Where is Home? Proceso Gelladuga January 15, 2022 - February 05,2022 View Catalogue Video SOMETHING MORE THAN JOURNEY By Kaye O’Yek As Filipinos seek greener pastures and opportunities abroad to provide for their families, a Negros Occidental-born contemporary artist living and working overseas longs for his native land. In his recent exhibition, Where is Home?, Proceso Gelladuga II dissects the transportability of sanctuary and living in transience. Movement and fluidity embody majority of Gelladuga’s works, as seen from his first exhibition in Boston Gallery, Flight of the Swans, in 2010, and continued with his Maleta series and Children of War dance performance in 2017. A disciple of dance since childhood, he is immersed in contemporary dance performance and choreography, which led to his career as a Hong Kong Disneyland cast member and a contemporary dance teacher, and into a fruitful personal and professional partnership with his wife and collaborator Nina. A self-taught artist, he was spurred into painting seriously in 2008 under the tutelage of Renato Habulan, though he has had decades of experience in drawing portraits and designing costumes for productions. Gelladuga’s experiences as an overseas Filipino worker informs his visual arts practice immensely. Moreso during the Coronavirus pandemic, the artist became a living, breathing definition of Filipino flexibility, as he had to add Zoom lessons to supplement his income during park closures. This also afforded him the time and quiet space to ruminate deeply about the global disaster and its effect on children caught in crisis, as head of a migrant family living abroad with a young daughter, and as a painter whose works anchor themselves on faithful renditions of physicality and agility in motion. With pieces resembling choreographies transferred into canvas, Gelladuga presents new paintings in Where is Home? with figures first imagined in Crossing Borders, a dance video choreographed and directed by the artist and his wife with the help of their dancer and videographer friends, shot and documented in 2019. Shifting bodies frozen as references make up most of the compositions that portray survival, strength, intimacy, grace and hope. Added to this are inspiration from the poignant words by British Somalian poet, Warsan Shire about mutable shelter brought about by adversity, Home, which reads in part: and no one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore unless home told you to quicken your legs leave your clothes behind crawl through the desert wade through the oceans drown save be hunger beg forget pride your survival is more important Survival is indeed of utmost importance, as man sees himself in a battle against the elements, in this case, the turbulent waters of the sea, and dark, looming clouds overhead. Dreamers Float portrays three figures in bright yellow life vests, perhaps psyching themselves for sustained endurance while waiting for rescue, refusing to be burdened by their traumatic pasts. Father and Child shows a man cradling his daughter protectively, going against the more commonly pictured mother and child motif popular throughout art history yet still providing notions of comfort and nurturance. My Strength and My Refuge, two pieces with seemingly similar compositions, show where an individual draws courage and fortitude in times of great hardship– with personal power buttressed by the support of intimate relationships and inspiration not only for the self to survive, but sustain a life of dignity with loved ones. Adrift references Gelladuga’s past Maleta series, with a suitcase resembling the weather-beaten safety colors of SOLAS-regulated liferafts pushed into shore by waves. Graphite on paper works continue Gelladuga’s depiction of water-drenched bodies in Refuge 1 and 2 immortalizing poses that underscore an end to the struggle, life guaranteed continued existence. Gelladuga’s Where is Home? asks viewers directly where they themselves retreat for sanctuary, and shows that home does not instantly translate to a roof over one’s head. Shelter is where one finds rest and subsistence, preferably in the company of family and friends, but home is often where, as they say, one’s heart is, regardless of country or international borders that welcomes refugees of all races. The artist’s treatment of water as means of washing away the dust and sweat smelling of the earth of one’s homeland, transporter of bodies and futures to foreign shores, and holder of consciousness and aspirations as one manages to remain afloat is carried by waves, splashes, and drips, with masterful brushstrokes drenching his pieces in longing and promise in equal measure.

