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Art Cube Philippines is home for Contemporary Philippine Art. We specialize in paintings, sculptures and art objects by young and established visual artists from the Philippines. 1/4 Past Exhibits Upcoming Exhibits July Josh Limon Palisoc Ciron Señeres PJ Cabanalan Nina Wi

Even the Light Can Sing | June 6 - June 27, 2926 Even the Light Can Sing Billy Bagtas June 6 - June 27, 2926 DSC03361.jpg DSC03365.jpg DSC03362.jpg DSC03361.jpg 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release You may have always believed that darkness is not simply the absence of light, but a place one must pass through like a long storm before summer. In the works of Billy Bagtas, darkness feels alive, restless, and stubborn, much like the human heart when it refuses to give up. Purple bleeds into green; blue trembles beneath the shadow. These colors intend to ache, to be remembered, they insist on being felt. Yet within that heaviness, something brave begins to stir, a small, determined glow, as if light itself has found the courage to sing. Even the Light Can Sing is a story of survival written in color and memory. There's no such thing as a tale of perfect triumph, nor of easy redemption. Rather, Billy intends to be an honest account of someone who has fallen, risen, and fallen again, yet still chooses to stand. We find ourselves speaking inwardly as we move from one canvas to the next, encouraging our own heart as we might encourage a dear sister: “Be patient. Be brave. Keep going.” The main piece from this exhibition stands “After Dreams”, the main piece that gathers all the others around it like companions on a long journey. It is a painting caught between sleep and waking, between sorrow and hope. We don't have to pretend to know the answers, and we should admire ourselves for that greatly. There is a humility in searching, a quiet strength in admitting that one is still learning how to live. Looking at it, we feel compelled to tell ourselves: “You are still in the middle of your story.” Even after the darkest chapter, even after disappointments that seem too heavy to carry, life continues to unfold. Dreams patiently for us to gather the courage to follow them again. In “Self-Portrait with a Cat”, We sense a gentler lesson, one about kindness toward oneself. The cat, nestled close, feels like a loyal companion, a reminder that affection need not be grand to be meaningful. Caring for another creature teaches the heart how to care for itself. We confess that we have often been too hard on our own spirits, expecting strength without offering tenderness. Yet this painting seems to whisper: “You deserve gentleness as much as anyone.” Faith makes its quiet entrance in “To Pray”, and we cannot help but feel a deep respect for the honesty within it. For Billy, prayer here is not ornamental or polite. It is earnest, desperate, and sincere, the sort of prayer uttered when one has reached the very end of one’s strength. And still, prayer remained a small lantern carried through the dark. But courage does not mean certainty. In “Sometimes I Feel Lost”, we recognize the uneasy truth that even the most determined soul can feel uncertain. One may walk forward with the best intentions and still wonder whether the path is the right one. There is something wonderfully human about that doubt. It shows that the heart is awake, searching, and unwilling to settle for a life without purpose. “Two Shadows Under the Moonlight” touches Billy deeply, for it speaks of friendship, the kind that endures storms and sorrow. The two figures stand together beneath a quiet glow, and Billy is reminded that companionship is one of life’s greatest mercies. To have someone remain beside you in your darkest hours is proof that love can be steady even when the world feels uncertain. A sense of peace begins to settle in “Devotion”, where the landscape rests beneath a gentle light. The darkness here feels restful, like the stillness after tears have been shed. Billy suggests to us that healing sometimes arrives quietly, like dawn slipping through the curtains. In “Spirit Love”, we should find a lesson we have struggled to learn that forgiveness is not softness, but strength. It takes great courage to release anger and choose kindness instead. The heart, though wounded, can still offer