Sa Dalampasigan ng Daluyong at Dalangin | September 21 - October 5, 2024 Sa Dalampasigan ng Daluyong at Dalangin Jeho Bitancor September 21 - October 5, 2024 1/8 View Catalogue Video Press Release In his poignant homecoming exhibition Sa Dalampasigan ng Daluyong at Dalangin, Jeho Bitancor presents a lyrical collection of works that pays tribute to the resilient fisherfolk of the Philippines. These individuals, whose labor is both dignified and vital, are set against the presence of a foreign power threatening their livelihoods as well as the country’s sovereignty. This exhibition, while capturing the physical toil of these fisherfolk, also bring to fore the broader struggles they face in asserting their right to survive. Bitancor’s works unfold on canvases that highlight the beauty and majesty of the sea. Breathtaking skies and ever-changing waters serve as both a source of sustenance and a looming threat to the people who depend on it. Through a visual language rooted in Social Realism, Bitancor depicts fisherfolk engaged in their daily tasks—hauling their catch, sorting the fishes, or braving the open seas both in calm and tumultuous conditions. Long-limbed, physically expressive, their faces resolute, the figures exude a quiet heroism. The artist’s deep connection to his subject matter is evident in the evocative details of each piece. Having grown up in a coastal town in Baler, Aurora Province, Bitancor’s personal experiences with the sea are deeply imprinted in his art. Recalling the “Subasko” storms of his childhood and a perilous experience when a small banca he was riding in capsized, Bitancor intimately understands the risks that fishermen face every day. These memories, which form part of who he is, permeate the works. This exhibition is not simply an ode to the sea or those who navigate its waters. It also exposes the anxieties and the indeterminacies brought about by geopolitical issues. The waters that have long sustained the fisherfolk—affirmed by a resolution by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as rightfully ours—are now contested by a foreign power with expansionist ambitions. Bitancor’s paintings, while steeped in maritime traditions, are timely and urgent, reflecting the current reality of the Philippines with its regard to its territorial identity. Jeho Bitancor’s paintings serve as love letters to his country, that despite having lived and worked in the United States, his tender affinities lie with the archipelago, particularly with the people “with the sunburst limbs in tattered clothes, with the squinted eyes and calloused hands, with the forward thrust of weary bodies in heroic stance.” Through these works, the artist invites us to establish our solidarity with our fisherfolk, extol our waters and their bounties, and remain committed in asserting our sovereignty. -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

Love Is The Only Way Billy Bagtas September 2 - 30, 2023 Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image 1/12 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. 1/1

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

Unplanned Spaces | Unplanned Spaces Hanna Sayam, Jack De Castro, James Barbecho, Kendall Colindon, Kim Gaceja. Marvin Quizon. PJ Andayran, RC Caringal, Tony Mercado 1/7 View Catalogue Video Press Release Into the Unplanned Painting is a slow form. It resists the pace of everything around it — the accelerated image culture, the speed of information, the feeling that the world is constantly mid-revision. To choose it, especially now, is not nostalgia. It is a particular kind of resolve. But painting is also, by nature, a practice of the unplanned. You build the discipline, the observation, the accumulating mastery — and then you stay open to what the process discovers on its own. This tension between commitment and receptivity, between what the painter intends and what the canvas insists on becoming, is where painting lives. Unplanned spaces are not failures of control. They are where the real work happens. The ten painters here are mostly young, all of them working through a moment that has not been easy to work through. What holds them together is less a shared subject than a shared orientation: toward the personal as genuine inquiry, toward the body, memory, and ordinary feeling as legitimate artistic material. Hanna Sayam’s human-animal hybrids indict the systems that reduce bodies to utility. In Hallow / Hollow (2026), a haloed, wounded figure floats amid objects that are both bounty and burden — the halo less a benediction than an accusation. A Bloom That Bites (2026) collapses the nurturing and the predatory into one creature. Under capitalism, Sayam suggests, these were never opposites. Kendall Colindon’s Mga Daluyan ng Uhaw (2025) renders progress as loss — vessels of sustenance accumulated into a mass that is at once monumental and mournful, the blue