Ghosts Don Bryan Bunag August 5, 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 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. 1/1

Framed Ciane Xavier Janury 13, 2024 - February 3, 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 Framed In the exhibition "Framed," I embrace the medium of oil painting, a discipline that harkens back to my foundational artistic roots. This transition, influenced by my current experience of pregnancy, represents a harmonious blend of life's creative forces with artistic expression. As an sculptor, this temporary shift to painting is not a deviation, but a reconnection with the primal elements of my artistic practice. "Framed" is an exploration of womanhood, seen through my personal transformation and societal reflection. The artworks delve into female identity, maturity, and the intricate dance between personal evolution and external perception. It offers a spectrum of textures and depths that parallels with the complex layers of the female experience. The narrative of this exhibition extends beyond my personal journey, posing critical questions about the societal constructs surrounding women. It ask the viewer to reconsider preconceived notions about femininity, particularly in the contexts of motherhood and artistic creation. Through this body of work, I seek to foster a dialogue on the recognition and understanding of women's multifaceted roles and contributions. "Framed" is a reflection of the profound journey of becoming a mother and an artist. Is an invitation to engage with the diverse realities of womanhood, underscoring the resilience, beauty, and transformative power inherent in the female experience. This is my own personal transition but also resonates with the broader narrative of women's empowerment and identity. Ciane Xavier Ciane Xavier is a sculptor, painter and multimedia artist who utilizes cutting-edge 3D technology and 3D printing alongside photopolymer resins to craft her sculptures. Her unique approach includes incorporating 3D animations into her artwork. A native of a small town in the countryside of South Brazil, Ciane has always been drawn to exploring diverse cultures worldwide. This aspiration led her to pursue a career as a fashion model, fulfilling her dream of traveling to numerous countries and immersing herself in different cultures. Having lived in over 14 countries since her teenage years, Ciane's life experiences have deeply influenced her art, culminating in a profound exploration of selfhood and identity. Her work delves into the complex interplay between technology and nature, as well as societal and cultural issues. Through her art, she offers a unique perspective on the world, reflecting her personal journey of identity loss and selfreconstruction. Ciane's artistic journey began unexpectedly while she was residing in the Philippines, painting the walls of her new apartment. In a transformative moment, she discovered her inner artist, expressing herself freely without constraints, daydreaming about her life experiences and giving form to her deepest emotions. This revelation propelled her to fully embrace the path of art. Since that pivotal moment, Ciane has dedicated herself to honing her skills as a painter and sculptor, experimenting with various materials and techniques to create innovative pieces. Her integration of 3D technology and 3D printing has opened new avenues for artistic expression, allowing her to push the boundaries of what is achievable in the world of art. By seamlessly blending her artistic vision with technological advancements, she has crafted captivating pieces that resonate with viewers on multiple levels. As a self-taught visual and multimedia artist, Ciane's journey of learning and growth has been marked by discipline and dedication. Her thirst for knowledge and her drive to evolve have led her to delve into programming, atomization, and game development. She has skillfully used Virtual Reality experiences and spaces to explore her thoughts and creativity, enabling her to craft unique and immersive artistic encounters that defy conventional boundaries. Ciane's artworks symbolize a potent blend of power, fragility, vulnerability, and eternity, inviting viewers to engage in a dialogue and question their assumptions. With deliberate vagueness, she encourages curiosity and introspection, allowing her audience to find their own meaning within her art. Through her work, Ciane strives to comprehend the intricacies of the human psyche in the modern world and prompts viewers to reflect on their own lives and experiences. Her art is a testament to the potential of technology as a medium for conveying powerful messages and provoking thought. Ciane's commitment to pushing the limits of art and technology highlights the profound impact that self-motivated learning can have on one's creative journey. 1/1

