ABOUT Art Cube Gallery Established in 2012, Art Cube Gallery maintains a premier exhibition space at the OPVI Centre, Chino Roces Extension, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The gallery has so far mounted more than a hundred art exhibitions involving award-winning and seasoned artists, as well as very promising young painters and sculptors in the Philippine contemporary art scene. It has represented Filipino artists in international art shows in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Germany. The gallery has consistently participated in the annual art events of Art Fair Philippines since its inception, as well as Art Central in Hong Kong for several years. Art Cube provides a platform for talented young artists to showcase their works before an extensive roster of art collectors. It also helps promote the careers of seasoned artists by giving art aficionados a broad access to their works in international art exhibitions. Art Cube collaborates with public institutions, artist associations, and civic organizations by supporting programs that seek to propagate interest in the arts in all levels of society, projects that promote artists’ welfare, and advocacies that extend socio-economic assistance for the underprivileged.

PAST EXHIBITIONS 2023 REGENERATION | January Group Show PAMANA | February Group Show To amplify Linangan’s mission of empowering artists and communities through art education, we organized the “Pamana” exhibit highlighting the foundational role of mentorship in fostering the development of Philippine contemporary art. The exhibits bring together Linangan residents, alumni, and stalwarts of the Philippine art scene, most of whom have mentored in Linangan to raise funds for the development of the Linangan mentorship program. Arisgado | March Arel Zambarrano For the silent desperate many--who struggle to make both ends meet--one barely lives to fight another day. Arisgado, the sixth solo exhibition by Arel Zambarrano, essays the painstaking realities that he and his laborers face day-to-day challenges. Based in Iloilo, this artist-architect continues his narrative from his previous shows, armed with undulated persistence, this time Zambarrano unravels deeper discontents as he collectively identifies with the suffering predicament of many—the dog-tired working class including the downtrodden and abused multitude--to still plod the neck deep flood for them to keep their head above water. Paisahe | March Demosthenes Campos Demosthenes Campos contin ues to explore his multi-layered, highly-textured abs tract 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. Tunay Na Pangalan Ng Hindi Kilalang Anino | March Doktor Karayom Trinidad continued his street art while holding exhibitions for his red paintings and sculptures. He found success in art competitions, first winning a t-shirt design contest for a local fashion brand, the Thirteen Artist Award in 2018, and was nominated to participate in the Ateneo Art Award in various years. Across Structural Realities | April Group Show With structural realism as a pretext, we may view scientific theories that tell us only about forms and structures of the unobservable world, neglecting its nature. This selection of artists with their works work across worlds both seen and felt, collecting experiences and presenting them as tangible visions. They invite us to contemplate on the complexities of our existence, allowing us to reflect on our relationships with the natural and fabricated realities we find ourselves in. Plastic and Colors of Youth | April Fernando Sena Fernando Sena, considered as one of the masters of the still life genre, revisits his toy series in his solo showcase, Plastic and Colors of Youth, for Art Cube. Showing no loss of figurative skill and vitality, Sena once again depicts the joyous tumble of toys and their parts, all commingling together in their varied shapes and hues, so much so that no single piece asserts dominance. The viewer, regardless of where they look at the canvas, is treated to an eye-catching pop of color and shine, with the toys’ harmonious configurations being at once accidental (their arrangement in a box) and intentional (as the artist has devoted his attention and chosen to paint them). Balaan | April Roland Llarena Balaan (holy in Hiligaynon), a solo exhibition of Roland Llarena, seeks to be this gentle reminder as he essays in paper and perforated steel metal sheets the beauty of impermanence by instilling sacredness in people as God is supreme in his holiness. Done in new mixed media Llarena explores creatively his artistic pursuits--as he unravels the virtues leading up to how to be a good man--in these difficult times. Finding Purpose | April Kim Gaceja In Kim Gaceja’s Finding Purpose, he delves into the reason for getting up every single day, taking inspiration from the words of Viktor Frankl, the renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor. Frankl believed that meaning is instilled by an individual in the events of one’s life. He also stated that both work and suffering can direct one toward finding meaning, ultimately leading to fulfillment and happiness. One only needs to find meaning in small things to have a wonderful and meaningful life. Threading Through Time | May Winna Go In her first solo exhibition, Threading Through Time, Winna Go contemplates how the locus of identity is shaped by the variables of the past and the present—at times harmonious and conflicting—especially at this juncture of history in which the world is idealized as a global community. The artist looks back at her Chinese ancestry and its powerful pull on her imagination and private life, expressed through an astounding suite of large-scale works featuring traditional Chinese robes as well as an installation of soft sculptures and archival materials. The Bitter Sea Is Boundless, but if You Turn Around There Is The Shore | May Patrick de Veyra 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. Pa Living Up To My Blue China | May Tracie Anglo-Dizon Tracie Anglo Dizon’s third solo exhibition “Living up to my Blue China” features paintings that embody timeless beauty cast in the form of blue china, which serves as the base for the artist’s critical