love. Love is the truest evidence that one has survived hardship without losing one’s humanity. The exhibition reaches its most stirring moment in “Still Alive”, a self-portrait that feels fragile. The figure appears to rise from sorrow with newfound wings, as though discovering the possibility of flight after believing it impossible. A quiet, resolute statement: “I am still here.” Standing before this painting, Billy wants us to feel a sudden rush of gratitude for breath, for second chances, for the stubborn resilience that keeps us moving forward even when we feel broken. There is bravery in simply continuing, in choosing life again and again despite fear and exhaustion. Throughout Even the Light Can Sing, darkness and light exist side by side. The shadows teach endurance; the light teaches hope. Together, they shape a life that is honest, imperfect, and beautifully human. And so, you may leave the exhibition with a thought that feels both soft and uneasy—one you might write in your journal late at night, after a difficult day: Even after sorrow, even after failure, even after feeling as though one’s heart has broken a thousand times, there remains a small and faithful light within us. It may flicker. It may grow faint. But it never truly disappears. And if we listen closely enough, we may hear it softly, bravely— singing us forward. Because love is the only way. - Joan Velasquez

AI: Artificial Identity | June 7 - 28, 2025 AI: Artificial Identity Demi Padua June 7 - 28, 2025 1/8 View Catalogue Video Press Release In Artificial Identity (Ai), Demi Padua turns his gaze toward the shifting landscape of creativity in the age of artificial intelligence. With a few well-worded prompts, tasks once reserved for trained specialists—architects, designers, artists—can now be carried out by anyone. This democratization, while remarkable, brings with it a quiet unease: when the process of becoming is replaced by instant simulation, what happens to the integrity of the self? For Padua, identity is not something one simply adopts—it is something built, shaped through time, practice, and experience. The sudden ease with which one can generate images or ideas, detached from the rigors of making, presents what the artist calls an “artificial identity.” It is an identity untethered from labor, from the gestures of the hand, from the long apprenticeship of thought and form. In this suite of paintings, Padua explores this concern through a layered visual language. Human figures appear like masks or vessels, their forms animated by inner machinery—wheels, cogs, and circuits that suggest a hidden engine. Rather than tools we direct, these mechanisms seem to be directing us. In this inversion, the human becomes the surface, while technology moves behind and beneath, shaping the visible self. Much of contemporary life now unfolds in virtual space—negotiated through screens, shaped in the cloud—and Padua voices a growing fear: that as we lean more heavily on technology, we risk eroding the texture of lived experience. Still, the artist resists a position of total rejection. Some of the technical motifs in these works were themselves generated through AI, yet it is through painting—through the physical act of reworking and reimagining them—that Padua reasserts authorship. In doing so, he offers a path forward: one where AI is not a replacement for human insight, but a collaborator in the process of discovery. Used with intention, it can expand our ways of learning and seeing; left unchecked, it may supplant the very conditions that make identity meaningful. For Padua, painting remains one of the few spaces where agency can still be exercised fully. It requires presence, reflection, and care. It affirms the artist’s hand, the artist’s voice. In a world where identities can now be generated in seconds, Artificial Identity (Ai) reminds us of the value of the slow, the studied, the real. -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

