, and rationale – embracing a life that is inevitable of contemplation.

“As a bonsai enthusiast, a slow art form, no metaphors would best symbolize growth, beauty, persistence and the rest of life’s aspects but a tree, a bonsai.” The artist concludes.

The artist has received several recognitions for her contemporary talents, becoming a two-time semi-finalist at the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) – Oil Painting Category in 2008 and 2011. She’s also gained spots in numerous group and solo exhibitions since 2017, with the most notable ones including Art in the Park (2017, 2019) with Art Verité, Art 4 Space, and Urban Chic Galleries respectively, “Another Day” Group Exhibit (2019) at R Gallery, and “The Emerald Exhibit” (2022, 2023) at Galerie Joaquin.

Text by Therese Atienza