not of abundance but of thirst, of what development quietly displaces and paves over. Jack de Castro’s The Bloom After Pain (2025) is painting as physical reckoning. His wilting flowers are memento mori in the oldest sense: beauty in the act of failing, the gesture itself wringing both release and elegy from the same mark. PJ Andayran’s Dailies (2024) wears its critique lightly, which makes it sharper. Two costumed animal figures in an ambiguous field — pasture or mall atrium — use satire not to ridicule from a distance but to implicate, to make the familiar strange enough to finally see. R.C. Caringal’s One’s Devotion (2024) is as much self-portrait of process as it is subject. To paint hands with this much material insistence — pigment accumulating into something between image and sculpture — is to make the act of painting itself visible. For Caringal, to paint is to act, to shape, to claim agency with one’s own hands. James Barbecho’s Echoes of Lullaby (2025) places human fragility inside overwhelming mechanical complexity. The title’s tenderness — a lullaby — sits against the image’s cold geometry like a whisper inside a machine, asking what survives of human warmth when the systems we build grow too intricate to feel. Marvin Quizon’s Weight of Wisdom (2026) works in sepia — the palette of retrieved memory — placing a female figure at its center as allegory rather than spectacle. Wounds here are not merely scars but openings, painful and generative at once, the body as a site where psychological history is both carried and transformed. Kim Gaceja’s The Quiet We Inherit (2025) understands that the mundane is not the opposite of the profound but often its most reliable address. His domestic interiors — a record player, earthen vessels, particular light — are externalizations of a mental sphere where quiet connections and small epiphanies accumulate into meaning. Tony Mercado’s Suddenly, My Flowers Withered (2026) closes the show at a threshold with no clean resolution: pink blooms against rough gray, caught at the precise moment of their failing — beauty on its own contingent, urgent terms. Painting, at its most necessary, is how some people cope with a world that won’t hold still — how they navigate it, question it, refuse to be merely subject to it. These ten painters are doing exactly that: building a practice as open to surprise as it is committed to rigor. The unplanned spaces in their work are not absences. They are where the conversation with the world is most alive. -AG

Leyenda | September 14 - October 5, 2024 Leyenda Jessa Balag September 14 - October 5, 2024 1/5 View Catalogue Video Press Release Making Things, Making Sense In Leyenda, Jessa Balag invites us to revisit the legends that have shaped her imagination since childhood, blending the mythical and the mystical with the everyday. Each oil on canvas painting is a rich tapestry of familiar stories transformed into something new, filled with easily recognizable characters and objects from our own lives. Balag’s astute compositions breathe fresh life into age-old tales, prompting us to see ourselves in the allegorical narratives that once seemed distant and untouchable. Mythological scenes in paintings often depict gods, heroes, and creatures from ancient legends, reflecting human traits like courage, love, and betrayal, explaining how particular animals, trees, and flowers came into being, and why the sky is blue or the ocean deep. The Renaissance saw how artists blended ancient myths with deeper moral and societal issues. Over time, these scenes evolved to include political themes, with 18th-century artists portraying rulers as gods, while later centuries saw a shift to ethnic legends. Similarly, Filipino artists inspired by local myths and legends integrate cultural heritage into their works. Carlos “Botong” Francisco and Rodel Tapaya blended folklore with visual narratives, much like how classical mythological art used symbols, contrasts, and allegories to evoke deeper meanings. Brenda Fajardo and Imelda Cajipe-Endaya also emphasized the richness of local stories, weaving myth into modern contexts, and often injecting their pieces with modern concerns such as family, struggle, and empowerment, merging arcane and ancient narratives with contemporary issues. It seems these great artists have paved the way for this exhibiting artist's new explorations. Balag’s brushstrokes flow like oral tradition itself, loose yet purposeful, capturing moments where reality and fantasy meet, her figures keeping the glowing skin tones they have been imbued from the start of her art career. Whether it's a legend of creation or a story of transformation, Leyenda encourages us to imagine, reinterpret, and add our voices to the endless cycle of storytelling. In this new chapter in Balag's creative journey, the artist draws from known and self-interpreted legends, using them not only to make sense of the compartmentalized chaos of one's everyday life, but to reach her audiences as she expands her comfort zone and her arsenal of fresh imagery. Through Leyenda, Balag explores how things came to be and how we might rewrite or reinterpret these stories in the context of our modern lives. Her paintings nudge us to ask: Why are things the way they are? Could we be the new storytellers, weaving our own myths from the fabric of everyday experiences? - Kaye O'Yek