And They All Gather Around the Zenith | October 12 - November 02, 2024 And They All Gather Around the Zenith Jason Delgado October 12 - November 02, 2024 1/4 View Catalogue Video Press Release All Aboard the Slumber Train to Arced Dreamworlds Jason Delgado’s latest exhibition, And They All Gather Around the Zenith, offers an exploration of the personal and collective self through his paintings of pillows. The artist uses the imagery of this household object, something mundane yet highly personal, to symbolize reflection, vulnerability, and contemplation. The zenith is the highest point in the sky reached by the sun or stars. The artist gently prods our sights up this celestial arc as his work invites viewers to lie back and look up. Delgado seemingly reminds us that this act compels us to search inward, pondering on our hopes and fears as we gaze at the stars (or, often, our bare ceilings) for inspiration. At least until we feel the welcome pull of exhaustion finally lulling us to sleep. Painting pillows since 2017, Delgado views them as silent confidantes, vessels for innermost thoughts and dreams. Each painting has its character, a personal witness to private moments. But in And They All Gather Around the Zenith, these intimate objects are infused with contrasting elements: some have symbols of war and circus acts, while others are juxtaposed with hopeful motifs like flowers and birds. Several of them sprout gardens on printed fabric, the body impression of a head kept intact. Two pillows are bound with each other with pillowcases pulled and sewn together with knotted red thread. Others seem undisturbed and revered, still waiting to receive weary heads or other parts of fatigued bodies. With intricate oil on canvas pieces contrasting with his previous minimalist works, the artist embraces horror vacui or fear of empty spaces, filling the canvas with detail and contrasts. Channeling turmoil and the complexity of life, his pillows embody tensions between serenity and discord. One of the notable works in the exhibition, White Noise, encapsulates this concept: while chaos may seem overwhelming, there is beauty and calm within it, much like white noise itself, which soothes the mind amid the distractions of life, calming restless souls or even a fussy baby. As a new father, Delgado draws inspiration from his role as a hands-on dad, changing his perspective, and adding layers of caution and accountability for other lives. His nightly painting routine now often affords him a break at 3 or 4 AM and he fully relishes it while gazing at the sky from his rooftop, which mirrors the zenith’s upward arc during these moments of solitude. Thus his creative practice has become an act of cherishing fleeting moments, much like the transient peace one finds in enjoying rest. And They All Gather Around the Zenith signals a new perspective for Delgado. Perhaps we should not only admire the beauty of his pieces but reconcile with the deeper sentiments they evoke within. After all, they lead to the quiet moments when hopes, dreams, and fears gather, like an enveloping embrace that cradles, nurtures, and rejuvenates. Kaye O’Yek

Ghosts | August 5, 2023 Ghosts Don Bryan Bunag August 5, 2023 1/5 View Catalogue Video Press Release Mga Mumunting Multo Mga Mumunting Multo (ayon sa eksibisyong “Ghosts” ni Don Bryan Bunag) Dito ko itutungkod Ang kamalayan Kung saan naghahati Ang langit at kapatagan. Matagal nang patay Ang lungsod: Sisilong muna Sa salakot ng ulap At doon tatanawin Ang hangganan Ng buhay At uniberso. Maski sa pusikit Na dilim, May sigalot Ang mga bituin. Saan ba Nananahan Ang Diyos Na nakatikom ang bibig? Pinapaluhod Ng hangin Ang mga ligaw Na damo Habang ako Ay nakatanghod Sa kalawakang Sinusulsihan ng abo. Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Don Bryan Bunag Don Bryan Bunag's works explore the concept of visualizing an internal landscape— an imagination of what his mind would look like if it were a place—as a representation of his state of mind. For Bunag's upcoming exhibit, entitled Ghosts, he was trying to find a personal definition of a ghost. Since 2018, he has always gravitated toward using this word as the central idea of a specific show. But as someone who likes to plan, he did not rush it until he felt that his work and himself were aligned and ready to justify what he envisioned. In his 8th solo exhibition, he intended to keep the works untitled. Giving an artwork a title might box it in terms of interpretation. Throughout his practice, he has always been combining traditional and modern methods in his art-making process, finding the balance between raw expression and deliberately implying a message, depicting simplicity yet suggesting complexity.