Guhit sa Tubig Yas Sehob March 15 - April 5, 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 Painting Ripples, Streams, and Runoff Water remembers. It carves and erases, holding memory in its depths while washing it away with the next tide. Yasmin Sehob knows this intimately. In her first solo exhibition, Guhit sa Tubig, she dives headfirst into a paradox: recreating what was lost—childhood photographs devoured by the floodwaters of Ondoy—while embracing the impossibility of ever truly recovering them. Sehob paints as though sifting through time itself, chasing ghosts printed on Kodak paper, snapshots of the late '90s and early 2000s that have dissolved into nothing but flickers of memory. Oil paint, with its seductive depth and viscosity, becomes her instrument of excavation. She wields it with both precision and surrender, layering and dissolving, pushing pigment into the surface only to blur it out with gamsol and linseed oil. The result? Images that waver like reflections in water—ephemeral, distorted, heartbreakingly familiar, yet forever out of reach. The colors strain to recall the past, struggling against the artist’s own uncertainty. What was the exact shade of that bathing suit? The hue of the afternoon light? The tension between remembering and reconstructing becomes the work itself. Memory is unreliable, and Sehob leans into that instability. She starts with sketches—immediate, raw recollections—before consulting with her siblings, mining their minds for corroboration. But what happens when their memories don’t align? Does one version of the past become more valid than the other? This negotiation plays out on canvas: paintings mutate, details shift, nostalgia buckles under the weight of reality. By the time a piece is complete, it is no longer a document of the past but a specter of it—history refracted through longing. Sehob, a self-described nomad in style and discipline, operates in the liminal space between the figurative and the abstract, treating oil paint with the fluidity of watercolor as though willing it to seep into the cracks of time itself. Much like her journey as an artist, her process is non-linear, driven less by output than by experience. She has always made art—first as a child enthralled by her late mother’s quick portrait sketches, later while drawing, mathing, and dancing at Makiling, and then as an Economics student who painted in the margins of academia. Art was never just a career path; it was—and remains—a way of metabolizing the world. Guhit sa Tubig is about loss, but it is also about impermanence—how even grief, even absence, can be temporary. These paintings are not just recreations; they are resurrections, fleeting yet indelible. They remind us that memory, like water, is forever slipping through our fingers, and yet, somehow, it always leaves its trace. Kaye O’Yek 1/1

The Things You Bury, The Things That Grow Arvi Fetalvero October 7 - 28, 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 The Things You Bury, The Things You Grow Sometimes, you don’t always reap what you sow. This has been a recurring realization for the artist during the past years. Sometimes what grows out of the seeds is something one least expected —a great surprise or disappointing failure. Either way, despite the anxieties and the uncertainty of the outcome, all one can do is continue plowing, and hope for the best. The artist tries to cope with this realization and contemplate her current conditions while she does her gardening — all the seemingly unrewarded or unnoticed efforts she has made while biding her time and keeping patient for the small possibility of something more in the future. She takes the time for quiet introspection as she finds affinity with her plants’ natural instinct to survive. Arvi Fetalvero Arvi Fetalvero Arvi Fetalvero is a visual artist currently taking up her master’s degree in curatorial studies under the Art Studies program at the University of the Philippines - Diliman. As an artist and budding curator, her artistic inclinations run towards processed-based works and projects, as well as space-oriented installations, wherein she combines a range of mediums and techniques — from paintings in acrylic and oil, drawings in graphite, to sculptural objects using textile, beeswax, resin, and wood. They are reflections of her musings about space and the fluidity and rigidness of its boundaries — whether it be personal, physical, internal, or otherwise. She explores how one can activate a space to convey narratives, thoughts, and experiences. Since her works are also very personal, she adopts the imagery of lace to signify her personhood and sense of being, by using it as a replacement for her skin, muscles, nerves, veins, and organs. The meditative process of manipulating, shaping, and rendering of lace, fabric, and thread with other organic objects, as both material and subject, allows her to mentally and emotionally stimulate and initiate personal therapy and self-healing. Through the delicate strength, openness, and see-through quality of lace, she asserts her presence and attempts to claim her space. 1/1

