Benedicto Cabrera took on the name “BenCab” even before the Cultural Centre of the Philippines listed him among the Thirteen Artists awardees in 1970. So, this is the name he has been known by across Asia, Europe and North America, and equally known as an illustrator, painter, portrait artist, photographer and printmaker.

Perhaps the most commercially successful of his generation of artists, BenCab has established an international reputation, earned several major art awards and exhibited around the world, including in London, New York and Macau.

BenCab returned to the Philippines in 1985 after spending over a decade in London, settling near Baguio City in Northern Luzon. With visual artist Santiago Bose, filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik and sculptor Ben Hur Villanueva, BenCab founded the fabled Baguio Arts Guild in the late ‘80s.

He has received two of the most prestigious honours in Philippine art: In 1992, he was given the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining and was named National Artist for Visual Arts in 2006.

BenCab started building the BenCab Museum in 2006 as a permanent home for his own work, along with his collection of indigenous Cordilleran arts and crafts and of works of “acknowledged Filipino Masters and rising contemporary Filipino artists”. Now run by the BenCab Art Foundation, the museum opened to the public in 2009.