Inhabitants Don Bryan Bunag February 6 - 8, 2026 Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image 1/12 In Inhabitants, Don Bryan Bunag extends painting toward the condition of an inner environment—one that feels uncannily close yet remains fundamentally unreachable. Inflected by Immanuel’s Kant thought of “inner sense,” the means by which we perceive and represent the various states of the mind, the works situate the viewer before spaces that resemble thresholds, cosmic events, and scenes on the verge of transformation: domains that seem to recognize us, even as they seem estranged. Working within a restrained monochrome tempered by bluish inflections, Bunag summons a visual language of sacred geometries, portals, structural repetitions, and quiet intimations of the void. The scale of the canvases amplifies this encounter, drawing the body into a direct confrontation with form and absence, surface and depth. These are not images to be glanced at but fields to be entered—if only imaginatively—through the artist’s unwavering and exacting vision. From the impenetrable opacity of the triptych “God of the Gaps” to the hovering incision of “Omnipresence,” Bunag translates mystery into the living matter of paint. Fabrics and threads are integrated into the canvas, producing textures that feel embedded rather than applied, as though signals were being transmitted from beneath the skin of the work. These tactile interruptions suggest coded messages—traces of an underlying order, or perhaps of its breakdown—hinting at realities that exceed what can be fully seen or named. At once hair-raising and deeply poetic, the works seem to arise from pure conjecture, aligning themselves with the speculative logic of science fiction. They propose parallel worlds that coexist with our own, not as escapism but as a recalibration of vision. In doing so, Inhabitants clears the senses, inviting a renewed intensity of looking—and with it, an exhilaration of being fully, precariously present. '-Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Don Bryan Bunag Don Bryan Bunag (b. 1993) surveys and reframes identity through interpretations of spiritual and metaphysical landscapes that respond and embrace sensibilities related to memory, space, and time. Bunag’s practice center on the sentimentality of remembering through a series of carefully arranged mise-en-scène, which dominates his body of works. Forming these narratives, Bunag evens out every element in his compositions by using monochromatic colors that emphasize the neutrality of forms and release the work from any central figure or subject. Thus, dispensing the experience of looking at a canvas or the gallery space as the central landscape --- seizing our sense of time in the images formed. Apart from narratives drawn from memory, Bunag re-imagines scenes from films and renders them into paintings and assemblages arresting motion, movement, and character. In doing so, the artist believes that time and self can be deconstructed and reconstructed through images, objects, and materials to help us understand and reflect on the notion of identity built through and defined by a cluster of landscapes. Bunag was selected as the Grand Prize winner of the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) in water-based category in 2015. He was a finalist at the following competitions and awards: Don Papa Rum National Painting Competition (2019); Art Renewal Center ARC Awards in New Jersey (2019, 2018); Special citation Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (2014); Grand Prize Winner, Vision Petron National Students Art Competition (2012, 2013), and the Gintong Kabataan Awards for Visual Arts (2013) in his hometown of Malolos. In 2019, he participated in the artist-in-residence program of CANVAS in Batangas. His works have been exhibited at the UP Vargas Museum, National Museum of the Philippines, Yuchengco Museum, Kohesi Initiatives (Yogyakarta), and a solo presentation at Art Fair Philippines (Ysobel Gallery) in 2018. He has been featured in exhibitions in the United States, Spain, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia. Bunag received his BFA (Visual Communication) from the Bulacan State University in 2014. He works and lives in Malolos, Bulacan. 1/1

