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

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

Across Structural Realities Rene Bituin, Sarah Conanan, Rhex Dacaymat, Zuh Dai, Teo Esguerra, James Fowler, Hannah Nantes, Mark Nativo, David Ryan Viray 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 Traversing Realms In Across Structural Realities, recent works by Rene Bituin, Sarah Conanan, Rhex Dacaymat, Teo Esguerra, James Fowler, Hannah Nantes, Mark Nativo, David Ryan Viray and Zuh Dai cross concepts, visible spaces, and pressing concerns in this post-pandemic world. James Fowler's painting of a deteriorating concrete post serves as a reminder of the fragility of our constructed world. Rene Bituin's works use patterns from camouflage, rock formations, and human-propelled renderings of ever-spreading crystallizations juxtaposed against the organic lines of a tree trunk, in one of his pieces allowing natural matter and angular shapes flowing out to the open. Sarah Conanan's Mothering features a grown cat caught on canvas with a dead bird, seemingly confused whether to attack or nurture. In Start Them Young, she portrays a curious kitten playing with the dead bird, raising questions about the relationship between creatures and their awareness of mortality. Teo Esguerra's Low Frequency Noise Box features collaged images of crushed fabric compared to water, a beach, and a figure. Wave Sample, Reverb + Delay features another pieced-together collection of images, this time drier with its depiction of leaves and earth, a pathway, and a child looking out into the horizon. Both pieces are interspersed with pink lines and shapes, underscoring random beats visibly pulsating. David Ryan Viray's Left Handed Painting showcases objects that surround and represent the artist's studio life. In his bigger piece, The Right Handed Painter, a detailed anatomical rendition is overlapped with a mapping of creative flow, the artist’s blood tracing energy as it builds strength before being impressed on canvas. Mark Nativo's monochromatic scenes of figures outside home structures convey a sense of despair and uncertainty, reflecting the anxieties of the present and uncertain futures. Rhex Dacaymat's petrified tree branches in grayscale portray the beauty of nature frozen on canvas, a visual scale of white, gray, and black with shades from bright to dark and punctuated by a vibrant spurt of crimson. Zuh Dai creates a molded acrylic painting with comics and anime-inspired spliced images that bring pops of process colors, varying planar depths, and clearly delineated, zoomed-in imagery that plays with the fragmentation of the figurative to usher notions of the abstract. Hannah Nantes presents paintings of vintage plates in A Well-Curated Display and A Thin Veneer Of Mahogany, showcasing the artist's attachment to nostalgia and traditional design as she engages memory and tweaks it to compare and contrast with the more formal ornamentations of fine China mounted against a humble wooden setting. 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. Kaye O’Yek 1/1

Forever Young | January 11 - February 1, 2025 Forever Young Martin Maturan January 11 - February 1, 2025 1/6 View Catalogue Video Press Release In Forever Young, Martin Maturan unveils a new collection of oil on canvas works that deeply explore how important it is to heal the inner child. In this latest exhibition of recent works, the artist delves into the delicate process of revisiting formative experiences, acknowledging hidden wounds, and embracing the innocence and joy that once defined our youth. Through his intricate brushwork and emotive palette, Maturan paints narratives that are as deeply personal as they are universal. The canvases teem with imagery that bridges the gap between reality and memory—playgrounds frozen in time, nostalgic objects imbued with symbolic meaning, and figures that appear to echo and merge with their surroundings with the addition of motion lines. By showing us this dreamlike and delicate world, Maturan seemingly invites us to be where healing begins, coaxing us to confront vulnerability while rediscovering untainted wonder. The artist employs warm, vibrant tones of burnt umbers and rich browns to evoke a sense of comfort and safety, juxtaposed with subtle shadows that hint at the struggles of growing up. The recurring motifs of toys, carnival rides, and open skies act as symbols of freedom, play, and pauses in time, specifically meant for leisure, now certainly hard to find. However, beneath these idyllic surfaces lies an undercurrent of longing—an unspoken yearning to mend fractures and reconnect with the self. Maturan’s layers of paint overlap like memories, creating dynamic compositions that seem to oscillate between clarity and muddledness. Through his pieces, the artist skillfully uses this interplay to suggest the fragmented yet enduring nature of childhood recollections. Forever Young encapsulates the exhibition’s ethos: that within every individual resides a timeless essence untouched by the weight of years. By confronting the past and embracing the inner child, Maturan suggests, we unlock the potential for emotional and spiritual renewal. Through this deeply personal collection, the artist reminds us that nurturing the inner child is not just an act of healing, but a celebration of the enduring spirit that makes us whole, and we can hold onto it—forever. -Kaye O’Yek

