Jaime Ponce de Leon

Director, León Gallery

 

He first opened León Gallery as an exhibition space for artworks he discovered from his travels

Jaime Ponce de Leon’s interest in arts and antiques started long before the founding of León Gallery. Having started as an interior designer, he always considered art the “soul of any setting” and the focal point in his designs.

After earning a degree from Silliman University in Dumaguete, he took a design course at the Philippine School of Interior Design. In 2010, he pivoted to an art dealership and opened León Gallery. He initially sold works by Filipino masters, alongside fine antiques, silver and other things he found during his travels abroad. The gallery also became a hub until he could unload his friend’s art inventory. After that, Ponce de Leon debuted his first auction.

He has been breaking auction records since, with the sale of works by masters and established. Upcoming modern contemporary artists, such as HR Ocampo, Romulo Galicano, Pacita Abad and Jose John Santos III, to name a few. He built a reputation by working with a small pool of experts in art history, curatorial studies and criticism. In 2016, according to Blouin Art's listing, León Gallery was included as one of the top 250 auction houses in the world.

In 2023, Ponce de Leon made his most significant contribution to the local arts and culture scene when he released Juan Luna’s long-lost work Hymen, oh Hyménée (1886), a piece he recovered in 2014. The 125 x 250.5 cm oil-on-canvas had been missing for 132 years and is believed to be dedicated to Luna’s wife, Paz Pardo de Tavera.

Hymen, oh Hyménée depicts a Roman wedding in Pompeii, one of the places Luna visited during his sojourn in Rome. “The scene shows various bridesmaids, guests and sundry folk; their postures are candid and almost random,” the exhibition notes stated. “Swift, proficient brushstrokes and thick impasto conjured the spacious hall with the bridal party, flower-strewn marble floors, incense wafting against the deep red walls. The impressionistic execution of pictorial space combined with the casual atmosphere appeared fresh and modern and appealed in Paris at the turning point of a new century.”

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Did You Know?


León Gallery’s first online auction was held in 2016—years before the pandemic started.

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