ART AID: The ArtPh Online Auction Preview at Art Cube Gallery GET INTO THE SPIRIT OF GIVING! In partnership with Leon Gallery, the ArtPH presents Art Aid: The ArtPH Online Art Auction. This auction for a cause features exciting pieces from contemporary artists perfect as gifts in this holiday season! Proceeds of this unforgettable sale will be donated for the construction of a permanent evacuation center in Alcala, Cagayan, and will serve as support for orphaned babies at the Cribs Foundation. Headed by Julius and Christine Babao, Lori Juvida, and Chinkee Tan, this special landmark auction will be on December 12, 2020, at 2:00 p.m. (GMT+8). The Preview of lots is ongoing from December 09-12 at the Art Cube Gallery located at 2F Building B Karrivin Plaza, Chino Roces Extension, Makati City. Register to bid online: www.leonexchange.com View our website: www.leongallery.com Check out ArtPH's pages: www.facebook.com/ARTPHOnline www.instagram.com/artphonline.official/

PAST EXHIBITIONS 2026 Dark Days | January Rafael La Madrid In Dark Days, one of the two exhibitions opening 2026 for Art Cube, Rafael La Madrid turns to nature not as a sweeping vista but as something closer, more granular, and quietly insistent. His attention settles on the small and the often overlooked, allowing fragments of the natural world to carry the weight of reflection and endurance. Where The Land Becomes Still | January Jep Dizon In Where the Land Becomes Still, one of the two exhibitions opening 2026 for Art Cube, Jep Dizon offers his latest exploration of landscape painting—one that resists the genre’s habitual calm and instead presses it into unfamiliar territory. What he terms “hybrid landscape art” unfolds through the careful interweaving of landscape with other painterly traditions, notably still life and portraiture, allowing scenes to hover between place, presence, and objecthood. A Field Guide to Navigation | February Eri Abe Roads have long been considered foundational physical markers of advancement. They form channels through which movement flows—connecting places, bridging different cultures, shaping civilizations, and allowing the passage of people, stories, and goods. Still | February Arel D. Zamabarrano In STILL, Arel Distor Zambarrano presents two interconnected bodies of work that examine measurement, perseverance, and grounded positivity. The exhibition centers on the titular STILL, a 15-piece polyptych of considerable proportions, and Optimism Underpinned, a suite of 30 smaller works. Together, they articulate a practice shaped by discipline yet animated by motion, steady and forward-looking. Pagmamahal | February Demosthenes Campos Demosthenes Campos' Pagmamahal means love in Filipino, but in everyday conversation, it also signals something becoming more expensive. The dual meaning is tangential to this exhibition, because in a time when the pace of life accelerates at such a rush that we can barely cope and the cost of living continues to rise, what does it mean to speak of love? Has it, too, become something difficult to sustain? Can we still afford to love and be loved? FMLA | March Julio Jose Austria To encounter Julio Jose Austria’s paintings is to recognize them not as fixed endpoints, but as traces—residual evidence of a life negotiated across geographies, labor, and care. In this sense, his practice recalls the expanded ethos of Joseph Beuys, for whom the artwork functioned less as an autonomous object and more as a document of lived experience and social reality. Austria’s canvases operate similarly: they are records of endurance, migration, and interior weather. Don Bryan Bunag | February Don Bryan Bunag In Inhabitants, Don Bryan Bunag extends painting toward the condition of an inner environment—one that feels uncannily close yet remains fundamentally unreachable. Inflected by Immanuel’s Kant thought of “inner sense,” the means by which we perceive and represent the various states of the mind, the works situate the viewer before spaces that resemble thresholds, cosmic events, and scenes on the verge of transformation: domains that seem to recognize us, even as they seem estranged. You. I. Luv. | March Ian Inoy YOU. I. LUV. examines and enacts resilience as a historically produced condition shaped by colonial legacies, structural violence, and collective trauma. Grounded in the Filipino experience, the exhibition draws from postcolonial and trauma studies to question how resilience has been normalized as both a cultural expectation and a survival