Labas Paloob Renz Baluyot November 8 - 29, 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 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 1/1

Bukas | January 11 - February 1, 2025 Bukas Aann Reynales, Bam Garibay, Carlmel Belda, Chanel Pepino, Christian Culangan, Delmo, Edmond Rivera, Hanna Sayam, Jan Llegue, JC Sicam, Kennette Luague, KR Rodgers, Lance Gomez, Marrenz Antonio, Nina Garibay, Ram Castillo, Red Santillan, Salvi January 11 - February 1, 2025 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release Bukas: Why Tomorrow Matters As I considered how to open the year 2025, I found myself circling back to a quiet yet insistent question: How do we, in the face of creeping nihilism, continue to believe in tomorrow? This question led to the conceptual seed for Bukas, a group exhibition that asks 18 artists to reflect on a single word—Bukas—which in Filipino means both “open” and “tomorrow.” It is a word steeped in possibility and anticipation, holding the tension between optimism and vulnerability. The prompt I shared with the artists was deceptively simple: Why does tomorrow matter? The responses, as varied as the lives and creative practices of the artists, form a mosaic of perspectives—personal, communal, spiritual and universal. Together, their works are visual testaments to the enduring human impulse to create meaning, even in the face of uncertainty. Through these pieces, the artists confront despair not with grand gestures, but with the steady act of making. Tomorrow, after all, is an imagined space—a liminal pause between what has been and what might yet be. In an era shadowed by complexity and doubt, Bukas becomes a meditation on how we, individually and collectively, envision and shape the future. JC Sicam’s Tahanan, Aann Reynales’ Keep the Coffee Hot, Carlmel Belda’s Simula, and Salvi’s Present remind us of the small, sacred sanctuaries that sustain us—home, rituals, and the quiet glow of everyday life. Lance Gomez’s Studio Study II and Nina Garibay’s Portal widen this lens, reflecting nature’s own capacity for renewal and possibility. Some artists approach Bukas with a yearning to break free. Christian Culangan’s Ahon, Hanna Sayam’s Runaway Chicken, Bam Garibay’s Kool Aid, and Ram Castillo’s Avatar Party evoke the tension between constraint and release. Their works resonate with the urgency of liberation, whether from societal expectations or personal limitations, even depicting escapism as another route in the pursuit of emancipation. Meanwhile, Chanel Pepino, Edmond Rivera, Jan Llegue, and Marrenz Antonio offer contemplations of trepidation. In their subdued, somber works, they explore the fragility of hope, urging us to sit with discomfort and face the quiet doubts that often accompany dreams of tomorrow. Other pieces turn inward, searching for an anchor amidst uncertainty. Delmo’s I Am Is the Force of Tomorrow, Kennette Luagues’ Kulay ng Kaluluwa, and Red Santillan’s Untitled beckon viewers to tap into the internal compass of the self—a wellspring of resilience and renewal. KR Rodgers’ Root-bound, with its stark monochromatic palette, speaks to the slow yet deliberate work of grounding oneself, even when progress feels imperceptible. It is a meditation on persistence, reminding us that even the smallest acts of continuity hold the power to shape the future. These works are not mere images; they are offerings—acts of courage in their quiet refusal to surrender to despair. They remind us that hope, while fragile and fleeting, is not an abstract ideal but a living force that propels us toward small, deliberate actions. Through their practices, the artists carve out spaces where meaning lingers, illuminating the truth that creation itself is a profound gesture of resistance. Some pieces call us into connection, offering antidotes to isolation through shared spaces of memory, care, and community. Others reach inward, seeking renewal in spirituality or personal resolve. Still others invite us to imagine and play, exploring the transformative potential of what could be. Together, they remind us that tomorrow is not a grand concept, but a series of choices unfolding in the present—a canvas upon which we sketch our hopes, bit by bit. Bukas is not a manifesto but a tender declaration—a persistent whisper that tomorrow matters because it allows us to begin again. These 18 artists extend an invitation: to believe, not in grand promises, but in the quiet, deliberate acts that shape the future. They offer not answers, but possibilities, leaving us with this quiet yet insistent truth: the future is not something we await but something we make—with hands that dare to open and hearts that choose to hope. -Alee Garibay