Dreams From The Abyss | September 10 - October 01, 2022 Dreams From The Abyss Christian Carillaza | Isadore Lerio | Jan Sunday | Jessa Almirol Popoy Aspiras | Rhaz Oriente | Rhex Dacaymat September 10 - October 01, 2022 1/5 View Catalogue Video Press Release Monochromatic Visions of the Void: Dreams from the Abyss In one of his most-oft quoted philosophical passage, Friedrich Nietzsche states: “And if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” The abyss has been interpreted as symbolic of many things, but little attention has been devoted to the act of gazing itself: the courage to look into life’s immense mysteries, which is the preoccupation not only of religion and philosophy but also art. For this group exhibition, Dreams from the Abyss, Christian Carillaza, Isadore Lerio, Jan Sunday, Jessa Almirol, Popoy Aspiras, Rhaz Oriente and Rhex Dacaymat look into the interiority of darkness and, through various media and figurative possibilities, express their visions of this fitful encounter, employing only the starkness and urgency of black and white, and the various permutations of gray between them. The result is an exhibition that thrums with primal vibrations, as our eyes navigate images which are at once solidly outlined and unmistakably fugitive. Central to the explorations of the artists is how black and white represent the beginning and the end, life and death, good and evil, which constitute the story of creation itself. For some of the artists, the demarcation lines are blurred. For instance, in the works of Carillaza, the candle flame may be from a birthday or a funeral, the shroud may be for a newborn or a deceased. Sunday, on the other hand, interrogates the so-called duality of the human and the divine, the sacred and the profane, through assemblages and prints that juxtapose religious iconography with mundane objects. Other artists choose to explore encompassing themes. In a painting by Aspiras, the still life genre of vanitas offers a view of time as finite not only on a human scale, but on a universal perspective. Another painting, this one by Dacaymat, ventures into abstraction, which shows how complexity may evoked through vigorous strokes of the brush, underscoring how the seeming orderliness of things gives way to chaos. Materials, in the works of Lerio and Oriente, become the vehicle through which they reckon with their respective interpretations of the abyss. Lerio looks into the behavior of objects once mixed with others, suspended in the intermixture of oil and water. The artist was able to come up with highly-textured “dark formations,” which they then translated to an oil-on-canvas painting. By placing a “pie-shaped black print acrylic glass” in the corner of two adjoined mirrors (with another one underneath the object), Oriente, this time, produces the illusion of a whole—a circle that gives visual form to the void itself. Dreams from the Abyss presents black and white not merely as an aesthetic or a stylistic choice, but as a powerful signifier of archetypes, which are deeply rooted in our psyche and which we employ to make sense of the world and our story within it. Regardless of who we are, we are bound by forces that control everything from the atom to the star, the light and dark that brackets existence. This exhibition provides us with profoundly ruminative works that make these forces intelligible. -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

Fairest of the Seasons Nina Garibay February 10, 2024 - March 2, 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 Fairest of the Seasons "Now that I see Now that I finally found the one thing I denied It's now I know, do I stay or do I go? And it is finally I decide That I'll be leaving in the fairest of the seasons.” -Nico, The Fairest of the Seasons In the relentless and isolating complexity of contemporary life, Nina Garibay, like many of her millennial and younger counterparts, has navigated her way through self-crafted coping mechanisms to endure the fast-paced challenges of existence. Finding solace and a momentary escape in her creative process—meticulously cutting and pasting magazine pages into sanitized compositions—she appropriates the illusions of glamour to distill a sense of peace of mind. In her current reflection on maturity and growth, Nina discovers a fitting metaphor in the cycles of planting, blooming, and decay manifested in her latest series of oil paintings. Titled Fairest of the Seasons after Nico’s eponymous song, the exhibit reveals Nina’s appreciation of the genuine growth that arises from wholeheartedly embracing and immersing oneself in the changing seasons of life. Choosing to embody the archetypal Fool leaping into the unknown, akin to the bathing-clad figures in It’s Time, she attempts to capture the beauty found in transient imperfection and the offering of oneself to the natural progression of existence, embodied in the fresh green background and the open-armed figure in Welcome. But beneath the curated picturesque compositions, one senses an underlying plea for freedom—an earnest yearning for open fields while confined within paper-cut molds. It is a plea to transcend self-imposed inertia—cutting and pasting paper collages that outline an escape plan or constructing a bedroom shrine for a personal god on a new-age manifestation board. Once revered as gods shaping both the inner and outer lives of communities, seasons in contemporary times are relegated to tracking the lifespan of trends, indicating when to change one’s wardrobe (Shiver, Burning Bush). More than reinterpretations of still life and landscape paintings, Nina’s concept of fairness (beauty) is an appeal for righteous order—a plea to be dealt what she deems fair and just: an open field, peace, freedom from complications or constraints. However, much like the magazine pages from which these ideas are extracted, they are ultimately limited and alienated from context. Trapped in the eternal present, the seasons fail to impart their wisdom, resilience, and healing to this distracted generation. Nina reflects on a culture of superficiality and disconnection, lamenting and aspiring to transcend this vacuum of identity. She yearns to gain a deeper grasp and a sense of footing (Arrival), a broader perspective beyond the glossy surfaces of magazine pages or cell phone screens, aspiring to touch real grass on the other side of virtual reality. Through paper-thin studies, the artist meticulously cuts, as if inscribing the details of a silent manifesto—a quiet discontent amidst perfected images. "I want. To be. Free.” Alee Garibay 1/1