reflection on the constraints of cultural conventionality. Using a more contemporary painterly touch Anglo Dizon plays with the boundaries of ornamental design to interject the tension between the modern and the classical, between the oriental and the western, with a witty aesthetic twist of feminism in overriding the dominant culture. Unveil | May Dave alcon A stoic philosopher once said the worst thing one can do to himself is not become who he could be in this lifetime. For his 6th solo exhibition, Unveil, Dave Alcon literally pauses, reflects, and honors his long and arduous artistic journey an existential feast of paintings on his love for painting. The Day After the Night Before | June Clairelynn Uy Technology made it accessible for anyone to explore interests and techniques that used to be far more exclusive, time-consuming, or skill-intensive to do. Meanwhile, the processes and philosophies of early adopters and pioneers continue to linger on, so much so that people still cite inspirations from those who lived centuries ago. What would the greats of the past would say if they saw how we have trodded down the paths they blazed? In a time where the barrier to entry for almost everything have been lowered, the question of replication, adaptation, and reproduction often comes up. A Little Bit of Everything | June Angelo Tabije Once in a while, after a succession of visual styles, an effective artist craves for experimentation as a form of welcome respite. In his second solo exhibition at the Art Cube, A Little Bit of Everything, Angelo Tabije spontaneously attempts to put together past raw signature fixtures, uncanny lines patterns and painting elements that had made him a much-sought-after artist of figurative bespoke expressions. For Tabije, art is the lie that tells the eminent truth. Paradoxically, it is not that art does imitates life rather life imitates art. We learn how to dream, how to exist, how to think about ourselves through these paintings. Tabije has brought back the storytelling in his inherent visuality. When the Smoke Clears and the Dust Settles | June Arturo Sanchez Jr. When the Smoke Clears and the Dust Settles is a testament to how Art Sanchez expresses profundity in his exploration of identity, spirituality, and the interplay between calm and chaos. With his new pieces, most notably arrays of shadow boxes filled with spliced three-dimensional components seemingly floating in the void, the artist invites viewers into the depths of his being, all the while playing on the drama of light and dark. Forever In Debt | July Marvin Quizon Marvin Quizon has been essaying death on canvas since he first won in a national art competition in 2017 and became a fulltime artist. With sheer brushstroke prowess, inducing an old photograph-feel, Quizon unapologetically explores that gruesome defining mood employed with a certain sentimentality in exploring his visuals of mortality. Forever in Debt is Quizon’s fifth solo exhibition, this time, however, he ushers hope with a feeling of gratitude to the present day happenings in his life. For Quizon, to be thankful is to imbibe all the positive energies in the universe-as part of the continuing dual cycle of life and death. Broken Flowers refers to the different kinds of being damaged between the two characters in the picture. A powerful reprisal of his main piece during his first solo show, this time both subjects are seated while still their souls are locked in a tight embrace. Childish | July Macj Turla In Childish, Macj Turla's third solo exhibition, the artist delves into the complex themes of escapism, the fear of growing up, and the weight of taking responsibility. Through a collection of freshly produced wide-eyed paintings framed by wood textures or hand-wrought, black-painted epoxy clay, Turla invites us to explore the nuances of human emotions and behavior, shedding light on the struggles and conflicts that lie beneath the surface of our daily lives and familiar characters in our surroundings that dwell on denial. Pusyaw | July Nic Navarro Nic Navarro’s latest exhibition, Pusyaw, extends and amplifies the visual vocabulary we have known of the artist. Navarro's previous works have often depicted a frozen world, where time stands still, giving rise to an eerie and surreal ambiance within ordinary interior spaces. However, in this current body of work, Navarro delves into the nature of time itself, contemplating its relentless passage and embracing the concept of breakdown and entropy. Ghosts | August 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. An Abstract Voyage | August Edwin Martinez An Abstract Voyage reflects on the complexities of life's journey and the significance of introspection. Contemplating past decisions and missed opportunities, Edwin Martinez acknowledges the fickleness and unreliability of the human mind. The artist emphasizes the importance of rest as an essential component of learning from failures. We are often too quick to bounce back without taking the time to reflect on our experiences, yet this is imperative if we are to survive. The artist seemingly aims to capture the cycle of failure, respite, and redemption that is an inherent part of the human experience. Through the depiction of a cycle of continuously falling down and getting back up, Martinez’ works illustrate that failure is not always negative; it is an integral aspect of life. When faced with failure, one must compose oneself and prepare for what lies ahead. Traces | August Jayme Lucas In Traces, Jayme Lucas’ second solo exhibition, the artist delves into junctures and beliefs passed through generations through imagery and themes vital to her practice. She paints empty tracts of land in their natural state. Aside from these wide-encompassing settings, however, Lucas also paints moving people, wandering anatomical parts, and figures frozen in relaxed stances as she chronicles comings and goings and keeping still as means to dissect elements of tradition, memory, and identity, creating an absorbing visual journey. Debosyon | August Lymuel Bautista 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. Beyond The Scars: Illuminating the light within | September Daniel Dela Cruz Adversity shapes us, but it does not have to