Canned Thoughts | May 4 - June 1, 2024 Canned Thoughts Carlo Tanseco May 4 - June 1, 2024 DSC07542.JPG DSC07542.JPG 1/9 View Catalogue Video Press Release Across the neighborhoods of the Philippine archipelago, from the tiniest shanty to the grandest mansion, canned goods stand as ubiquitous symbols of sustenance and familiarity. They line the shelves of sari-sari stores and supermarkets alike, bridging socio-economic divides. Among those about to live or work abroad, they carry these items in suitcases as they serve as steadfast reminders of home. Within this commonplace canvas that Carlo Tanseco’s solo exhibition, Canned Thoughts, finds its inspiration. With ingenuity and wit, the artist appropriates the labels of these everyday items, transforming them into conduits of humor, puns, mottos, and motivational statements. Working under the tradition of Pop Art, Tanseco cleverly re-interprets the names, branding, and other distinctive features of these household staples. By breathing new life into these mundane objects, he invites viewers to linger and contemplate the altered text that adorns the gallery walls. As visitors navigate through the exhibition, they are greeted with a playful reimagining of familiar objects, each bearing the imprint of Tanseco’s unique perspective. Whether it’s a tongue-in-cheek slogan or a poignant reflection on the Filipino experience, Canned Thoughts offers a refreshing take on the symbols that unite us and the stories that define us. Larger-than-life, the pieces blur the lines between two- and three-dimensionality, serving as both paintings and sculptures. Some works are offered as prints, echoing the repetition found on store shelves and further emphasizing their status as cultural touchstones. Tanseco’s vision extends beyond the confines of traditional gallery spaces. In a nod to the communal spirit of Filipino culture, he constructs a makeshift sari-sari store installation, complete with colorful snacks and candies for visitors to partake in. Here, amidst the whimsy of his creations, one can’t help but be drawn into a deeper reflection on the complexities and nuances of contemporary Filipino identity. Canned Thoughts not merely celebrates these pantry staples and what they portray but also affirms the resilience, resourcefulness, and optimism that define the Filipino spirit. In his exploration of humor, culture, and the mundane aspects of daily life, Tanseco invites audiences to reconsider the ordinary, finding beauty and meaning in these ever- present consumer goods. Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

Labas Paloob | November 8 - 29, 2025 Labas Paloob Renz Baluyot November 8 - 29, 2025 1/8 View Catalogue Video Press Release Renz Baluyot’s newest solo presentation is the culmination of his residencies outside the Philippines. The series of works in the exhibition reflects his underlying motivation to create outside familiar environments. These residencies entail rigorous work and demand a significant amount of preparation. Baluyot draws themes from recently concluded artist residencies in Virginia, New York, and Malaysia. 1 He takes this as an opportunity to experiment with materials and to pursue process-based production that will only be possible in a given space and time for art-making. In a set of drawings, he documents everyday scenes from these places, capturing singular moments of his surroundings. He employs a subtractive approach to his drawings, erasing darker shades of graphite to reveal subtle layers of light, evoking heightened emotions within seemingly isolated environments. The subtractive approach in Baluyot’s process is also echoed in his textile works. Using rust to create images and patterns on fabric, Baluyot adapts techniques involved in batik mark-making. He covers areas of the fabric with wax to resist the absorption of rust when dyeing. The fabric is then submerged in boiling water to melt the wax off and reveal the image beneath. The use of rust underscores a recurring theme he has long been exploring in his practice: urban decay and industrial degradation. This theme is present in his paintings of tarpaulin-covered objects, a series he started years ago. Unlike his first few paintings of the same subject, his new works depict the subject against a plain background, isolated and removed from their usual context. By concealing the object, he explores absence and presence, showing how meaning can emerge from what is revealed and what remains hidden. In this exhibition, Baluyot experiments not only with materials and