Anyo | August 10 - September 7, 2024 Anyo Kendall Colindon August 10 - September 7, 2024 1/9 View Catalogue Video Press Release In his solo exhibition, Anyo, Kendall Colindon juxtaposes the serenity of nature with the bustling energy of cityscapes, offering a visual dialogue that merges our origins with present-day realities. Through his contemporary depictions, Colindon emphasizes sustainability and the importance of living alongside nature, rather than attempting to dominate and stamp it out with human force. Some of Colindon’s paintings present an ideal scenario where urban and rural environments coexist in harmony. This vision challenges the traditional narrative of competition between nature and urbanization, proposing instead a symbiotic relationship. As the artist states, “As we move forward, let us remember that the reality of our world is intertwined with the natural world around us, and we must strive to find a way for both to thrive in harmony.” This precarious balance between nature and urban life is essential to prevent cataclysmic outcomes. Colindon’s work often reflects this delicate equilibrium. In some pieces, urban decay is portrayed, highlighting the challenges faced by the urban poor and the deteriorating quality of life in neglected city areas. These works serve as a stark reminder of the fragility of our constructed environments and the importance of sustainable urban planning. The devastation of natural disasters, such as the recent Typhoon Carina, is also hinted at in a few Colindon’s paintings. These works underscore the dominance of nature, illustrating how our attempts to control and overcome natural forces with streets, bridges, and buildings are ultimately temporary. Civilization, in the grand history of the planet, is merely a fleeting moment in Earth’s existence. Rather than denying nature’s dominance, Colindon advocates for acceptance and integration, urging us to build our cities in ways that respect and preserve the natural world. His textured patterns, rendered in muted shades and tones, underscore the energies that lie beneath the surface. Colindon’s vision is clear: “Co-existence of nature and modernization is not only possible but necessary for the well-being of our planet. By recognizing the value of nature and taking steps to protect and preserve it, we can ensure a brighter future for all.” -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

Behind the Everyday Ross Gadiana August 2 - 30, 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 The Gravity of Small Gestures In Behind the Everyday, Ross Gadiana pursues a line of inquiry that transcends surface depiction. He isolates the mundane not to sentimentalize, but to elevate its being; to press into its form and structure until it yields the sublime. The works on view proceed not from invention but from recognition. Titles such as Uhaw, Kasalukuyang Yakap, Muni, Ulirat, Self-care, Loob, Sigaw, Hinahon, Malay and Hapag signal the artist’s interest in actions so ordinary they are often invisible. A person drinks water. A painter paints. Someone zones out while looking at his reflection while plucking thorns from his face. These are not performances, not rehearsed or posed. They are captured as they happen, undramatic yet emotionally precise, reflecting life as it is lived. Gadiana’s realism is conceptual rather than merely mimetic, making not only replications of reality, but distilled experiences of it. The method, anchored in oil on canvas, then expanded with hardwood, resin, and natural elements such as vine, tethers each piece to both tradition and nature. The artist’s choice of material and the tactile presence of his surfaces demonstrate an awareness of the medium as more than vehicle. The heavy hardwood frame becomes scaffold, the vine an echo of life’s entanglements. These become not only accessories to the image but integral components of the composition, extending the painted world into real space. In addition to his wallbound pieces, he includes a challenging assemblage, The Roots, Vines and Thorns, which is meant to be viewed in the round, though not too close. What Gadiana understands, and what this exhibition makes clear, is that art does not need a grand narrative. It needs necessity. Each brushstroke, whether tracing from a photo study or laid down freehand, asserts a kind of ontological truth: that meaning accrues in repetition, in dailiness, in the labor of simply being present. In these works, there is a gravitas that emerges not from scale or spectacle, but from the refusal to look away from the commonplace, and in the assemblage previously mentioned, one simply cannot draw on self-control to resist. If modernism taught us to see truth in material and form, Gadiana teaches us to find it in the repeatable actions of life: drinking, pausing, embracing, working. Behind the Everyday reminds us that these motions, frequently overlooked, are not lesser subjects. In an age enamored with spectacle, Gadiana’s work offers resistance, insisting that authenticity is not to be found in what breaks the pattern, but in the pattern itself. These artworks, humble in subject yet rigorous in execution, offer not transcendence but something perhaps more urgent: a return. To self, to space, to the acts that shape a day, and thus a life. '- Kaye O’Yek 1/1