consume us. In life’s journey, we inevitably encounter trials and pain that leave scars upon our hearts and souls. Constant reminders of our battles, these scars do not define who we are. We are more than the sum of our wounds; we are resilient beings capable of letting the light shine from within, illuminating the darkness that tries to engulf us. Instead of allowing our scars to become prisons of sorrow, we can transform them into stories of triumph. The human spirit possesses a remarkable ability to rise above pain, find meaning in suffering, and emerge stronger than ever before. Our scars can be symbols of courage and perseverance that inspire others to face their own trials. Flimsy Cobweb Sheets | September Carzen Esprela & Lu Gonzales An individual's character is highly dictated by their manner of storing and retrieving acquired thoughts, perhaps; a dilemma in terms of retaining or omitting an idea. Say, a place dependent on identity may evolve to a level of taste. Cleaning an old room involves careful analysis of which to keep or discard. Old receipts, old coins, old keys, photographs, letters, etc., are presented all at once. In the choosing, the room is prepped for receiving. Some are displayed, some kept in cabinets or drawers. This is the case in Gonzales' and Esprela's works; carefully selecting which parts of their work they choose to keep. Love Is The Only Way | September Billy Bagtas 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. Catchments | October Jim Orencio In his latest solo exhibition, Catchments, Jim Orencio invites us into a mesmerizing world where the delicate balance of nature is not just observed but celebrated. Presented by Art Cube, Orencio’s collection breathes life into the canvas, weaving an intricate tapestry of the Arboretum at the Pintô Art Museum. The term “catchments” is not merely a title but a poetic revelation. Defined as areas where rainwater is collected and stored, the term finds its roots in gardening and ecology. In the context of Orencio's exhibition, Catchments symbolizes the inherent significance of water sources in nurturing life. It is a nod to the intricate ecological processes where water serves as a lifeline for the flora and fauna, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all living things. Leaving Marks | October Shannah Orencio In the delicate dance between art and nature, Shannah Orencio emerges as a trailblazer, challenging conventional perceptions of still life. Her latest exhibition, Leaving Marks, showcased at Art Cube, is a testament to her evolution in interpreting the genre, offering viewers a vibrant tableau where flowers, devoid of traditional vases, find their place in artfully arranged confinements, each bloom jostling for attention in a harmonious dance of colors and shapes. Neighborhood | October Rey Labarento A simple, happy life straight out of a dream exists — as the world continues to fixate on a time when things were better, a nostalgia that runs across all generations from boomers to gen Z’s. Painting a picture of such life is not as easy as it sounds, because some fall into the trap of an over-idealized, Amorsolo-esque landscape that is both idyllic and dismissive of social truths. Negros Oriental born and raised visual artist Rey Labarento presents a poignant glimpse of this life – his life, his inspirations, through his Neighborhood of Valencia, Negros Oriental and its neighboring Dumaguete City. The Things You Bury, The Things That Grow | October Arvi Fetalvero 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. Esaes, Eyag, tan Kareenan | November Group Show Whispers, Screams, and Calmness Pangasinan is a developing province with a re-establishing culture. As Pangasinenses, we are in the process of rediscovering our identity, which has been somewhat lost over the years due to the influence of the developing world. Unfortunately, culture and the arts have often been neglected by the people in the province. However, the province's artists are taking a proactive approach by immersing themselves in the environment to seek and restore the lost identity. Our goal is to establish a distinct identity that will define us and shape the future of the province. To achieve this, we are exposing ourselves to various cultures, disciplines, and principles; striving to learn and apply them to our own context. Despite the diverse range of artistic styles and interpretations, we are collectively dedicated to using this diversity as the foundation of our vision for promoting the arts in the province. Dulo ng Langit | November Jojit Solano The maxim, "Nothing is true, everything is permitted," serves as the guiding ethos for a particular society that has artfully constructed an illusory utopia. Within this societal framework, paramount importance is assigned to the convenience and affluence of a select few, while simultaneously inculcating fear as a mode of faith. In this realm, conventional notions of morality are regarded as the stuff of legend, overshadowed by a pervasive illusion of immortality, wherein the unrestrained expenditure of wealth is fervently pursued with the primary objective of warding off the specter of mortality. Santigwa | November Kevin Villa & Denmark Dela Cruz Knowing nothing can be better than thinking you know it all, a concept that some find liberating. There's a certain purity in ignorance, reminiscent of the bliss we experienced as children when we simply understood things through the lens of our senses. However, this kind of ignorance can also become a tool for corruption in the hands of those with selfish motives. People and society can mold children to serve their interests, creating the illusion of purity while ultimately tearing apart their dreams and aspirations. The Six-Sided World: Art Cube's Year End Show | December Group Show Art Cube takes great pride in unveiling its much-anticipated year-end show, The Six-Sided World. This exhibition serves as a testament to the gallery’s commitment to showcasing the multifaceted brilliance of both emerging and established artists. The chosen theme, a cube, symbolizes the depth and diversity of the 73 participating artists, whose creative voices collectively shape the ever-evolving landscape of Philippine visual art.