strategy. Rather than framing resilience as an innate strength, the exhibition asks how it is learned, imposed, and sustained across generations. Pastilan | March Rey Labarento Duality in life does not necessarily mean two distinct beings or situations. Sometimes it’s the same thing seen differently, meant differently. Visayan visual artist Rey Labarento explores this relationship in the exhibition “Pastilan.” Seams of Memory | March Winna Go In Seams of Memory, a major exhibition that gathers her recent works alongside a selection of early highlights, Winna Go (b. 1997) offers a generous view of her evolution as an artist, revealing a practice that mediates between Chinese and Filipino cultures, tradition and contemporaneity, longing and the idea of home. Organized by Art Cube and comprising 15 large-scale works, the exhibition contemplates the ways the two cultures are bridged—by memory, by material, and by the waters that once welcomed those who journeyed from the mainland to the archipelago. Somewhere In The Middle | March Lui Manaig The middle isn’t glamorous. It’s not the thrilling beginning, all urgency, freshness, and newness. It’s not the victorious finish line either. It’s the somewhat capricious stretch in between, the part where you pause, look around, and realize you’re still figuring things out. For a visual artist, this space can feel surprisingly and achingly fragile. There’s momentum, yes, but certainty? Rare. Plan B | April Groupshow The eleven artists in this exhibition share an understanding that things do not always go as intended, and that proceeding anyway requires a particular kind of grace. There is a phrase in Filipino that captures this: magaling magdala. It is the compliment you give someone who walks into a difficult situation and makes it look effortless. Someone who knows how to carry themselves, how to hold complexity without showing the strain, how to pivot when the ground shifts and make it seem like they intended to end up there all along. The works in this exhibition do not dwell on what went wrong with Plan A. They simply demonstrate what it looks like to have moved on. Unplanned Spaces | May Groupshow Painting is a slow form. It resists the pace of everything around it — the accelerated image culture, the speed of information, the feeling that the world is constantly mid-revision. To choose it, especially now, is not nostalgia. It is a particular kind of resolve. Terraforming | April Nina Garibay In Terraforming, Nina Garibay constructs a visual archaeology of power, how it is formed, imposed, inherited, and ultimately undone. Drawing from archival images of Egyptian, Bronze Age, and medieval Christian origin, many sourced from institutional collections such as the British Museum, the Vatican Museum and the Cairo Museum, her paintings assemble civilizations into composite fields where time collapses and authority reveals both its continuity and its limits.

REALIZE, REAL EYES, REAL LIES Reynold Dela Cruz March 27 - April 17, 2021 Award-winning visual artist Reynold Dela Cruz paints every single day. No day-offs or holidays. An old-timer in the art scene-- a trained worker--who painstakingly strives on a daily wage he foregoes to see a muse for inspiration to create. Like clockwork, he shows up at his studio upstairs from his home as soon as he wakes up. And while taking his morning coffee, he is already mixing his paints. This work ethic adheres regardless if ever he will have an upcoming show or not. As a responsible artist, he paints what preoccupies his critical mind and directly reacts to what is happening to his immediate surroundings. He is at the stage of his career where he can paint his heart’s desire and often expresses an opinion or two in the pieces he constantly churns out. Mind you, there is no same Dela Cruz painting—all are different, opinionated, and a visual feast. His current exhibition Realize, Real Eyes, Real Lies gathered during this pandemic may be his most political showing ever. Not leaving any stone unturned, these were his realizations. A play for words he has always been fond of—these are what he saw, these are the bare truths and these are his lamentations. The internet has been his pet peeve these days. A father of two boys, Dela Cruz remains aghast against the positive merits of social media. In Deadly Innocence, Dela Cruz speaks of how children had been lavishly corrupted and lured by information age/edge through the world wide web that they have turned into two-headed monsters that speak even wiser