Unveil Dave Alcon 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 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. Immediately after graduation Alcon worked as a graphic designer for nine years. Here he met like-minded creative people like him who valued the arts and revolved their lives around it. Yet even how much he set aside to be an artist the lure of paints persisted to no end. Common Ground is Alcon's ode to artists who like him kept the faith in the calling for the visual arts. In layers after another, Alcon skillfully recreates the unwrapping of his visual core in opened boxes, bubble wraps, and craft paper by showcasing his illustrative prowess using graphite pencil and acrylic paints. Even the plastic tale straw string representing the bondage from poverty makes an cameo appearance. His signature chairs are still present as an aesthetic accent--a remaining constant for his bespoke visual language. Notice the gold handle evokes hope and eternal positivity. Common Ground has the rudiments of skillful composition only Alcon can unravel. One can almost feel its surface and the texture of its ethereal materiality. In 2005, at aged 16, Alcon's mother upon learning that her son wanted to study Fine Arts in Manila, allowed him to join their relatives who were returning after a brief stay in Batanes. Adaptation I & 2 are two series interpreting the hard-earned realization of Alcon from the cultural norm and what can be and cannot be done in trying to survive in the city. These limitations are represented by the plastic tale straw strings and craft paper depicted on canvases. Alcon's inspiration was seeing all these packaging materials inside his studio even though he found difficulty in painting them. Struggling from a farming life back then, Alcon knew he did not have much opportunities in life. All his growing years he knew there were some things that he must aspire and what not. He became more appreciative of experiences that came his way, he was extremely focused in his drawings. Future Past 1 & 2 are for those hindrances even personalities around Alcon who tried to dissuade him from being an artist, there was an aunt who always called his attention when he was engrossed in his drawings. She even locked him out when he went home late after submitting an artwork in a national student art contest. Alcon will eventually win grandprize in that one and prove his detractors, including his aunt wrong. The foil symbolizes anything you can think of you can accomplish. The corrugated board stands for firmness in achieving your dreams. What makes an artist great happens not of his making but it happens of being in the world of seeing what is beautiful when everyone sees the mundane. In 2018, Alcon won special Citation Award at the Metrobank Arts & Design Excellence Oil and Acrylic Category. It was the sign that he was praying for to go fulltime in his art practice, Unleash tries to capture that coming out from his comfort zone. The bareness of white situates the freedom Alcon now enjoys at present. The freer the artist is, the more responsible and defining your art is. Unveil comes as a post pandemic learnings of valuing what we took for granted and what we still wished for- -only a grateful heart could come up with a show of such magnitude. Alcon has proven that Art is but a preparation for that bigger art, the art of Living. Jay Bautista Dave Alcon The lure to be contemporary is often affirmed by the young, Dave Alcon evokes a visual style that is one of the freshest to date. A native Ivatan, Alcon was born in Basco, Batanes. Graduated with a degree in Fine Arts major in Advertising at the Technological University of the Philippines -Manila in 2009. He won the grand prize in the ArtPetron National Student Art Competition and the Juror’s prize of the GSIS National Painting Competition during his second year and as PLDT Finalist the following year. In 2019, he received the Metrobank Art & Design Excellence (MADE) Special Citation Award for the Oil/Acrylic Category. After being a graphic designer for nine years, he pursued his passion and became a full-time visual artist since 2018 with five solo exhibitions to date. 1/1