JUXTAPOSED: BETWEEN ORDER AND COMPLEXITY Carlo Tanseco | Art Fair Philippines 2021 May 6 - 15, 2021 Carlo Tanseco is well-known in design circles as a maverick – a product and furniture designer frequently featured in CITEM, an architecture graduate, an entrepreneur connected with various businesses. But he kept a secret passion that took him years to have the time and opportunity for. This first solo painting exhibition by Carlo Tanseco explores pattern and order on the one hand, and liberation from patterns, and by extension, the prevailing social order or the limits we impose on ourselves, on the other. This is his first painting exhibition; something that he took years to transition in to this medium, is his personal expression of breaking free from his usual forms of expression and creativity to pursue this passion which started since childhood. Several series comprise this solo exhibition by Tanseco. A series on heroes both national and artistic, mythological figures, and a portrait, that are visually tied together by a graphic rendition of pattern and symmetry comprise the show. Knowledgeable and witty, the images he produces show the hallmarks of an artist confident and in an advanced state of development. Conceptually, they are all of idealizations – myth, nation, hero, icon – which presage the trajectory of this artist, whose initial foray shows a mark of matured visual identity, ripe for a full artistic career in the visual arts. -Ricky Francisco Press Release Carlo Tanseco Juxtaposed Between Order and Complexity ANC - Carlo Tanseco Art Fair Philippines 2021 People Asia - Carlo Tanseco Art Fair Philippines 2021 Esquire ph - Carlo Tanseco Art Fair Philippines 2021 “I love pattern, order, and symmetry. This exhibit is all about depicting order and then breaking that order, so that a new figure or realm emerges and opposes it. It is about uniformity and consistency yielding to something that is free, defiant, and unique. It is about ideas that challenge the system.” – Carlo Tanseco Ocula - Art Fair Philippines 2021

KAMUNDUHAN ART SANCHEZ | CES EUGENIO | HAMILTON SULIT | ISADORE LERIO | JOHN LERY CAPILI LOTSU MANES | MICHAEL DE GUZMAN | PAULO BARRERAS | RANDO ONIA | SEVERO BARING 25 JULY 2020 KAMUNDUHAN 25 July — 15 August Kamunduhan: (Dis)enchantments with the World “Kamunduhan,” which translates to “worldliness” is double-edged sword: it can be construed as either negative or positive—or both. The negative connotation, of course, signifies the unfettered desires of the flesh, which can only transpire through embodiment in the world. The positive meaning suggests a sharp awareness of what is happening around us, coupled with a call to action to address the lack, the injustice, the impoverishment of the world. In this group exhibition, which features artists from Rizal Province—a long-time bastion of the arts—the twin definition of the word is unsheathed, evoked by works that reveal how our being in the world is shaped by various forces: from the inescapable imperatives of the body to the complex strictures of society. What is present in most of the works is a keen awareness of desire, and how this desire drives both creativity and destruction, both life and death. For Art Sanchez, who has curated the exhibition, as well as Lotsu Manes, whose early exhibition prompted the title of the show, “kamunduhan” portends to a fulfillment of eschatology, the philosophy of last things: bodies massing together in some kind of Biblical judgment, the reckoning of humanity in the “darkest hour” (Sanchez) or the world itself as a globe half-submerged in liquid fire, presided over by scepter which has pierced through a bat, a suggestion of man over nature, whose karmic consequence is the boiling of the planet (Manes). In the works of Michael De Guzman, Kim Hamilton Sulit, and Isadore Gabriel Lerio, it is the body’s cursed flesh that takes center stage. In De Guzman’s work, the grinning mouth is seen through a warren of wires, obviously out of control, hence the need for restraint. In Sulit’s work, the seated figure is shown in a slow state of decomposition, with the head fully melted as the sex organ quietly drips away. Lerio, on the other hand, goes deeply into the body to metaphorically show the mechanism of desire, the seeming mindlessness of its operation. For Jhon Lery Capili, it is not so much the body as the mind that controls and regulates desire, sometimes verging on excess and wildness. Metaphor is the language used by Severo Baring who depicts a snake (a symbol of temptation), bearing a skull for a head, which signifies how untrammeled desire ultimately leads to death. In the work of Ces Eugenio, the emphasis is grounded on the sheer variety and complexity of the world: from metals (gold leaf) to the actual bones of an animal, to the painted pitcher plants of the natural world (which are, telling, carnivorous). In the work of Paulo Barreras, a constricted room symbolized the prison-like grip of a worldliness that doesn’t account for anything beyond eye can see, as evidenced by a floating empty whose roots attempt to reach out into space. Kamunduhan, as a whole, reveals its fascinations and disenchantments with the world, how our own embodiment is both prison and freedom (for how else could we navigate the space and time of the here and now?). It asks question on the nature of the body itself, how the desire that propels creation ultimately leads to the body’s own dissolution. In light of a pandemic, global warming, and ecological collapse, the exhibition jolts us out of our complacency, bringing our attention to the world, which may be the only thing we have. -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana VIEW THE EXHIBITION CATALOG