processes, as hinted by the use of actual copper in his initial studies. His text-based pieces bring forth a more conceptual approach to the subject matter. Combining cut-out texts and drawings onto copper-tinted paper, his text-based compositions highlight the linguistic roots between Filipino and some Malay words such as “Lupa,” “Bendera,” “Tangis,” “Landasan” and “Mahal.” These words retained their original contexts and resisted the impact of colonial influence. His play on words injects humor while carrying socio-political undertones. Resistance is central to this particular—and likely significant—body of work by Baluyot, shaping both its concept and the process of his image-making. The exhibition posits the necessity of looking inward and journeying outward as important aspects of his artistic practice. Labas Paloob is Baluyot’s way of introspecting, which, in Baluyot’s own words, is possible through quietude and pause. 1 Renz Baluyot attended the following residencies in this year alone: Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia), Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency (New York, US), and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Virginia, US). James Luigi Tana

The Anthropometric Man | October 4 - November 1, 2025 The Anthropometric Man Carlo Tanseco October 4 - November 1, 2025 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release In his latest exhibition, Anthropometric Man, Carlo Tanseco temporarily steps aside from his works featuring playful can packagings inscribed with his witty aphorisms. Here, he turns instead to something elemental: the body as measure, the figure as compass, the human form as the axis around which the world is constructed and understood. At the heart of this exhibition is a suite of shaped canvases depicting the anatomically ideal man—riveted at the shoulder, elbow, hips, knees, and ankles, which allowed for bending, twisting, and positioning. The figure embodies movement, recalling Tanseco’s training in architecture, where the man and his motions determine the very logic of the built environment. In this sense, the body is not only depicted but also enacted—its gestures mapping out the unseen geometries that underpin how space is experienced. In monochromatic works, the figure is shown running, his shadow in pursuit, as though chasing time itself or perhaps being chased by it. These works are echoed in a series of prints, which viewers are invited to reconfigure—an open system of permutations that expands the idea of authorship and foregrounds the collaborative dialogue between artist and audience. In contrast, his multi-colored canvases chart a mythic terrain: Icarus taking to the skies, Narcissus entranced by his reflection, a surfer carrying his board against the backdrop of a radiant disc—a nod to Tanseco’s island life in Siargao, where sea and sun shape both rhythm and reverie. These figures delve into myth and memory, dreams and desires that surge beyond the rational body. Equally striking are the yin-and-yang compositions, where dualities entwine—the eternal dance of light and dark, ascent and descent, the finite and the infinite. Such works remind us that the human figure, for all its precision and measurability, is also a vessel of paradox. Anchoring these explorations are Tanseco’s early works from the 1990s: in-the-round sculptures of pounded metal, fashioned into candleholders and object containers. Functional and tactile, they extend the artist’s inquiry into how form inhabits and shapes daily life. Anthropometric Man is, ultimately, a return and a departure. It recalls Tanseco’s architectural grounding, his search for proportion and balance, even as it embraces the elasticity of the human form—its capacity to leap into myth, dissolve into shadow, or embody the quiet symmetry of opposites. In charting these movements, Tanseco affirms the body not only as subject but as instrument: a site where deep truths are revealed in flesh, motion, and measure. -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Carlo Tanseco Carlo Tanseco is a Filipino multimedia and visual artist trained in Architecture at the University of the Philippines. His work explores proportion, identity, pop culture, and everyday objects, integrating myth, nationalism, pattern, and childhood nostalgia into a visual language rich with symmetry, disruption, and poetic detail. Beyond painting, his practice extends to design, having collaborated with international brands and worked on furniture, product, and spatial design projects.