Prerogative of Exuberance : New Abstractions | October 08 - 29, 2022 Prerogative of Exuberance : New Abstractions Dale Bagtas | Rene Bituin | Miguel Paulo Borja | Lee Caces | Demosthenes Campos Jonas Eslao | Jose Gabriel Naguiat | JC Intal 7 | JoJo Lofranco Joy Rojas | Emmanuel Sutton | VICTORIA | Wipo October 08 - 29, 2022 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release The Abstract Gesture as Vitality It’s not easy to map out the coordinates of today’s abstraction since signaling the modernist turn in visual arts in the Philippines and elsewhere. While most of the postwar artists still accomplished figurative paintings, they emphasized the expressive and emotional content of their works through bold colors and sweeping strokes, no longer interested in faithfully depicting reality. Soon, a few were emboldened to venture into pure abstraction. Much of the gains we are reaping now were brought about by the lyrical—and then experimental—works of National Artists H.R. Ocampo and Jose Joya as well as Fernando Zobel and Charito Bitanga, and their eventual heirs Gus Albor, Lao Lianben, and Justin Nuyda, among others. While it’s hard to state with certainty what are the developing strands in the field, there seems to be a persistent compulsion present even in today’s practitioners: the gestural, uninhibited action of making a mark on a surface. Before, abstract artists of yore were contending against the long tradition of figurative art. Now, the painters are reckoning with the omnipresence of the screen. With all the talks about non-fungible tokens (NFT) and AI-generated images which drain the works of human intervention, there is something about gestural abstraction that is analog, defiant, and affirmative of the body and its embeddedness in the world. Prerogative of Exuberance proposes, demonstrates, and queries this type of abstraction rooted in bodily motions, improvised choreographies, and expenditure of energies. Invited artists Dale Bagtas, Rene Bituin, Miguel Paulo Borja, Lee Caces, Demosthenes Campos, Jonas Eslao, Jose Gabriel, Naguiat JC Intal 7, JoJo Lofranco, Pauline Reynolds, Joy Rojas, Emmanuel Sutton, Victoria, and Wipo bump against the question of abstraction today, which is to how meaningfully add to what’s already out there when even the briefest skirmish on a canvas would look like a gestural work. As their works attest, the abstraction as a mode of experimentation is not finished, since materials are still evolving and giving artists new toys and tools to play with. For instance, Naguiat uses spray and black light fluorescent paints to add dimensions to the flat application of paint, as if creating a portal into his works through which an altered state of consciousness may be achieved. Lofranco, in previous works, incorporated neon lights, which rendered an otherworldly luminescence to his furious, masculine strokes. Intal, on the other hand, employs pure oil paint without other ground support in sculpting the shifting, multicolored terrains of his works. Biography is also brought to bear upon the gestural strokes as the artists make oblique or direct references to lived experience. Rojas has consistently incorporated his love of race horses by approximating their stamina and speed through charged, galloping pigment. Also exploratory with his materials such as carpet, fur, and found objects, Campos refers to the urban scape with his medley of zigzagging lines and geometric shapes. Eslao, hinting through the titles of his works, gives visual translation to psychological—and even spiritual—phenomena. For other artists, abstraction is a way of testing out ideas. Wipo, for instance, looks into how abstraction can be a reality of its own, configuring layers, depth, and even perspective, flirting with the illusory properties of figuration. In the same vein, Borja assembles abstract shapes and forms as a way of teetering onto the edge of representation, but never broaching the resolution of an image. The youngest in the group, Bagtas presents fields of mutating, spherical forms, taking over the canvas with furious virality, which presaged our knowledge of the novel coronavirus and its dreaded spikes. No other form of painting exemplifies the life force furiously activating each cell of the body than abstraction. It prioritizes growth, continuity, and transformation—a stay against inertia. As the works of this exhibition present, the artists record, transmit, and crystallize their “prerogative of exuberance,” the notion that to paint is to activate and fully engage the vitality that makes visible the world’s hidden velocities. - Carlomar Arcangel Daoana, Curator