THROWN-NESS IAN QUIRANTE | WINNER JUMALON 22 August 2020 THROWN-NESS Ian Quirante | Winner Jumalon 22 August "If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself." - Martin Heidegger “Thrown-ness”, a two-person show by Winner Jumalon and Ian Quirante explores the state and feeling of being thrown into a new reality, a new normal where there is absolutely no escape. Thrown-ness borrows from Martin Heidegger’s reinterpretation of Dasein which is often translated into English as “existence”. For Jumalon, the experience of being thrown into a new reality albeit a dystopian one allowed himself to confront his very existence, his own sense of being. Jumalon also believes that the feeling of thrown-ness allowed him to discover his life’s meaning as a metaphysical being. It was not that long ago that the word “normal” meant something completely different for Jumalon and Quirante. In the beginning of 2020, both artists have found themselves thrown into a new world that is unfamiliar, unsettling, and at times terrifying. However, new terrains and new realities present new ways for mankind to come to terms with its very existence, being, and mortality. Oftentimes, new terrains present an opportunity for restoration and renewal. In the words of Arundhati Roy: The coronavirus “pandemic is a portal”. And as we are presented with this portal to a new, reimagined future, our minds tend to return to “normality” by holding on to the nostalgia of a bygone world, to find solace in the things that gave us comfort in the past. However, a rupture, an opening already exists and we are in the midst of it. Roy said that “historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine the world anew”. This is why the state and the feeling of being thrown into a new reality, thrown into the rupture that leads to a new world is a deeply transformative albeit an agonizing existential experience. The state and feeling of being thrown into this rupture is what Jumalon and Quirante are investigating in their two-person show Thrown-ness. Jumalon's imagery in Thrown-ness is, in certain respects, a visual iyaku—an “imperfect translation” of both his internal and external realities in the time of a global pandemic. As iyaku in Japanese culture is about capturing the essence albeit through an imperfect translation of the spoken and the written word, Jumalon's portraits are visual impressions of the feeling, the energy, and the atmosphere of a world that has been thrown into a prolonged state of uncertainty, bleakness, and ambivalence. His larger-than-life portraits are superimposed with natural motifs that are based on and inspired by objects that the artist collected during his daily engagement with his immediate natural environment during quarantine. The ambiguous relationship between the elements in Jumalon’s compositions—natural motifs that appear to melt into the human figures, and broad and violent brushwork that obscure and obliterate much of the human faces—resulted to the creation of portraits that are almost phantom-like. It was as if man/woman was melting into his/her environment, a form of self-transcendence, a metaphysical experience amidst a dark and unsettling landscape. As for Quirante, his idea of thrown-ness revolves around the recontextualization of his old drawings gathered from his visual diary. For Quirante, being thrown into a new reality presents an opportunity to revisit objects and images that are imbued with personal memory but with the intention of creating new meaning. In some respects, Quirante lifts from his past collection of works to make sense of a new and unfamiliar cultural landscape. According to him, although his process entails working with past drawings, his concern is not to create an autobiographical work. Instead, his creative impetus comes from his fascination with the act of constant editing without a fixed plan or end result. Quirante references the creative practice of William Burroughs who likewise featured an element of randomness in his body of work. For Quirante, the sense of thrown-ness is felt in the absence of a clear and defined visual narrative in his compositions that appear as disquieting dreamscapes. As the artist finds himself thrown into this troubling new reality, he creates works that reflect the uncertainty of the current zeitgeist. For Quirante, thrown-ness is about being fully