MANILA, Philippines - Freeway, a garment company, has unveiled its holiday collection featuring limited-edition clothes and accessories splashed with art by expressionist painter Ang Kiukok.

The 17-piece clothing collection is part of Freeway's National Artist Collector's Series.

Last August, the company launched a series of clothes and bags inspired by National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin.

The Ang Kiukok fashion line includes men's t-shirts, blouses, woven tops, dresses, necklaces, and tote bags--all printed with the artist's timeless paintings and pen-and-ink drawings.

Freeway is also offering limited-edition watches printed with Ang's clown ink drawings. Each watch comes with a special watch box also printed with clowns.

All apparel are wrapped in a special brown-bag gift packaging with a Freeway National Artists Collector's Series seal.

The company chose to feature some of Ang's "favorite" art themes like Scream (featuring angry paintings), Dog, Harvest, and the Clowns collection (featuring a variety of clown figures clad in printed jumpsuits).

Items are priced from P345 for limited-edition chokers with pendants printed with a clown or fish, to P1,895 for button-down or halter dresses lined with figure drawings.

The collection, launched in November, will only be sold until this December.

A portion of the proceeds will reportedly be donated to the painter's family's chosen charity: the Dominican Sisters of Regina Rosarii in Tanay, Rizal.

Who is Ang Kiukok?

Photo courtesy of Elite Garments International.

Ang Kiukok, named a National Artist for Visual Arts in 2001, became a top-selling artist in the mid-1980s.

His sought-after works, done in a figurative expressionist style (with distinct geometric patterns), were often thematically violent or disturbing and at times whimsical.

Born to Chinese immigrants in 1931, Ang grew up in Davao where he was reportedly trained in the Chinese arts of brush-and-ink renderings.

This penchant for line drawings stuck with him throughout his career. Around the 1950s, he took up fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas.

His career blossomed after he staged several exhibitions, both in the Philippines and abroad, from 1954 onwards.

Some of his major works include "Pieta", "Last Supper", "Crucifixion", "Seated Figure" and "Mother and Child."

In 2005, the 74-year-old Ang died of prostate cancer.

His works live on in museums, in the possession of his avid patrons and collectors, and now in fashion pieces.

In a previous interview, Sheree Roxas-Chua Gotuaco, owner of Elite Garments International, said the fashion line is meant to raise awareness among the youth about past National Artists and their contributions to Filipino culture.

Gotauco and her sister had conceptualized the project of interpreting National Artists' works onto clothes and accessories.

"We're making it really young and hip so that a lot of the young people would find it cool and would like to wear it," she said. Report by Kristine Servando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak.