About

TOYM LEON IMAO is an arts teacher, rights advocate, storyteller, and artist experienced in various creative media and artistic styles. Starting his career as an architectural designer, Toym developed his craft into building Philippine historical monuments for both public and private installations, also creating large-scale public art installations that serve as political commentaries of the times. He is also an experienced production and set designer. Spanning an art career of more than 40 years, Toym is a multi-awarded and distinguished artist whose works have been exhibited and can be permanently found in major cities and institutions in the Philippines, such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Ayala Museum, and Lopez Music. He also has works abroad - displayed in Asia, the USA, and Europe.

Toym was mentored in both sculpture and painting by National Artists Napoleon Abueva and Abdulmari Asia Imao, his father. He studied at the University of the Philippines (Architecture, MFA Fine Arts) and graduated with honors and distinction at the Maryland Institute College of Arts (MFA Sculpture) under a Fulbright Scholarship. Toym also took up film making and apprenticed under director Marilou Diaz-Abaya, and credits Alejandro Roces for his grounding in Philippine history and culture - whom he has also worked under in the Manila Times as a features writer and illustrator.

He is a multi-awarded artist who has collaborated extensively with other art disciplines. He was conferred “Artist I” under the UP System Arts Productivity System. Aside from this, he has received the “Distinguished Alumni Award for the Visual Arts” by the UP Alumni Association in 2022; the “Gawad Lampara ng Kultura at Sining” in 2021; the “Metrobank MADE Achievement in Sculpture” in 2017; a “Para sa Sining Biswal Citation”, given by the Centre of UNESCO- International Theatre Institute in 2017; the “Gawad Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan”, given by the City of Manila in 2017, and; the “Gawad Parangal para sa Sining, sa Larangan ng Eskultura”, given by Quezon City in 2010. For his work in theater and film, he was awarded the Cinemalaya Best Production Design for “K’na the Dreamweaver”, and was a two-time Gawad Buhay awardee for Scenic Design for Tanghalang Pilipino’s (TP) “Mabining Mandirigma” and “Anak Datu”.

Toym actively champions artists’ rights and the development of non-professionals into the arts. He was a pioneering mentor at the “Angat Sining” program of the Angat Buhay Foundation last 2023, and continues to campaign for and participate in legislation for the development of Philippine laws to uphold the rights of and protect Filipino artists, and develop national arts and culture programs and policies. He was appointed as a member of the Technical Panel for Fine Arts of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in 2024. Last 2025, he helped establish the foundations for the creation of a Collective Management Organization (CMO) for the visual arts under the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL).

Toym was appointed the Dean of the UP College of Fine Arts (UP-CFA), where he works as an Assistant Professor and co-chair of a comprehensive master development plan for the college, while co-developing its new programs - in particular institutionalized programs on Arts Conservation and Arts and Culture Education (for public school teachers). He continues to serve as the current Chair of the UP President’s Committee on Culture and the Arts (UP-PCCA), which oversees all arts and culture programs across all nine UP constituent universities around the country. Toym also sits at the board of directors of the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) resident theater group - Tanghalang Pilipino (TP).