absorbed in the creative process of constant editing, a process that is reflective of the existential need for greater adaptability and antifragility in the new normal that the artist has found himself in. For Jumalon, thrown-ness is about reaching a state whereby the artist is able to completely inhabit the present moment in spite of the pervading sense of desolation and uncertainty. The Japanese idiom ichi-go ichi-e which roughly translates into English as “This moment only happens once and will never happen again” captures the way by which Jumalon has engaged with his immediate environment during the pandemic. Jumalon’s involuntary isolation opened an opportunity for him to be deeply immersed in this new dystopian reality, and in response, create an impression of his daily struggle. -Patrick de Veyra VIEW THE EXHIBITION CATALOG

Happy Ending Arley Carig - Genesis Rovero - Josef Laureano - Orlando Ambas June 18, 2022 - July 9, 2022 View Catalogue Video

HOMEBOUND JULIUS REDILLAS December 14, 2021 - January 08, 2022 View Catalogue Video - Julius Claveria Redillas is Filipino artist who studied painting at Far Eastern University in Manila and has exhibited his works in various galleries in the country and abroad. Redillas is known for phantasmagorical themes and embellished subjects, this also includes distorting various images. Most of his works are portraits of individuals which he copies from photographs of people he sees online or from a book. His work may appear faceless but viewers can see from the silhouette the glimpse of the identity of the individual in his piece. Surprisingly, his viewers are able to identify the personas remarkably.

RESIDENCY XPERIMENTAL BY PJ CABANALAN RESIDENCY SOLO EXHIBIT JUNE 2018

NOON Azor Pazcoguin February 27 - March 20, 2021 The Supremacy of the Past Marami na ang nagbago at nawala, Dahil ibang-iba na ang NGAYON. Pero ang NOON ay NOON pa rin, Kahit baliktarin mo man ito. -Azor Pazcoguin The past is always a contentious time frame, the point in which events recede and become irrecoverable forever. Memory is a way to recapture what has been, but the way things go, memory—volatile, ever-shifting, flighty—cannot be trusted. We go to so-called official accounts for a more authoritative version of the past, but those, too, are prone to revision. Historical revisionism, a term that has come to light because of efforts to alter the narratives of the past, has become a perennial problem. Where else do we go for source materials to tell us how things were? In his solo exhibition, Noon, Azor Pazcoguin proposes that art may fill in the gaps as they provide the necessary function of documentation. In a suite of still lifes and portraits, the artist injects new life to obsolete objects as well as celebrities who have achieved iconic status. Using a monochromatic palette to underscore how these figures are inextricably linked to the past, Pazcoguin brings them back to the scrutiny of contemporary attention, each depicted individually on the canvas, surrounded by gray space, like some kind of icon or holy object. While to some, the images of still life—a push-button telephone, a transistor radio, a pair of Chucks, a sewing machine, an analog camera, a typewriter—are recognizable (and with some still in use in the context of the fashionable hipster lifestyle), they are presented with distortions, both minor and major, akin to screen glitches. The artist seems to portray them at the moment they are about to disappear from view, insisting on their forms for the last time. They are the vestiges of a time when life was simple and everything was done manually, whether making a dress or taking a picture. They are precursors to the powerful technology that we are currently enjoying, such as the cellphone or the laptop. But here they are in their outdated glory, less models of functionality than evocations of nostalgia, making their final bid to be remembered. Pazcoguin’s portraits have that aura of wanting to be enshrined for posterity. the subjects are depicted in the height of their fame and power, the absolute best in the fields where they belonged. In a self-portrait, Pazcoguin looks back at his youth with tenderness, simply because the years past can no longer be reclaimed. Noon, as a whole, is a tribute to the supremacy of the past, the black hole in which everything is bound to enter. Part of our lives, though we are still pretty much alive and with something to look forward to in the future, is within its territory, glimpsed only through lucid recollections or photographs. As what these paintings testify, memory is a primarily visual and, through the agency of art, may be impressed onto the canvas and onto the longevity of painting, in which the thing recalled gains a more enduring form. -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana VIEW THE EXHIBITION CATALOG