Piezas | July 5 - 26, 2025 Piezas Ian Quirante July 5 - 26, 2025 DSC00888.JPG 1/5 View Catalogue Video Press Release The Integrity of Fragments In PIEZAS, Ian Quirante dispenses with the pretension of unity. These works do not seek completion, as they revel in the unresolved, a resistance to reduction. Untitled and unnumbered, the works insist on the autonomy of the mark, the surface, and the gesture, elements long dismissed when tethered too closely to narrative or theme. For the artist, automatism and spontaneous image making is not a novelty nor merely a nod to the surrealist impulse. Drawing IS his pulse. Each stroke, each inscrutable glyph, each fragment of text or number carries within it a fidelity to instinct. Resisting polish and refusing the illusionism of imposed meaning, the surface remains a site of struggle: a battlefield, as Greenberg once posited, where the flatness of the canvas confronts and contains all illusion. But these are not just gestures made for their own sake; they carry with them the residues of history, memory, and the negotiation of identity, and they have crossed the threshold to three- dimensionality. Born in Cagayan de Oro into a family of musicians, Quirante was shaped by a landscape of experience and improvisations, his practice emerging from both self-discovery and dislocation. His lines are informed by the memory of trauma (an ekphrastic exercise triggering a childhood witnessing of dark blood on green gate), by an obsession with research beyond art school, and even the embedded memory of the father of Philippine painting, to whom he is ancestrally tied. These are not biographical footnotes, as they are part of the matrix through which his material vocabulary is shaped. Cryptic, chaotic, and humming with snippets of internal rhythm and harmony. His pieces, paintings and assemblages alike, activate a kind of visual language that resists translation. Text appears in gibberish, rendering phonics useless; numbers suggest calculation but deny logic. In this sense, Quirante’s works share affinities with the broader cultural logic of the vernacular: open, layered, improvisational, and deeply intuitive. His compositions—scratched, stapled, collaged, pierced—do not hide their construction. Instead, they foreground process as form. From simple drawings and paintings, Quirante’s PIEZAS inhabit the logic of fragments, shaped by interruptions and disturbances. His surfaces speak of a world assembled from detritus and desire, from scraps of memory, language, and discarded form. Found sawed-off wood cutouts find new life as components of his pieces, pierced, screwed, marked, and lashed with wire. Canvas is cut, fringed, primed, folded, crumpled, and gnashed with impasto and pieces of paper already populated with drawings and doodlings, tiny artworks by themselves. The act of tearing, layering, and assembling becomes a method of configuration that is shaped by uncertainty, but grounded in intention. The diorama-sculptures, one kinetic and the other grounded, extend the pictorial into the realm of spatial composition. A fascination with levitation evokes both science fiction and the transcendence of cultural gravity. These assemblages are propositions of possibilities to be further explored. From selections of color in his wall-bound works, these present the opportunity for full color renderings of calculated intensity. Perhaps it comes naturally to Quirante’s artistic journey, this position of perpetual becoming, of risking incoherence for the sake of authenticity. In an art world increasingly smoothed out by dopamine-led desires and curated clarity, PIEZAS stands apart. It affirms that fragments need not be made whole to be meaningful; as they are, they are enough. Kaye O’Yek

Doubting Years | May 21,2022 - June 11,2022 Doubting Years ROEDIL JOE GERALDO May 21,2022 - June 11,2022 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release The Age of Uncertainty Conversant in both the sculptural and painting media, Bacolod-based artist Joe Geraldo has for years been depicting the intersection of private and public life, the collision of the contained, intimate self and the collective. For him, external reality—structured socially, economically, and politically—is but a reflection of the inner one. A corrupt society, for instance, evinces spiritual depravity. Whether in terracotta or pigment, Geraldo gives visual weight to what is primarily felt internally as a way to map out the conditions of the soul that predict, shape, and directly implicate into what we experience as verities of everyday life. In Doubting Years, Geraldo renders form to the existential skepticism that many of us feel. With the erosion of truth because of fake news and historical revisionism, the installation of corrupt officials in high places, and the weakening of democratic structures, it’s a difficult task to place any optimism in the future both near and distant. The artist captures this uncertainty through an expressive figurative style that makes use of symbolism and allegory to articulate his observations as well as his fevered visions should things continue as they are. Lush like a tapestry and brimming with