than their elders. Dela Cruz has raised the alarm of peril as he morphs a child into a lion resulting in a ferocious beast. Notice how Dela Cruz synchronized the faces in one unified image armed with bipolar meaning. Another fool in Dela Cruz’s vocabulary is pseudo collectors who use and abuse artists to lure them just to make a greedy sale. Eye on the Prize lends credence to how many bright people end up as false prophets leading to the wrong cause. They forget the artist at once as soon as they tricked them and flip his art for a bigger turnaround purchase. Dela Cruz remains a steadfast critic to guard against the tides of the prevalence of artificial art auctions and art fairs. Even Dela Cruz himself is torn by the decisions he makes. Evident to that is Contrary showing Dela Cruz undergoing conflicts that he needs to distance himself for discernment. In the end, one must always aim at the greater good. Dela Cruz is a deep man of faith and aided with Biblical connotations is Deceptive Forest. A poetic parable against the presence of evil that we are sometimes enticed by a beautiful face in its negative disguise. We immediately give in to temptation and resort to sinning. Dela Cruz sees this parallelism with our government’s relationship with China where we are promised sugar-coated plans only to be duped on a one-sided affair as we dwell deeper in our quagmire. Dela Cruz is a poet of irony that he can visualize his images concealed with his real intentions. His artistic prowess is you are seeing more than what you are experiencing. The State of Deception pertains again to the Chinese who have claimed our historical islands found in our maps and have even brought the virus on our shores. Dela Cruz however argues if we can really resist them as culturally and economically we are entwined since we have already been overwhelmed by their influence—our oldest ally dating pre-Hispanic times. Thorns have a reference again to the Bible of which Dela Cruz is well-versed. Represented by the fish, thorns signify burden as we are manipulated by how the power controls our lives only to end up being wasted themselves. Notice the neck ruffles which is a staple Dela Cruz connoting the rich exuding European parlance. A kind of postcolonial soliloquy in the making. The fluidity of the colors of Dela Cruz’s oeuvre is astounding. Your Smiling Face Dela Cruz starts with a beautiful image as a subject. He then researches the images and composes them around it—all related to the general theme or sentiment in mind. He then adds his signature wildflowers or lush foliage that would eventually complement the picture. Often he adds a fictitious element like a fire dragon which is a remnant of a bygone time he was doing henna tattoo by the beaches of Boracay during the late 90s. Flowers and foliage have occupied Dela Cruz canvases ever since Dela Cruz went to Mt. Pulag in 2015. He saw wild vegetation he could not forget them. He immortalizes them on canvas every chance he gets. He also depicts that we are in our forest that we ran blindly unaware of the unruly oats that grow and sow our fields of consciousness and morals. As soon as the paint has dried up and subsided, he slits his canvases using a cutter and ruler—this is a final act of redemption to know he is done. Only Dela Cruz does this supreme sacrifice which only shows his belief that nothing is sacred or permanent—that even the most beautiful images can perish, might as well do the sacrificial lamb. In a way, this is the death of the artist and Dela Cruz is fine with this mortality. In this ongoing pandemic, one cannot help feel a sense of fleeting moments—of uselessness and morose prevalence of going through the motions. One feels what it is to be slowly losing it as if time slipping away—as seen in Drifting. As two opposing demarcations face the challenge of just letting go. Dela Cruz is a master of illustrated animation. He conveys fluidity as he makes surrender look like ecstasy. A similar sense can be felt in Deep Sigh where one cannot breathe just by looking as if being wrapped in a feeling of anxiety, of being drowned from our sorrows and a sense of helplessness forebodes. A surreal sublime like a fish drown in its own water. Silent Moaning refers to those who remain defiant against the odds. Again a reference to Dela Cruz who uses art to get back at his detractors. In keeping their opinions to themselves yet they are shouting from within. It is hoped through Realize, Real Eyes, Real Lies Dela Cruz reminds viewers we should think before we act on what is right--not only for our children but simply fellow humans. As we bid our goodbyes after the interview, Dela Cruz was already painting his next piece for his next exhibition. - Jay Bautista VIEW THE EXHIBITION CATALOG