IN SACRED GROUNDS ARCHIE OCLOS 17 October 2020 In Sacred Grounds “We constantly take on challenges and move against the flow of life’s ordeals, despite us having to sacrifice our being. Art and culture are the marks of our being’s souls. – Archie Oclos An invitation and declaration from the maker, for the maker. Journey is often referred to as the act of moving from one point to another, accustomed to the idea that there should always be a point of destination and beginning. Are we merely messengers threading this journey just to reach one point? And if so, where are we now? And where precisely is the point? Seventy-seven white points. Seventy-seven white points. Seventy-seven white points.[1] Can we count points? Can we put colors on every point? And what’s the point of stating these points that I am pointing? Is the point of each point is not having a point at all? Am I playing or isn’t it just confusing? Perhaps, this is how we are now as people. The more we look for a point, the more we seem to be lost. Going We all have our beginnings. We seek for experiences. Experiences are the in-betweens of every point of origin and to where we are heading. And experiences, they have no endings. It traverses every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year. It connects different several points, much like lines that grips onto something, clinging on solid points of various façades of our innermost mind and spirits. Apparently solid, but having not one single formation or semblance at all. Those which can be blinding against bright lights and some repugnant in the dark. Some flourishing in abundance while others unkempt in indigence, clear and stark. Having no singular figures, forms are scattered in all directions. There are those in such great heights that make you dizzy but can also be found in deep undertows that make you drown. Those that move towards the left as the others turn right, those just going opposite paths. How do we experience the in-betweens? Do tensions rest on the opposing sides or in the middle lines? There is violence in silence. There is chaos in peace. There is something missing amidst aplenty. And if ever there is an end to this, do we head directly towards that point or do we respond to the middle call? [1] In Filipino: Pitumpu’t pitong puting – excerpt from a tongue twister popular in childhood games Staying Staying does not equate to halting. If one is deliberately pausing or exploring a sense of permanence, it allows a deeper emotional intervention. It consents to a prosperity of emotions. Emotions cannot be forced, rather fully embraced and owned, it is something to be savored for better and well discerned observations. When perception gathers validations of current moments, it attempts to make sense of whatever is the present condition. Chronicling every shape, curve, and mold of our surroundings that build our connections; silhouettes that are meager, thick, and moderately-spaced; forms and lines that are straight, curved, and can sharply scathe. Repeating patterns that are contingent of the times and as if independent of its own motion and governance. Permanence, while often compared to convenience, may be considered as a way of making. Making sense in a recurring reconnaissance of chances that recognize our right to make and right to create. How do we experience moments? Is it in seizing or in advancing our chances permitted by time? There is rest in struggle. There is illness in wealth. There is something growing amidst the abyss. And if ever there is a chance for us, can we form and project truths that we still haven’t seen or yet perceived? Moving Our being and our lives come with a perpetual movement of our own history, present, and future. From our acts unraveled by times and moments we have navigated, we make sense of what was left behind, certainties we move with, and what events will unfold from it. It seems that history is being left behind as we move along with the present times, while we simultaneously try to open up possibilities of the future that has yet to come. The grounds where we move from and where we are headed to. This is our ground. These are our experiences marked by scratches, taints, and entrenchments. These are battle scars that serves as our solid and earnest foundations. These are the blots and strokes of warning and hope. This is the place where we strengthen our resolve as people. The place where paths cannot be defined by a definite line, but can be felt in the roots of our land – founded by our ancestors and cultivated by the sincerest of successors. The common experience we have now maybe worse than any deadly disease. Yes, we might be in our darkest, but nature will continue to favor and possess its own fairness. And if we ever lose sight, we can always spare a thought that there are sparks amidst the absence of light. We’ll remain suspicious. We, the makers, we make our state. - Eya VIEW THE EXHIBITION CATALOG

AN ORDINARY MAN, AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE BOOK LAUNCHING ELMER BORLONGAN 03 MAY 2019 Elmer Borlongan’s two- volume book: “An Ordinary Man, An Ordinary Life” will launch on May 3, Friday. It’ll be from 3:30 to 7:30 in the evening at Art Cube Gallery.