detail, the paintings center human figures as either representations of abstract ideas, such justice, or as active players caught in the struggle against those who desire dominance. In “The Attack,” for instance, a protagonist, crouched on all fours, attempt to shrug off the crocodiles—which represent corrupt politicians—that infest the waters on which the figure treads. The task seems to be Herculean, but there is a determinant attitude in his pose, as box-like structures, which may represent the city or the stability we long for, emerge on his back. Similarly, structures are borne on the backs of workers in the painting “City,” which underscores whose labor and hardship has made our nation come into fruition. Other works, however, are more intense and menacing in that they portray the disintegration of the individual, the seeming meaninglessness of time, and the hectic prevalence of death. These works, while evoking a threatening atmosphere, are actually clear-eyed, frank, and exacting in their depiction of the dire consequences about to unleash their horror. The actions leading to these consequences were not enacted overnight, but patiently cultivated and distributed through the years, as most of us went about living our lives, unaware of the nefarious plans being hatched by those delirious with power and control. Doubting Years has an immediate, oracular quality that seizes the viewer—a force of description and symbolism possessed only by those who unblinkingly confront reality and its awful truths. Despite the uncertainty implicit in these works and underscored by the exhibition’s title, a sense of persistence—if not resilience—imbues the paintings with their metaphorical urgency, their vivid and livid colors, and their figures still unyielding in the face of the insurmountable odds. Geraldo makes the case for painting as a vehicle in which the necessary act of truth-telling may commence. - Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Roedil Joe Geraldo (b.1969) is a filipino artist hailing from Negros Occidental. He studied Fine Arts at the La Consolation College in Bacolod and is known for his remarkable sculptures. He is also an active member of the Art Association of Bacolod (AAB), Art Association of Talisay (ATA), Kasamahan ng mga Artisan Mulat ang Isip (KAMI) and Signus of Negros art groups. Geraldo began to achieve awards in 1991, and was awarded as a regional winner for 3 consecutive years at the PLDT-DPC Directory Cover Visual Art National Competition. He also participated in various competitions like Metrobank Art and Design for Excellence competition,GSIS Art Competition and Philip Morris Exhibition. For his upcoming 11th solo exhibit titled(teeth)oubting Years, Geraldo's imagery was more focused on the current situations that the country is facing. He has doubts about the upcoming years because of the pandemic and the developments in the government.

Debosyon Lymuel Bautista August 5, 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 Debosyon For his solo exhibition, Debosyon, Lymuel Bautista presents a narrative told through a unique approach to the pictorial surface, skillfully transforming the canvas into a representation of corrugated iron roofs. Through his adept use of deep reds and browns, reminiscent of rusted iron, Bautista brings attention to the precarious conditions of marginalized communities—which constitute the majority of the country’s population—as well as the struggles they face daily. For this show, the artist departs from his usual socio-realistic subject matter, as epitomized by his work “Haunting Wail of Chaos,” the Grand Awardee in the Watermedia on Paper category of the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence in 2021—a visual fable depicting the intersection of the pandemic’s challenges with societal issues. This time, the artist’s objective is aimed at the concept of “devotion,” with a particular emphasis on devotion to family. Bautista draws inspiration from his own mother, who exemplifies unwavering dedication in raising her children single-handedly, a tribute that reflects the strength and sacrifices of countless mothers in similar circumstances. The idea of “devotion” takes on another dimension in the exhibition as it intersects with religious iconography. For instance, instead of bearing a cross, men carry the impossible weight of a beam or a post, meant to signify the difficulty of building a home. Spent matchsticks are depicted as instruments of flagellation, as if to underscore how seemingly volatile are the sacrifices of the poor. This notion of penance becomes a thought-provoking aspect of the show, suggesting that sometimes devotion requires individuals to sacrifice their own lives for a greater purpose, in this case, the creation a domestic space as a form of refuge. The artist also perceives this show as his own form of refuge from the heavy, hard-hitting themes that he has pursued in his body of work thus far. “This show offers