Imaginarium 01 - 04 March 2018 The Link Carpark, Philippines

PARADOXlKALYE GUERRERO HABULAN 21-23 February 2020 The Link Carpark, Philippines The Paradox of the Street and Self: The Philippine streets are the main sites where social, political, and economic interactions play out. In the absence of large plazas in which people can congregate for one reason or another (to protest, to worship, to reach critical mass), they go to the streets. EDSA, for instance, is mythic for having been the stage of a couple of bloodless revolts. Quaipo, with its streets and alleyways, has an equal pull on the imagination of the nation. The bombing of Plaza Miranda was one of the reasons used in the declaration of Martial Law, which in turn led to a string of political actions. This notable—and notorious—place in the capital remains as a nexus in which the forces of church, commerce, and contestation mingle and sometimes clash. Malls and shops in Carriedo all the way to Binondo and Divisoria jostle with street vendors who bet their lives for a chance to have a miniscule piece of the market. Folk religion, represented by self-appointed messiahs, sits side by side with the historic Quaipo Church where the beloved Black Nazarene is situated. Stalls selling herbs for the common and grave ills are framed by the imposing shadow of Mercury Drug. It is these paradoxes that Guerrero Habulan captures in his solo exhibition, PARADOXIkalye. For the artist, these contrasting forces don’t create oppositional dichotomy, but rather “an ironic union of elements reflecting the contradictions of the Filipino psyche.” In a sense, Quiapo is its own universe, in which the seeming opposites could inhabit side-by-side: the past and the present, history and memory, the mundane and the supernatural. Perhaps there is no other place in the country that contains such a terrific number of competing impulses that have organically cohabitated for decades, if not centuries. The common theme that runs through the works of Habulan is religious fervor, as represented by the Black Nazarene whose annual procession called Traslacion attracts millions. It appears to be the organizing principle that brings order to chaos, method to madness, pulling all the disparate threads together, not unlike the rope used by the devotees to tug the icon as they parade it through the street of Quaipo. The rich and the poor, the healthy and the ill, the hopeful and the hopeless find a shared meaning and devotion in the Black Nazarene. No wonder that Habulan’s format of choice is the diptych which conveys seeming dualities: Eastern and Western influences, the sacred and the profane, the old and the new. However, each work already bears its own constellation of significations—the hand-painted details alongside the abstract swirls and stenciled elements, apparent wounds against indeterminate backgrounds, and, more strikingly, the figures of Habulan that “contain multitudes”—identities that share a locus on a singular body. In presenting and highlighting these contradictions, Habulan underscores the crosscurrents and intersections of what constitute the Filipino identity. Quiapo, with all its extraordinary complications, is an apt metaphor, at once a visible and geographic symbol for all our hopes, longings, and aspirations. PARADOXIkalye poses that perhaps resolution is not the aim in terms of making sense of who and what we are in the collective but rather a radical willingness to find a home in the abounding paradoxes that hound the country in its post-colonial incarnation. - Carlomar Arcangel Daoana

Dark Days Rafael La Madrid January 10, 2026 - February 7, 2026 Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image Add a Title Describe your image 1/12 In Dark Days, one of the two exhibitions opening 2026 for Art Cube, Rafael La Madrid turns to nature not as a sweeping vista but as something closer, more granular, and quietly insistent. His attention settles on the small and the often overlooked, allowing fragments of the natural world to carry the weight of reflection and endurance. A duet or trio of moss-covered rocks is treated with the care usually reserved for rare objects. Set upon red cloth, isolated against black grounds, and enclosed within ornate frames, these stones