ART CENTRAL 2018 27 March - 01 April 2018 Art Central Harbourfront, Hong Kong JOVEN MANSIT About the Works The works of Joven Mansit are post-colonial examinations of the Filipino identity in crisis—a mutable and mutating entity that grapples with the weight of historical baggage and the present claims of modernity. Referencing and appropriating old Filipiniana photographs (usually of men and women wearing fin-de-siècle dresses and ornaments), Mansit is notable for disrupting figurative harmony by introducing seemingly off-tangent and dissonant elements as a way of questioning and unsettling the arrogance of the past, historical records, and the collective memory. In this suite of works, Mansit resuscitates the portraiture of yore, complete with the degradation of the medium of the photographic image. Two figures are depicted either submerged in water or, perhaps more accurately, in the process of disappearance. Each wearing a pair of horns, all go about their lives in utter nonchalance, with most of them directly looking at the viewer. Their gaze accuses not so much because of the appearance of this incongruous physical appendage but how it has been violently sawed off, which robs them of a vital protection. Possibly, the horns allude to a pre-colonial connection to the animal kingdom, as evidenced by a man shown beside a beast of burden that has grown a pair of stupendous horns. This symbolism notwithstanding, Mansit has created a series of paintings that re-imagines the past through the lens of the uncanny. About the Artist Based in Antipolo, Rizal in the Philippines, Joven Mansit has had five solo exhibitions to date: Vignettes (Canvas Gallery, 2016), Surface Tension (Pinto Art Museum, 2015), Ulat Panahon [Weather Report] (Boston Gallery, 2012), Dimas Alang (Art Verité, 2011), and Camera Obscura (Boston Gallery, 2008). He has also participated in various group shows, such as in Taipei, Copenhagen, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. In 2013, he was shortlisted in the Ateneo Art Awards, a prestigious competition in the Philippines that honors notable exhibitions by young and mid-career artists. *** JOSE LEGASPI About the Works No one in the Philippines has arguably come close to the iconography that Jose Legaspi has evolved through the years, which features a terrifying, pared-down, monochromatic realm that has the shades and textures of nightmares. Through figures possessed of dark intent, he maps out the deepest areas of the human soul where the most profound fears reside, confronting the viewer with a mirror-image of a version of himself he doesn’t wish to see. Sinister and deeply unsettling though they may be, the paintings are irresistible in their magnetizing power, searing their image on the retina and the mind. The works of Legaspi are difficult to avert one’s gaze from. They are also unforgettable. In works that seem to be connected by a narrative thread, Legaspi presents to the viewer his vision of a post-apocalyptic man, seated on a chair evidently deranged or crouching on all fours, his skin breaking into boils or leprosy, which is Biblical in its associations and horrific effects. Here is a figure that has gone past beyond breaking point, physically and psychologically ravaged. His predicament seems to be helpless as he inhabits a house bereft of creature comforts and reduced to its most severe silhouette. In one painting, the walls have closed in, claustrophobic, the man gone. His absence in the context of this unforgiving environment seems like a respite. In certain cases, Legaspi seems to affirm, death could be more preferable to life. About the Artist Jose Legaspi is one of the most notable artists from the Philippines working today. With a career spanning almost 40 years, he has had solo exhibitions in, aside from his home country, the United States (Phlegm, Art in General; Performance at the home of Shirley Nakao), Hong Kong (Nightmare Obsession, Flipside), and Australia (Profane Corpse). He has also participated in group shows in England, Japan, China, the US, and the Netherlands, among others. His works have also been featured in various international publications, such as Contemporary Asian Art, published by Thames & Hudson. *** GUERRERO HABULAN About the Works In works that explicate the various layers that constitute biography, Guerrero Z. Habulan problematizes the idea of a unified, coherent self—a fictive invention that is promulgated to side-step the paradoxes of living in the contemporary moment. His stylistic and thematic approach is necessarily overlapping, complex, highly textured. By so doing, his works are less of a composition than a composite of elements, at once amplifying and subverting each other. At home in the liminal space of opposing energies, Habulan transforms the pictorial surface as a highly-charged stage on which to evoke human destiny as a state of flux. In this suite of works, one sees a central figure whose head is crowned by another head: that of an old man in one painting, and that of what appears to be a classical sculptural rendition of Mother Mary in another. This superimposition of faces underscores how the past (and the history of art itself) constantly impinges upon the present by way of genes or influence, as if to affirm that we are all but accumulations of lives already lived and traditions already established. Serigraphic details such as cranes and pulleys, which convey perpetual building and transformation, introduce a mechanical element to what could have ended up as the slick surface of hyperrealism. The old and the new, the figurative and the abstract, the hand-drawn and the mechanically-produced all jostle together in these works that flesh out the manifold contradictions of self, identity, and history. About the Artist Guerrero Z. Habulan is a full-time artist based in the Philippines. He has had ten solo exhibitions in the Philippines and Singapore, with Disneytopia (BenCab Museum) as the most recent. A multi-awarded artist, Habulan gained recognitions from the 18th Metrobank Young Painters Competition and the 35th and the 36th Shell National Students Art Competition. In 2012, he became an artist-in-residence at Artesan Art Gallery in Singapore. Recently, Habulan was one of the recipients of the prestigious Thirteen Artists Awards of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. *** KEB CERDA About the Artist Keb Cerda is an artist based in the Philippines. He finished a degree in Advertising at the Technological University of the Philippines. He held his first solo exhibition, Powerplay, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2015. He has also participated in various group shows such as in Boston Art Gallery, Pintô Art Museum, West Gallery, and Art Verité, among others. He describes his art as a “psychological voyage” that intrigues the viewers “in the many features of painting” while giving them “a worthwhile visual experience.”