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‘Kuya Robert’ as he is known to fans of the TV show ‘Art is Kool,’ also served as the president of Papemelroti parent firm Korben Corporation from 2019 to 2024
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino designer Robert Alejandro, the artist behind iconic stationery store Papemelroti, has died, the store’s Facebook page announced on Tuesday, November 5.
Robert is one of the five Alejandro siblings — Patsy, Peggy, Meldy, and Tina are the others — after whom parents Corit and Benny named the store when it opened its first branch in Ali Mall in Cubao in 1976.
The siblings would eventually help out in the business. According to a blog post on the Papemelroti website, soon after the store opened, they “were making their own paper dolls, decorating box dollhouses with clippings from old catalogs, drawing, and doing other crafts.”
“From this background, it was natural for the children to help out in the family business, starting with painting figurines, and hammering wooden plaques to give them a distinctive ‘antique’ look.”
Robert would grow in this kind of creative atmosphere and eventually find himself professionally in arts and design.
“After studying in UP taking up Fine Arts, he became a teacher there and mentored many budding artists.
“In 1991, he founded along with other artists and illustrators of children’s books, Ang INK (Ang Illustrador ng Kabataan), the Philippines’ first and only organization of artists committed to the creation and promotion of illustration for children.
“He has illustrated books and editorials, and has been involved in branding, advertising, outdoor displays, package and product design, visual merchandising, art installation, travel illustration, environmental graphics and space design.
“He has also done portraiture and has had art exhibits. He has designed and done art from as small as a postage stamp to murals, graphics, and environmental designs for a theme park and gigantic malls (and almost everything in between),” the Papemelroti Facebook page wrote.
Robert, in 2002, also hosted a kid’s art show on GMA 7 and later ABC 5 called Art Is Kool with Probe Productions, where he was fondly known by viewers as Kuya Robert.
All along, Robert continued to design Papemelroti products, and became the president of Papemelroti parent firm Korben Corporation from 2019 to 2024.
Robert was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016.
Tatler Asia, in an interview with Robert in 2022, said “Alejandro treated art as a ‘safe space’ that helped him veer away from all sorts of negative thoughts and physical conditions that sicken him day by day.”
“I feel normal when I do art…. The joy of creating art gives me so much happiness,” Robert told Tatler.
At the time, the artist, reflecting on legacy and mortality, also told the magazine: “I don’t even want to be remembered at all. What’s important for me is now. And whatever I’ve done, I’ve done. Whoever lives I’ve touched, I’ve touched. I am taking it slow nowadays and just want to live ‘in the now’ and I advise young artists to do that, too.”
“Through the art he has created with Papemelroti and renowned projects he was a part of, he will be far from forgotten,” the Papemelroti page wrote. – Rappler.com