take on an almost reliquary presence. They function as reminders of the planet itself—of how life, in its most modest forms, persists by clinging to what appears inert. Moss spreads, breathes, and thrives upon stone, suggesting that vitality does not always announce itself loudly. La Madrid’s landscape works extend this meditation through a different vantage point. The scenes unfold as if viewed from the mouth of a cave: a threshold where darkness frames an outward surge of flora and light. Rocks occupy the foreground, ambiguous in their role. They may be read as obstructions, or as markers signaling proximity to an opening—evidence that passage, however difficult, is possible. Taken together, these images carry the weight of symbolic passage. They recall the dark night of the soul—an interior crossing often undertaken alone and with little to sustain oneself beyond resolve. Yet the artist resists depicting despair as an endpoint. Instead, he paints the promise of emergence. Even within the cave’s shadowed interior, which offers its own form of shelter, signs of life and illumination persist beyond reach but not beyond hope. Dark Days marks the previous year which was shaped by uncertainty, loss, and misfortune. This exhibition becomes La Madrid’s way of acknowledging that passage while orienting himself toward light. What emerges is not a denial of darkness, but a recognition that endurance itself carries the possibility of arrival. '-Carlomar Arcangel Daoana 1/1

Dystopian Lullabies | September 6 - 27, 2025 Dystopian Lullabies Paul Eric Roca September 6 - 27, 2025 Paul Eric Roca-DSC04134.webp 1/5 View Catalogue Video Press Release DYSTOPIAN LULLABIES: Mga Guhit mula sa Librong Marka Demonyo Tila ugoy ng duyan ang sunod-sunod na paglilinya ng mga dibuho ni Paul Eric Roca sa Dystopian Lullabies. Ngunit imbis na ihatid tayo sa pananaginip ay dinadala tayo nito sa huling hantungan. Ang kanyang mga ilustrasyon at pintang inilapat gamit ang payak na itim at puti, ay lulan ng mga dalamhati – lingid sa paningin ang bigat ng mga tunay nitong kulay. Habang ang mga linya’t hagod ay mistulang paalala ng paulit-ulit na pighati. Pagkitil ang buod sa tanghalan ng mga biswal na ideya ni Roca, ngunit tulad ng maraming balintuna, kumikibot ang buhay ng budhi sa bawat piraso ng obra. Bawat pagmamarka ay ukit sa damdamin, at bawat imahen ay pagpapakita sa itsura ng halang na sikmura at pag-iral nang balisa. Matingkad ang mga ito sa paggamit ni Roca ng mga bahagi ng katawan, tulad ng mata, ngipin, puso, bungo at iba pa, na kanyang isinaliw sa talim ng tinik, pangil, kutsilyo, at karit. Sa pagitan ng lambot at talas, naroon ang kirot ng laman, sa wangis ng mga bukol at uka-ukang balat na bakas ng panloob na pagkabulok. Sa ganitong lagay, ang mga likha ni Roca ay hindi lamang pagninilay sa landas ng kamatayan, kundi isang hele ng panambitan hinggil sa kung paanong unti-unting nilalapa ng sarili nitong aswang ang ating lipunan. Ang mga ilustrasyong hango sa aklat na Marka Demonyo, gayundin sa kaniyang mga pintang Of Red Tape and Duct Tape at Litany of Lamentations, ay pagluhod at pagdarasal ng mga obra ni Roca hindi lamang sa Diyos ng Kamatayan, kundi maging sa Diyos ng mga Suwail at Ligaw. Ang mga ito ay panalanging hindi humihingi ng kaligtasan kundi pagsusumamo sa kaharian ng ating kolektibong bangungot. -Janine Go Dimaranan Paul Eric Roca Paul Eric Roca is a Filipino illustrator and painter with training in both Architecture (Enverga University) and Fine Arts (University of the Philippines). He has illustrated children’s books and educational materials, and worked as an editorial illustrator for The Straits Times for nearly eight years before joining Manila Bulletin. Roca’s solo exhibits—such as Interlude of Indifference and Creatures of Apathy—feature surreal, socially conscious works that reflect his concerns about apathy, identity, and political decay. e has been a semifinalist in the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence Competition and the PLD-DPC 23rd Visual Arts Competition, with works featured in the Ateneo Art Gallery and Art Cube Gallery. His recent exhibition Dystopian Lullabies (Art Cube, 2025) presented black-and-white illustrations and paintings filled with symbolic imagery—eyes, teeth, skulls, and thorn-like objects—reflecting decay, inner turmoil, and collective nightmares. Blending human anatomy with metaphoric textures, Roca’s practice blurs the personal and the political, expressing grief, protest, and reflection on the state of humanity.