Echo Systems | April 12 - May 7, 2025 Echo Systems Daniel Aligaen, Salvador Joel Alonday, Japs Antido, BLIC, Elmer Borlongan, Edrick Daniel, Daniel Dela Cruz, Lui Gonzales, Guerrero Habulan, Mark Justiniani, Dengcoy Miel, Archie Oclos, Josh Limon Palisoc, Lynyrd Paras, Iya Regalario, Jose Tence Ruiz, Jojit Solano April 12 - May 7, 2025 1/10 View Catalogue Video Press Release Echo Systems Curated by Edrick Daniel In his curatorial debut, Edrick Daniel turns his interrogative gaze toward the intricate, complex systems—both interior and exterior, psychological and public—that shape our apprehension of the “real.” He positions this inquiry not as an abstract exercise, but as a response to a condition: a reality in flux, ever contested, ever slipping. We live in a time defined by plurality and multiplicity, propelled by the flattening of temporal and spatial experience through the a-historical archive of the Internet and the hyper-curated simulation of social media. The once stable ground of a shared reality has fractured into splinters, each piece orbiting its own set of references. Daniel refers to this rupture as the severance “between the signifier and the signified”—a linguistic and semiotic dislocation where meaning no longer holds. Against this terrain, the curator poses a resonant question: “Amidst the barrage of images, memes, and symbols that curate themselves to show us what we want, is it still possible to find common ground or common narratives that make our connections organic and genuine?” We are surrounded by fissures and fault lines. The common ground has collapsed into a mirage, as we each stand on personalized terrain engineered by algorithms that reflect our desires back to us, smoothing over contradictions, dissolving paradoxes. These systems do not confront us—they mirror us. The repetition inherent in such systems—triggered and perpetuated by algorithmic logics—is reflected in the artworks of Elmer Borlongan and Daniel Dela Cruz, or in the figure of Josh Limon Palisoc, rowing a boat in diverging directions. Here, repetition is not redundancy; it is strategy. It gestures toward embedded structures, latent rhythms that shape cognition and behavior. Repetition, in these cases, is a way of knowing, of navigating the world’s chaos through a patterning of experience. Working within the figurative idiom, these artists each visualize the architectures—both visible and invisible—upon which life itself depends. Blic interrogates the scaffolding of validation; Jojit Solano grapples with the weight of inherited art histories; Daniel Aligaen lays bare epistemological mazes that loop without exit; while Iya Regalario, referencing the Tower of Babel, illuminates the crisis born from the multiplicity of languages—and, by extension, multiplicity of selves—frustrating efforts at reconcilability. These systems are not passive. They are not neutral. They are contested spaces. DengCoy Miel’s fastidious surveillance painting hints at a desire to become “godlike”—to know, to control, to see all. Language, too, becomes a battlefield: in Mark Justiniani’s text-based installation, storytelling becomes insurgency—an act that can fracture or heal. Meanwhile, Jose Tence Ruiz challenges the ornamental and institutional face of Judeo-Christianity, offering two counter-images assertive in Philippine media: one garish and indulgent, the other exuberantly queer, radically liberatory. Edrick Daniel’s own work presents a solitary figure caught in the grip of unseen systems, hands exerting influence over sensibility. Salvador Joel Alonday, by triangulating painting, sculpture, and text, underscores corporeal limits as the body itself becomes both instrument and offering, seeking sustenance from something divine. In the works of Lui Medina and Lynyrd Paras, ideological superstructures collapse into palimpsests—layered, superimposed, never entirely erased. The system doubles back on itself, leaving behind traces, ghosts, hauntings. In the piece of Archie Oclos, the echoes of history are dramatized in a depiction of the “Filipino human zoo” in Coney Island in 1905, which continue to plague the treatment of indigenous peoples. In some works, the system’s assertion becomes dual: in Guerrero Habulan’s painting, confinement is both literal and symbolic, while in Japs Antido’s imagery, migration becomes an act of refusal—a movement away from a system that lives primarily in the realm of myth and nation-making. Ultimately, what emerges is not a unified thesis, but a cacophony of echo chambers—circulating, colliding, resisting. These are not neutral frequencies. They are laden with ambition: the desire to dominate narrative, to script history, to overwrite. As Tence Ruiz writes with stark clarity: “The Echo Chamber hears only the rippling refrain of its own accumulated Power.” -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

Love Is The Only Way | September 2 - 30, 2023 Love Is The Only Way Billy Bagtas September 2 - 30, 2023 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release Love Persevering and Flourishing Love Is The Only Way, Billy Bagtas's remarkable fifth solo exhibition, is a veritable tribute to flexibility, transformation, and the healing power of the most compelling feeling on earth and beyond. Exploring a journey of overcoming darkness through artistic expression, Bagtas takes us on a personal yet penetrating voyage through six engrossing paintings and an intriguing installation. These works embody the emotional landscape of souls coping with loss and the artist's lived experience as his family navigated the profound pain of losing his mother in 2021. In Father's Portrait, Bagtas paints a larger-than-life feminized likeness as recognition of his father’s caring and nurturing side, replete with