a respite from my past works that are political,” the artist said in the vernacular. “My attack on this show is personal as opposed to my previous works. Soon, I’ll be back to the persistent context of my pieces, but this time, I have chosen to enter the sanctuary of home to recharge.” With Debosyon, Lymuel Bautista masterfully reveals the scope of his artistic prowess while delving into how the personal, the social, and the spiritual intersect especially in Philippine reality. Through his innovative process of figuration and exploration of diverse themes, Bautista’s work showcases a promising trajectory in the realm of contemporary art. As a young and visionary artist, he is leaving an indelible mark on the art world with evocative and powerful creations that are reflective of self and society. Carlomar Arcangel Daoana 1/1

The Bitter Sea Is Boundless, but if You Turn Around There Is The Shore Patrick De Veyra May 6-27, 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 Of Truncated Trips and Intentional U-turns In Patrick de Veyra's recent solo exhibition, The Bitter Sea Is Boundless, But If You Turn Around There Is The Shore, the artist showcases a stunning collection of vibrantly colored paintings, each piece featuring intricate layers and surfaces added or subtracted with well-thought out intent. With each painstakingly laid veneer, he builds on his pigments and glazes, a number of them in volatile neons, each shade having its own visual character and curing time. The artworks exude a playful yet sophisticated aesthetic that perfectly captures the artist's creative vision and his specific brand of conveying emotion without overreaching sentimentality or saccharine nostalgia. Though halted temporarily by the recent coronavirus pandemic, our lives as we know them have slowly come back to normal, with us more clearly seeing unfinished business for what they are— tasks to either resolve at last or finally let go according to our capacity and state of mind. Here enters the courage and maturity of the artist as he digs deep into his personal history, combining Eastern philosophy with Western sensibilities directly translated into his art-making process. Projects from decades earlier, punctuated by losses, are laid asunder in the context of yet greater mishaps on a global scale. De Veyra takes advantage of the world standing still to recalibrate his bearings, giving a fresh take on his past while giving himself a chance to redirect his narrative for the future. Glitter and Strife, first painted in 2005 and revisited this year, is a wonder of bright acrylics and sparkles. Enveloping his figure in drops, which may be either tears or a fresh wash of rain, plus a smattering of glitter on canvas, he employs collage and de-collage to create a sense of depth, with texts underscoring the duality of ecstasy and sorrow. Another One Bites the Dust was first painted in 2006. Though identified with a pop/rock song, it sports an alien-like creature with its own retinue of video game characters. These intriguing figures captivate viewers, drawing them into the complex layers of the painting as well as the gamut of emotions contained therein. There Is No New Wave, Only the Sea features a hypnotic mix of pinks, blues, greens, and oranges that convey the calming yet powerful nature of the sea. It also appears planet-like, like a piece of the ocean viewed from a cruise ship’s porthole. It harkens back to De Veyra’s stint as SSEAYP (Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program) Youth Ambassador, when he traveled by sea to various Asian countries to participate in cross-cultural grassroots programs and discussions with government leaders. As he looks back with fondness on days spent on international waters, he also relates them to realizations brought about by the ebb and flow of life: all waves belong to one sea, just as all energies swirl within this universe that he exists in. It comes with an accompanying video installation created by Hamill Buyco, an animator who finished his BFA in Media Arts and Animation at The Illinois Institute of Art - Schaumburg. Perhaps all the Dragons in Our Lives Are Princesses Who Are Only Waiting to See Us Act, Just Once, with Beauty and Courage showcases a beautiful mix of oranges, blues, greens, and yellows. The title is inspired by a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke, which speaks to the transformative power of taking action with beauty and courage. Picturing a creature with its mouth agape while wearing either armor or dragon scales, it seems the artist catches it frozen in the process of metamorphosis, awed by the power of change. Who Knows if the Moon's a Balloon?, inspired by a line from a poem by E. E. Cummings, depicts a face filled with rounded moon craters with eyes on top of each other. Repetitive patterns of dots and spheres add to the lightness of the piece, representing the moon floating in the sky, buoyed by mysterious gravitational