REINFORCED Noel Elicana May 29 - June 19, 2021 View Catalogue Video Link That Which Gives Us Strength In his solo exhibition, Reinforced, Noel M. Elicaña presents what has become his recognizable visual language (a combination of gestural abstraction, symbolism, and dreamlike imagery, which the artist calls “social-surrealism”) in order to capture the inner truth and resolve of an individual as he faces life’s myriad challenges. Though it is easy to read his paintings within the context of the pandemic, Elicaña delves into the more enduring themes of spirituality “reinforced,” to use the title, by the agency of “family, experience, struggle, and faith.” One to use symbols rather than literal images, Elicaña has chosen to use architectural forms of support, such as hollow blocks and rebars, to reflect upon the interior constitution of man that enables him to withstand threats both from the inside and the outside, just like the hidden structure that holds a house together, protecting it from all sorts of disasters. In the paintings, one discerns a belief in man’s internal faculties and resources, aided by spiritual guidance, as represented by Christian iconography such as the Cross and the Sacred Heart. In some works, which include “Innate Rebars” and “Remember the Two Pillars,” these architectural forms of support are juxtaposed with depictions of skeleton, if only to highlight the invisible but important framework that makes both the body and the house maintain their shape and composure under not-so-ideal conditions. In the first work, one can instantly see the juxtaposition, underscored by a ghostly rendition of a heart which, for the artist, signifies that “our body is a church.” In the second work, Elicaña pays homage to his family, particularly his parents and guardians, his “invisible strength”: the “pillars” alluded to in the title. These pillars are of fishbones and human skeletons, “old yet valuable.” “Concrete Cross” is, perhaps, what best captures the artist’s social-surrealist temperament as it presents in a grand scale the collective journey of humanity as people try to find anchor in the tumultuous world. They ride a metaphorical heart whose arteries and veins extend to all things, underscoring how we are all ultimately connected. While it seems to be an attempt at an escape, the work is all about rootedness and finding comfort in the stability of the Cross. “The message is about strengthening the faith: to dig deep for a foundation,” the artist states. “One may observe that all the people have their eyes to the sky, hoping for a miracle.” What Reinforced emphasizes is that a miracle is not some distant phenomenon, but something that manifests in there here and now, through the solace of art for instance, if we only care to look. “In a spiritual way, I consider myself as a preacher and healer,” says Elicaña. “I want the audience to feel something through my works. What we need now in this time of pandemic is the spirit that can withstand all uncertainties. As an artist, it is my way not only to express but to inspire, motivate, encourage, and influence others to be reinforced in their life.” -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Noel Elicana A full-time artist, Noel Elicana graduated with a degree in BS Architecture at the Iloilo Science and Technology University. He hails from Oton, Iloilo and has been a recipient of various awards throughout his career. In painting, most of his influences are derived from Heironymus Bosch, a Dutch painter. Elicana feels connected to the form, context, and narratives of the artist’s works for it appears more personal and at times, depicts a social context. In this exhibit, Elicana aspires for his audience to bank on the spirit of his work. His core message is for the spirit to be reinforced and nurtured. In every crucial phase of human life, a spiritual force within the body drives the strength to withstand all physical, mental, and other uncertainties. Elicana aims to be the catalyst of spiritual inspiration and influence through his works. Elicana’s process starts with layering – usually coming out with abstract expressionism. His concept is developed from his first stage and he then visualizes how he wants the artwork to be completed after. His style showcases social surrealism and symbolism which allows him to explore his subconscious mind while narrating his personal experiences. Through this, he creates a space for people to resonate with his works. Elicana has garnered recognition throughout his career. One of his latest achievements is being chosen as a grand awardee for the Metrobank Art & Design Excellence (MADE) competition last 2018. He was also a top 5 regional winner for the Philippine Art Awards last 2019. His work has been seeing appreciation since 2013, through his connection with group and solo exhibitions at various galleries. He is also a participant of different art competitions around the country.