Sketch Marks 3 Aann Reynales, Bea Gison, Edrick Daniel, Elmer Borlongan, Guenivere Decena, Honey Maglalang, Jerson Samson, Joen Sudlon, Kevin Roque, Kiko Capile, KP Rodgers, Paul Eric Roca, Plet Bolipata & Renato Barja Jr. November 9 - 30, 2024 Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image 1/12 Art Cube is proud to present Sketch Marks 3, the third iteration of what has become one of the most definitive exhibitions celebrating the art of drawing. Curated by Elmer Borlongan, who also originated the concept, this exhibition gathers a diverse roster of both emerging and established artists—including Plet Bolipata, Kevin Roque, Honey Maglalang, Kiko Capile, Paul Eric Roca, Joen Sudlon, Edrick Daniel, KR Rodgers, Renato Barja Jr., Bea Gison, Guenivere Decena, Aann Reynales, and Jerson Samson—each demonstrating the expressive range and inherent value of drawing as a medium in itself. As in previous editions, Sketch Marks 3 highlights drawing not merely as a preliminary stage for larger works but as a self-contained, vibrant universe capable of rendering the visible world with startling depth and intimacy. In these works, created using media ranging from graphite to ink to Uni Posca, lines become the vehicle to convey the varied shades, tonalities, and intensities of everyday life, human expressions, and the complex intersections of modern existence. From a contemporary take on the Biblical Eve to meditation on health and mortality to surreal interpretations of the human body to poignant “souvenirs of a terrible year,” the subjects in Sketch Marks 3 traverse a vast emotional and thematic landscape, capturing mundane luxuries and personal iconographies alike. The intimate scale of the works allows for a granular view of each artist’s process, where each pigment stroke serves as an immediate record of thought, feeling, and intention. With clarity and purpose, these drawings reveal the initial energy of an idea, its raw creative impulse. In this immediacy, Sketch Marks 3 captures the artist’s inner vision at its most intense and unfiltered—a visceral exploration of both surface and depth. As Sketch Marks 3 continues to build on Borlongan and Art Cube’s ongoing project, it provides audiences a unique glimpse into the way artists crystallize their visions on paper, sometimes even before transferring these ideas to larger canvases. In an era of growing fascination with the artist’s archive, this exhibition offers an entry point into the artist’s world—a way to witness the creative spark as it first takes shape, embodying the fire and urgency of the artistic journey. '-Carlomar Arcangel Daoana 1/1

Sampalataya Max Balatbat May 10 -31, 2025 Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image 1/12 In Sampalataya, Max Balatbat returns to the neighborhood that made him—a place in Caloocan where desperation was part of the daily rhythm, and yet, somehow, prayer still found its way through. This solo exhibition is an act of reckoning: with faith, with survival, with the complicated dignity of lives lived in the margins. As a child, Balatbat’s family erected a small chapel in the middle of the chaos. It was neither grand nor sanctified by institution, but it became a site of quiet congregation. Neighbors arrived not in their Sunday best, but as they were—prostitutes, gun-for-hires, laborers, mothers. Each offered a prayer: for safety, for success, for something to hold onto. It didn’t matter who they were or what they did; what mattered was the gesture—the reach toward something beyond. This early memory anchors Balatbat’s art. His works are laden with the textures of real life, not sanitized or symbolic, but stubbornly material. He uses burlap, pillow stuffing, railroad spikes, salvaged wood, used canvas, rope, tiles, cement—elements that carry their own stories of use, wear, and origin. These objects are not backdrops but active agents in his visual language, part of the patchwork that holds memory and meaning together. For Balatbat, a work must have layers and scars. It must carry weight. Recently, he immersed himself in a cenaculo—a traditional Passion play performed during Holy Week, where participants reenact the sufferings of Christ, sometimes even taking on self-flagellation. Balatbat chose not to remain a distant observer. Instead, he participated, feeling each lash, each moment of shared ritual pain. In doing so, he came to understand the deeply human impulse behind the act: to suffer as currency, to offer pain as prayer. But Sampalataya doesn’t accept faith at face value. The exhibition questions the performance of belief—what is ritual, and what is real? What is truly asked in the silence of a bowed head? Are we bargaining, pretending, hoping? Balatbat suggests that faith is not given—it is forged. Scraped together from the rubble of our brokenness, our guilt, our longing. In one corner of the show, a mechanized work swings a whip rhythmically between two suspended bags—one filled with money, the other with rice. The movement is absurd, violent, and deliberate. It gestures to the everyday pendulum of devotion and desperation: the flagellant’s pain might be for daily bread, or it might be for a payday. In either case, need drives the ritual. Here, Balatbat is at his most vulnerable. Textile patches evoke bandages, as if each artwork were an attempt to dress a wound that still bleeds. The act of making becomes a way of healing, or at least acknowledging the injury. In his raw use of materials—acrylic skin, epoxy, enamel, coffee-stained canvas—there is no pretense of purity. The works breathe with complexity, like the people who once gathered in the chapel of his childhood: imperfect, fervent, and utterly human. '-Carlomar Arcangel Daoana 1/1