forces. From the Chinese saying celebrating the mutability of constant change, Flowing Water Never Gets Dirty (1-10), De Veyra showcases his versatility as an artist in a series of framed mixed media works on acid-free paper. Measuring 12.5 inches in diameter, each features a merry mix of pigments and shapes, seemingly interpreting faces that explode into forms that create fascinating juxtapositions. In the Thick of It boasts an iconographic object covered in a profusion of riotous paint drips, a symbol of innocence immersed in exuberant goo. It is youth made tangible and frozen in glee, reveling in the adventures it’s gotten itself into and looking for more exciting exploits ahead. Overall, De Veyra's works fully embody not only the Chinese proverb expressed in the title but also remind us of the whole spectrum of emotions that match the full scope of life’s colors: all of its lights and darks, jubilation and mourning, and even the combination of races in the artist’s very blood. As a Filipino mestizo with strong Chinese and Spanish roots, he himself is a product of journeys and detours by land and sea, and perhaps it is this amalgamation of ancestry and cultures that gives him deep understanding, taking into account each detail with loving detachment and release. As De Veyra draws on his technical mastery of composition and material brought about by decades of practice, he injects each stroke, line, and drip with the experience and wisdom he has gathered through the years simply by braving the waters, reminding us that wherever life leads us, we have command of the wheel. Kaye O'Yek Patrick de Veyra Patrick de Veyra (b. 1982) is a visual artist, art educator, writer, and former Philippine youth ambassador selected by the Office of the President of the Philippines-National Youth Commission to the 33rd Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program (SSEAYP). He is an alumnus of the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) and recipient of the Outstanding Artist Award for Visual Arts and the Makiling Academe and Research Institute for the Arts (MARIA) Scholarship Award, an honorific scholarship awarded by the Cultural Center of the Philippines to PHSA’s top five graduates. He graduated from the University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Fine Arts with a degree in Painting (magna cum laude) and was inducted as a member of the International Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi upon graduating from the university in 2005. In 2004, he won the grand prize for mixed media in the University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Fine Arts’ 1st Studio Arts Annual Student Competition. In 2006 and 2007, he was invited by Sunshine School (Sekolah Sinar Matahari) in Brunei Darussalam to revitalize the school’s visual arts program and, in both years, was featured in the Borneo Bulletin, an independent newspaper in Brunei, Sabah, and Sarawak. In 2007, he produced, curated, and exhibited the ‘The Best Ideas Come From The Storage Room’, an ad campaign that featured robot assemblages by his Filipino primary school students, at the ASEAN Plus China and Korea Youth Creativity Expo in Jakarta, Indonesia. As a Philippine youth ambassador to the Ship for Southeast Asian and Japanese Youth Program, he visited Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Japan to participate in roundtable discussions with leaders of national and local governments, and to take part in grassroots programs for cross-cultural understanding. 1/1

Huna-Huna | September 14 - October 5, 2024 Huna-Huna Abril Dominic Valdemoro September 14 - October 5, 2024 1/7 View Catalogue Video Press Release Being and Musing Abril Dominic Valdemoro’s Huna-huna invites us to delve into the spaces between thought and feeling, image-making and perception. The Masbateño title translates loosely to "what people think" or "something to think about," and captures the essence of contemplation tinged with uncertainty. It's like that sense of dwelling on an idea, not quite sure of its truth—as one may be thinking with the heart, but is unsure of the feeling. Valdemoro’s intensely saturated artworks explore this ambiguity with a visceral intensity. Muscles, sinews, distorted faces, and wrinkled and stretch-marked skin form the core of his figures. Though their humanity is undeniable, these elements add rawness and depth to his pieces, making each both familiar and unsettling. The artist courageously departs from his past visual narratives, allowing space for exploration and opening his work to different interpretations, showing vulnerability yet never losing his grasp on the skilled portrayals of observations on human nature that his works are known for. From scathing social commentary to a wholly accepting, enveloping embrace of what makes us human, Valdemoro's lens has dug deep beyond setting, clothing, and personality, honing on the formation and atrophy of soft connecting tissue and cells that