a flower and earrings adorning his bald head and a pink smile complementing his mustache. The artist lightheartedly captures his essence with the overlapping linear strokes he is known for. Due to his mother’s physical absence, his father now serves as not only the foundation of the family home but also embodies both maternal and paternal qualities. With inspiration coming from a past lifestyle that’s way different from the way it is now, Bagtas captures his father's strength in the piece being both the main loadbearing post and illumination for the home, as evinced by a gleam that backlights the subject’s head ever so slightly. Together signifies a renewed bond between the artist and his father after loss and grief. Depicting two figures in a side embrace whose glowing hearts beat under a rosy sky, it symbolizes the dawn of a new chapter in their relationship, emphasizing the importance of shared comfort, understanding, and companionship during difficult times. Two Shadows Under the Moonlight has an enigmatic forest as a setting where what appears to be the same figures stand, illuminated by the purple-tinged moon in the night sky. This painting speaks of unresolved conflicts set aside, and the persistence of love despite shadows of the past. There is darkness, yes, but it conveys calm instead of peril. The random interconnectivity of life's experiences is signified by leaves, stalks, and branches spreading across the canvas, their lushness representing growth and acceptance yet never stifling the figures. Monstera leaves elegantly represent family members, suggesting proliferation, flourishing, and a newfound abundance of positive energy. The portrayal of these leaves, soft and graceful, reflects living in an environment that encourages thriving, accentuating the artist's paradigm shifts as well as the growth of the closest of relations. White Heart encapsulates changes in attitudes and habits. With his father becoming a "plantito" (a plant enthusiast), his nurturing personality is embodied in the delicate depiction of himself in the midst of plants. Fatherly care serves to keep the core of his soul glowing, helping every being– whether walking or rooted in place– he comes across. Bagtas’ central piece, It's Only Through Death That You Learn to Cherish Life, however, is not only the largest artwork in the exhibition but also the most poignant and rife with symbolism. In the piece, a figure is in contemplation while luxuriating in a bathtub, accompanied by steadfast companion dogs Neo, Maja, and Jake. The past's influence, represented by an enfleshed reflection at the end of the tub, has transformed into a guiding force. The presence of yellow dots, glimmering orbs and black spots as prayers muttered in faith and love, with sunflower petals, Bagtas’ mother’s favorite flower, and rose petals sprinkling the passion-red bath water, speaks to the journey of acceptance and love as physical and spiritual dimensions converge. Though the figure’s skin appears texturized, they are not thorns or spikes of agony; shedding, after all, is part of the value of letting go, the soul undergoing renewal amidst the warm embrace of beloved companions. Finally, the installation Scars of the Past provides a satisfying punctuation to the exhibition, as it portrays a verdant face encased in foliage. This composite image of combined objects signifies growth, overcoming past hardships, and embracing abundance. The piece represents metamorphosis, traversing pain, and emerging in exuberant bloom. The color palette in Bagtas’ recent artworks are noticeably brighter than in his past collections, as he adroitly transitions to bridging the earthly and heavenly realms, reflecting the harmonious connection between them. Perhaps a well-kept secret discipline started in the artist's youth as a performer and dancer with the renowned Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group has finally come to surface. Dance is an integral part of his artistic identity, and now it informs his practice in the visual arts. As his group celebrated its 50th anniversary with the show "Dancing in a New World'' at the Metropolitan Theatre last August 18 and 19, Bagtas's commitment to both his craft and his artistry was tested: he had to paint in preparation for his exhibition between rehearsals, and in turn, painting offered him a comforting respite from his physically taxing training sessions. Practice and discipline come across as integral in both fields, and Bagtas’ mastery of his body in movement, whether in creating small and grand gestures on canvas, or performing in unison on stage with his fellow dancers, was set to the forefront. There is love in each action and impression, and it is evident in the exquisite balance of emotion and technique in this exceptional exhibition. Indeed, this ineffable feeling is the only way to grasp truths and emerge more indomitable than ever before. Kaye O’Yek Billy Bagtas Diving into the intricate realm of visual artistry at a young age, Billy Bagtas, a 28-year-old luminary, has illuminated the artistic sphere with his remarkable talent and fervor. With nearly six years of dedicated practice as a Visual Artist, Billy's journey is a testament to the transformative power of passion and perseverance. Billy's odyssey began in 2013 when he embarked on his artistic expedition at Earist Manila, where he delved into the world of Fine Arts. Painting swiftly became his solace and the canvas his sanctuary, as he poured his thoughts, emotions, and creativity onto the blank expanse. In this journey, painting competitions emerged as stepping stones that bolstered his growth. These competitions not only honed his craft but also germinated the very concepts that continue to resonate in his artistry up to this day.