Alibangbang | August 10 - September 7, 2024 Alibangbang PJ Cabanalan August 10 - September 7, 2024 1/4 View Catalogue Video Press Release Alibangbang In the upcoming solo exhibit “Alibangbang”, PJ Cabanalan invites viewers to embark on a journey through the enchanting world of butterflies. This exhibition serves as a contemplative exploration of the delicate interplay between beliefs, culture, nature, and philosophy, with the butterfly as its central metaphor. Each painting in “Alibangbang” is a testament to the intricate beauty and transient nature of life, depicted through vibrant 3D acrylic flowers, rich textures, and meticulous acrylic work. The a butterfly, an enduring symbol of transformation and resilience, emerges as a poignant metaphor for the human experience—a celebration of life's ephemeral beauty and the relentless pursuit of growth and renewal. The large-scale works in this exhibition capture the viewer's imagination through a kaleidoscope of colors and textures. From the delicate wings of each butterfly to the lush, multi-dimensional flowers that compose them, Cabanalan weaves a tapestry of personal and universal symbolism. These paintings are not mere representations of butterflies; they are a dynamic dialogue between nature and artistry, inviting the audience to reflect on their own life journeys. By employing a view of the butterfly with its wings open, Cabanalan presents the butterflies in state of constant metamorphosis. This approach underscores the fluidity and interconnectedness of life, where every moment is a convergence of past, present, and future. The resulting works reveal a world where the beauty of nature and the intricacies of human existence are inextricably linked, each element holding significance and contributing to the grand narrative of life. In “Alibangbang,” the butterfly becomes a conduit for introspection, urging viewers to admire the fleeting moments of beauty that punctuate our lives. The exhibit transcends the mere aesthetic, offering a profound meditation on the philosophical and cultural significance of the butterfly. It is a visual ode to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring allure of the natural world. Through this exhibit, PJ Cabanalan extends an invitation to pause and appreciate the delicate balance of life's beauty, mirrored in the fragile yet resilient form of the butterfly. “Alibangbang” is not just an exhibit—it is a celebration of the transformative power of art and nature, a testament to the enduring spirit of wonder that propels us all forward. -G

ANYAREH | July 6 - August 3, 2024 ANYAREH Kiko Marquez July 6 - August 3, 2024 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release What Happens Now Kiko Marquez’s solo exhibition, ANYAREH, springs from the simple curiosity of a child’s innocent question, the artist's daughter, when she witnessed some baffling scenes she experienced. In his compelling collection of recent works, Marquez magnifies this inquiry, not merely seeking answers for himself and his daughter but also inviting his audience to engage and provide their interpretations. Through his realist paintings, Marquez captures the faultless beauty of nature situated in precarious, often overlooked, scenarios, confronting viewers to ponder and take action. This exhibition includes the ubiquitous bubble wrap recurring in the artist's career, this time taking on new meaning as it encases remnants of corporeal states, highlighting the delicate balance between protection and fragility. Titled Maalala ka na lang nila kapag wala nang maalala sa ala-ala mo (They will only remember you when your memory has been forgotten), it serves as a poignant memento mori, underscoring the impermanence of human existence while emphasizing the responsibility we bear for our actions as we navigate the fleeting nature of reminiscence and our own legacy. Marquez’s art extends beyond painting to include wall-bound mixed-media assemblages, echoing pieces from his previous show. These pieces spotlight the helplessness of animals in captivity, with physical interventions barring them from plain view. Through them, the artist comments on the human impact on wildlife, blending realism with a deep sense of empathy for the natural world. The artist also incorporates the look and texture of concrete into selected pieces, embedding his paintings into them, with one of his works even staging the evocative image of an insect on a solitary branch on what appears to be a fragment of window molding showing a view of the