Sinuous Architecture and Evocative Forms | Art Fair Philippines 2024 Sinuous Architecture and Evocative Forms Ramon Orlina Art Fair Philippines 2024 1/7 View Catalogue Video Press Release Sinuous Architecture and Evocative Forms features the new works by Ramon Orlina, the Philippines’ preeminent glass sculptor. Marking the celebration of Orlina’s 80th birth anniversary, this exhibition organized by Art Cube puts a spotlight on the artist’s seamless blend of architectural and figurative finesse and the delicate beauty of glass. Offering a veritable glimpse into a wide range of Orlina’s stylistic preoccupations—from genre themes such as mother-and-child and graceful nudes to abstract rhapsodies of geometric and curvilinear forms—the exhibition exemplifies the artist’s remarkable ability to evoke a harmonious balance between straight lines and graceful curves, as well as the interplay between solidity and ethereal transparency. With an acute eye for detail, Orlina’s sculptures evoke the sense of witnessing beauty distilled in his chosen medium. Each piece stands as a testament to the artist’s prowess in capturing the essence of fluidity within the static nature of glass, particularly exemplified by his inspired interpretations of the human body. Audiences will likewise be captivated by Orlina’s exceptional talent in transforming glass into mesmerizing works of art that effortlessly bridge two seemingly disparate worlds: art and architecture. Not too many people know that the artist is also a licensed architect, who fuses the elegance of his chosen medium with architecture’s emphasis on structural integrity. Orlina’s choice of glass as a medium—in his signature emerald green as well as in varying gem-like tones—allows the master to play with translucency, even the illusion of softness and movement. His every sculpture doesn’t have a back and a front: each can be appreciated in a multiplicity of vantage points, inviting the viewer to move around it and experience seeing how the work interacts with light. The exhibition holds profound significance within contemporary Philippine art, offering a compelling showcase of a master artist who remains at the pinnacle of his creative prowess. Never complacent and always pushing the envelope of his artistry, Orlina epitomizes his belief that an artist worth their salt doesn’t have the word “retirement” in their vocabulary. Sinuous Architecture and Evocative Forms celebrates the legacy of a visionary artist and reaffirms the significance of art as an essential conduit for exploring the beauty of human aspiration. Ramon Orlina’s masterful works serve as beacons of light for current and future generations, urging them to push the boundaries of medium, scale, and the limits of artistic expression. Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Ramon Orlina Ramon G. Orlina, a licensed architect, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas College of Architecture & Fine Arts in 1965. After gaining four years of experience at C.D. Arguelles and Associates, he founded Ramon Orlina and Associates, specializing in architectural works and project administration. Orlina is also a distinguished member of the College of Fellows of the Philippine Institute of Architects. In 1975, he held a solo painting exhibition on glass at the Hyatt Gallery in Hyatt Hotel, pioneering the use of glass as an artistic medium in sculpture by 1976. Since then, he transitioned full-time to the arts, exhibiting extensively in the Philippines and globally. Orlina boasts numerous awards, including the ASEAN Awards for Visual Arts in 1993, Third ASEAN Achievements Awards for Visual Arts in 1994, and The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Award in 2006. The Philippine Institute of Architects honored him with the Gold Medal of Merit Award in 2012, and he received the 2014 People of the Year Award by Stargate PeopleAsia. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte recognized his contributions with the prestigious Presidential Medal of Merit in November 2021. In 2022, he received the Gat Andres Bonifacio Award, the highest recognition for a Manileño. Orlina's commitment to heritage conservation earned him The Philippine Heritage Award, and his environmental efforts were acknowledged with The Green Gala Award in the previous year. Internationally, he secured the "Mr. F" prize at the 1999 Toyamura International Sculpture Biennale and won the First Prize in the Sculpture Category of the II Bienale International del Baloncesto en las Bellas Artes 2000 in Madrid, Spain. His glass masterpieces place him among global art luminaries, such as Dale Chihuly of the US and Bertil Vallien of Sweden. Notable among his outdoor works is "QuattroMondial," a 10.32 meters high, cast bronze and glass sculpture unveiled at the University of Santo Tomas in January 2011. Orlina's name is synonymous with glass sculpture in the Philippines, and he further solidified his legacy by establishing Museo Orlina in Tagaytay City, Cavite, in December 2013. Celebrating its tenth year, Orlina envisions expanding the museum to include a new wing for showcasing his collection of masterfully painted art cars.