Still | February 14 - March 7, 2026 Still Arel Zambarrano February 14 - March 7, 2026 1/10 View Catalogue Video Press Release Still Moving In STILL, Arel Distor Zambarrano presents two interconnected bodies of work that examine measurement, perseverance, and grounded positivity. The exhibition centers on the titular STILL, a 15-piece polyptych of considerable proportions, and Optimism Underpinned, a suite of 30 smaller works. Together, they articulate a practice shaped by discipline yet animated by motion, steady and forward-looking. The large scale polyptych is composed of canvas and metal strips of polgadera, the pull push rule essential to architectural practice, drilled and then fastened together with nearly indestructible metal rivets. As a tool, the polgadera signifies precision and calibration. Here it becomes metaphor. Contemporary life is structured by measurement and ruled by numbers: deadlines, dimensions, and digits in our bank accounts that attempt to define our value. Interlaced with the loosely cut and painted canvas strips camouflaging a sprawling growth, the flexible metal rules that draw blood when carelessly handled impose order while yielding to gesture. The result is a field of tension between control and fluidity, industry and nature. Stillness emerges not as inertia but as resolve, an artistic compass oriented toward endurance and ascent, Zambarrano’s true North Star. Red dragonfly cutouts traverse the panels. Though materially flat, their wings and paint-flicked, highlighted bodies suggest strength and movement. The dragonfly functions as both motif and self-image. Defined by adaptability and acute vision, capable of near 360 degree sight and agile, multidirectional flight, it hovers, pivots, accelerates, and sustains, populating swamplands. These qualities parallel not only the artist, a proud local of coastal Banate, Iloilo, but his navigation between architecture and art. Once sustained by small paintings during his architectural studies, he now supports his art practice through market lulls by his projects as a licensed architect. The exchange feels balanced and complete, allowing him freedom and the space to unleash unbridled passions. In Optimism Underpinned, Zambarrano extends this language. In construction, underpinning refers to strengthening an existing foundation by reinforcing or deepening it to ensure stability. Adopted metaphorically, underpinning becomes an act of fortifying one’s resolve. The artist’s recurring dragonflies appear larger here, set against layered, textured grounds enlivened by vibrant paint, punctuated by weatherproof copper nails, and collaged cutouts of furniture, product labels, text snippets, and fragments of everyday life. While recalling pinned specimens, these figures resist stasis, pounded nails resembling swarms of wildlife themselves, serving as visual anchors rather than immobilizers. The smoothly bent-edged acrylic frames holding the layered and textured surfaces suggest support rather than confinement. Even amid uncertainty, there is anticipation, an excitement for possibilities and what’s to come. Despite its engagement with measurement and structure, STILL is marked by clarity and warmth. The exhibition reflects a present state shaped by responsibility and gratitude, celebration and cheer shining through in golden yellows. As a father of two young daughters, the artist situates protection and continuity at the core of his practice. The dragonfly becomes both self-portrait and guardian. The woven polgadera measures not only space but commitment. Through calibrated surfaces and gossamer Awings, Zambarrano affirms that stability and optimism can occupy the same ground, and that from reinforced foundations one can continue to rise. -Kaye O’Yek