Cat with Nine Live Shows (Alibangbang Series)
signed and dated 1981 (lower right)
oil on canvas
24” x 33 1/2” (61 cm x 85 cm)

In 1980 Dalena worked on his Alibangbang Series. The Alibangbang Series was exhibited at the Alegria Gallery in 1981 and was well received. In these paintings, the setting is a popular beerhouse in Cubao, with its night habitues and “agogo” dancers. All the while the artist continued filling his sketch pads with hundreds of character studies and figure drawings of the down and out prowling the streets and the city’s beer joints. In Danny’s bar, there are no lady’s drinks, only hard liver curdling stuff.

Taking up Advertising Arts with an elective in painting at the UST, Danilo Dalena’s teachers there were no less than Victorio Edades, Galo B. Ocampo, and Cenon Rivera. Danny Dalena made his mark in the early 1970s with his caustic political cartoons and illustrations for the Free Press and Asia Philippines Leader, which raised standards of editorial art in the country. He did a series of highly realistic toilet and graffiti drawings in 1972. In his paintings done during the bleak Martial Law years, he explored themes cum metaphors for the human condition, particularly for Philippine society in crisis.