outside. This element serves as a critique of urbanization and its effects on nature, juxtaposing the raw, unyielding nature of pavement material with land, home to the organic forms it often displaces. It also reinforces the themes of confinement and artificiality, challenging viewers to reflect on the cost of progress and development. Through questions of preservation, memory, and responsibility, ANYAREH is an evolving story of where we are now and where this expression of the artist's thought-provoking journey will take us. Marquez’s dexterous technique and layered symbolism invite viewers to explore the intersections of beauty and fragility, protection and vulnerability, showcasing his skill as a realist painter and his ability to weave complex narratives that resonate on both personal and universal levels. Through ANYAREH, Marquez encourages us to look closer, think deeper, and question the world around us, not only through a child's eyes but as adults who can, hopefully, make more sense. Kaye O’Yek

PAISAHE Demosthenes Campos March 4 - March 25, 2023 Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image 1/12 Abstracted Landscapes Demosthenes Campos continues to explore his multi-layered, highly-textured abstract idiom in his solo exhibition, Paisahe. The exhibition’s title is derived from the Spanish word for landscape, and Campos explores how landscapes—an enduring painting genre—may be translated into abstraction, and how the inner world of an individual may assume the contours of a landscape in this series of works. Throughout history, artists have been inspired by the natural world, and many have sought to capture the essence of landscape in their works. Abstracted landscape paintings have a long and rich tradition, from the Impressionists’ depictions of light and atmosphere to the modernists’ exploration of form and color. In works on canvas and paper, Campos explores how the “ground” (both an artistic and geological term) provides all that an artist needs in order to convey the varied, lush, and eventful surfaces of worlds both natural and man-made. Through a process of accretion, the artist lays down oil and acrylic pigments, evoking the infinite varieties of earth, plant life, and landscape topographies. Aside from working with the plasticity of paint, Campos incorporates a variety of materials into his works, including old canvas once used as wallpaper in an ancestral house, which imbues the pieces with a sense of history. Some of these works feature geometric elements, in acknowledgment of the canvas’ architectural past. Additionally, some of the works contain botanical elements (sourced from the same ancestral house), adding a further layer of natural complexity to the abstracted landscapes and highlighting the artist's ability to balance the organic and the geometric in his works. These plants are no longer recognizable in their original form but are already transmuted, present as deep impressions of color, particularly in the five by eight feet work—one of the largest paintings that Campos has accomplished in his career. The layers of texture and materials used in these works evoke a sense of history and memory, adding a deeper emotional resonance to the abstract landscapes. Through his use of materials and techniques, Campos creates a sense of depth and complexity in his works. These works are not simply representations of landscapes but rather interpretations of the emotional and psychological landscapes that the artist has experienced. Overall, Paisahe is a profoundly eye-opening exhibition that showcases the unique vision and artistic skill of Demosthenes Campos. By exploring landscape through abstraction and incorporating personal history and botanical elements into his works, Campos creates a body of work that is not just visually striking but also celebrates the staggering richness of the world we inhabit. '- Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Demosthenes Campos Demosthenes Campos is a Filipino artist who graduated from the Technological University of the Philippines with a degree in Fine Arts, major in Advertising. He has participated in numerous group shows and solo exhibits in various galleries in the Philippines and is a recipient of awards from established institutions such as the Art Association of the Philippines’ Annual Art Competition in the Mixed Media Category, 2nd place at the Philippine Association of PrintMaking and a honorable mention in Mixed media category at GSIS National Art Competition Demosthenes Campos continues to explore his multi-layered, highly-textured abstract idiom in his solo exhibition, Paisahe. The exhibition’s title is derived from the Spanish word for landscape, and Campos explores how landscapes—an enduring painting genre—may be translated into abstraction, and how the inner world of an individual may assume the contours of a landscape in this series of works. 1/1