seemingly mold, meld, and melt into each other. Utob is an unbreakable belief and a promise that cannot be undone. This piece delves into the complexities of relationships, love, and betrayal while hinting at a thirst for knowledge or an insatiable curiosity for the unknown. Lagataw is both a literal and metaphorical journey. It captures wandering, perhaps without a clear destination, but with the desire to move forward regardless. Winged beings cavort with figures with shoes on, with visible uprooting and blatant disregard for the origin of the world. Kugnot means hardness—of flesh, spirit, or mind. It shows stubbornness, distance, jealousy, lust, and the refusal to bend or follow, reflecting the darker sides of human nature. Tuod-tuod is a belief that is unsure or an unfounded conviction, questioning the faith we place in things without solid proof. Huslag represents the fallen, a being morphing between sin and humanity who explores the tension between good and evil, innocence and ignorance. Likaw is the cyclical act of wrapping a rope around your hand to untangle it. It speaks of repetition, moving in sequences, and the effort to bring order to chaos, even describing the convoluted twists and turns of the intestines that absorb nourishment for the body. Kugos portrays a nurturing father figure, or a faceless king—a protective presence that clings to us. This piece speaks to the weight of attachment, translating as to carry or embrace. Lambigit suggests connection. Whether caught accidentally or wilfully tangled together, the artist's interwoven figures signify moments of care, love, and sweetness, the slight touching of their hands showing deeper intimacy than any unraveling. In Huna-huna, Valdemoro traverses the abyss between what we see and think, offering a profound reflection on the complexity of human thoughts, desires, and emotions. Each piece challenges the viewer to engage with their inner contradictions. The artist’s distorted, raw figures serve as mirrors of our uncertain humanity, reflecting our own beautiful ambiguity. -Kaye O’Yek

Guhit sa Tubig | March 15 - April 5, 2025 Guhit sa Tubig Yas Sehob March 15 - April 5, 2025 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release Painting Ripples, Streams, and Runoff Water remembers. It carves and erases, holding memory in its depths while washing it away with the next tide. Yasmin Sehob knows this intimately. In her first solo exhibition, Guhit sa Tubig, she dives headfirst into a paradox: recreating what was lost—childhood photographs devoured by the floodwaters of Ondoy—while embracing the impossibility of ever truly recovering them. Sehob paints as though sifting through time itself, chasing ghosts printed on Kodak paper, snapshots of the late '90s and early 2000s that have dissolved into nothing but flickers of memory. Oil paint, with its seductive depth and viscosity, becomes her instrument of excavation. She wields it with both precision and surrender, layering and dissolving, pushing pigment into the surface only to blur it out with gamsol and linseed oil. The result? Images that waver like reflections in water—ephemeral, distorted, heartbreakingly familiar, yet forever out of reach. The colors strain to recall the past, struggling against the artist’s own uncertainty. What was the exact shade of that bathing suit? The hue of the afternoon light? The tension between remembering and reconstructing becomes the work itself. Memory is unreliable, and Sehob leans into that instability. She starts with sketches—immediate, raw recollections—before consulting with her siblings, mining their minds for corroboration. But what happens when their memories don’t align? Does one version of the past become more valid than the other? This negotiation plays out on canvas: paintings mutate, details shift, nostalgia buckles under the weight of reality. By the time a piece is complete, it is no longer a document of the past but a specter of it—history refracted through longing. Sehob, a self-described nomad in style and discipline, operates in the liminal space between the figurative and the abstract, treating oil paint with the fluidity of watercolor as though willing it to seep into the cracks of time itself. Much like her journey as an artist, her process is non-linear, driven less by output than by experience. She has always made art—first as a child enthralled by her late mother’s quick portrait sketches, later while drawing, mathing, and dancing at Makiling, and then as an Economics student who painted in the margins of academia. Art was never just a career path; it was—and remains—a way of metabolizing the world. Guhit sa Tubig is about loss, but it is also about impermanence—how even grief, even absence, can be temporary. These paintings are not just recreations; they are resurrections, fleeting yet indelible. They remind us that memory, like water, is forever slipping through our fingers, and yet, somehow, it always leaves its trace. Kaye O’Yek