PAST EXHIBITIONS 2019 Drift | January Brave Singh Drift is Brave Singh’s sixth solo exhibition. It is a contemplative and nostalgic exhibition which is deeply personal, but at the same time, speaks of what social commentators popularly call the Philippine diaspora. Eight works, comprising of three portraits and five still lifes with framed landscapes paintings juxtaposed above them, make up the exhibition. Bautismo | February Martin Honasan Bautismo, the exhibit, is a continuation of my existing practice of exploring damage-based modes of production, creating work that is weathered, beaten, distressed, and using the physical language of painting (brushstrokes, manipulated surfaces, selected hues) to come up with a portrait. My aim is to highlight nature’s inherent tendency to move from an ordered state towards disintegration as it struggles to retain its form. In Habit | January Alee, Bam & Nina Garibay Inhabit as an exhibit, has a definite point of view. Those of the original inhabitants with a stake on what is happening to their community, concerned with how it has changed with the development that is happening in the province, and, in extension, with the country as a whole. Ecology, interpersonal and communal relationships, as well as themes relating to the unequal access to resources are highlighted. It is a poignant call to criticality about the quality of development we subject ourselves to, as we hurtle along with ever increasingly globalized economy. It asks us to pause and take stock of what we might lose, when we obsess on what we try to gain. Gap | February Jonathan Dangue In Dangue’s works, the entire brass sheet, which he has manually folded, bent, twisted, and cut; only appears to be the medium which supports the gaps which appear in them. In short, the entire work is premised on the holes which are on it. The gaps are more important than the entire brass sheet. Although rooted in the idea of suffering, Dangue turns the concept on its head, and uses the holes to create individuality, volume, and substance. It is an echo of creation, where something was created out of the void. Exclusive Access to New Works | January Aj Abelardo, Jerome Aspiras, Efren Carpio, Jep Dizon, Gerecho Iniel, Rafael La Madrid, Edwin Martinez, Alvin Paraguison, Marvin Quizon, Kim Santiago, Jukus Sepada & Jay Torres “Exclusive Access to New Works”, thirteen up-and-coming Filipino contemporary visual artists entitle viewers to the rare opportunity of experiencing their new works born from reflections on everyday living and a multitude of life events that celebrate the resilience of the human spirit. Tåy-og | March Arel Zambarano, Jason Delgado, Jeanrol Ejar, Jirah Labanza, Jonas Siva, Joebert Gayoma, Joemel Mirabuena, Jzy Tilos, Marvin Dalisay, Michael Delmo, Noel Elicana, Orland, Rommel Garde, Roland Llarena, Sabrec & Tyrone Espinosa Tay-og presents a critical resistance between the discriminating tastes of the commercial public combined with the lofty artistic ambitions of the young. Even as they are open to more raw approaches to art, they still value that paintings should be created for its social function and not lost in “painting for painting sake.” For You Caravaggio | January Kiko Marquez & Ynah Baltero For You, Caravaggio is a tribute to the master of shade and shadows, Michealangelo Merisi da Caravaggio by partners Kiko Marquez and Ynah Baltero. Caravaggio employed careful observation, to paint his subjects as realistically as possible. Focusing on both the body and the subject’s emotional state, he highlighted his compositions with dramatic lighting and shafts of shadows, to evoke a tension-filled mood. Such is what the two artists are attempting to do. Laman Loob | March Kendall Colindon, Christian Culangan, Kim Gaceja & Clark Manalo The environment we live in molds us into becoming who we are and contributes to every perception, perspective and opinion we make or will make. These sets of ideas slowly turn themselves into conclusion. Justified, it grows to become a form of concrete judgment, concrete judgment if rationalized and made into action feeding the perception, becomes a tangible irreversible resolve. Can we build a complete idea out of nothingness? Umå | March Paul John Cabanalan In Uma, his solo exhibition at Art Cube Gallery, Cabanalan once again brings his lavish attention to this place of beginning, of childhood, of continued existence—the teeming farmlands (uma is a Hiligaynon word meaning “farm”) which evoke multiple meanings for the artist: “the place where we get our food and livelihood,” “the place where I work from elementary to college to support my studies and family,” “the playground where I learned so many things.” Rise of Nation | May Jeff Salon Rise of Nation is part of the continuing saga in Salôn’s body of work that lends visual narrative to history. Embedded in his paintings is not merely a desire for concrete representation but something urgent and significant, especially in these dark times we are living in, and that is hope. Rise of Nation proposes that hope to be a collective strength. Karne ng Patay na Diyos | March Doktor Karayom Kolab | May Arnica Acantillado & Dondon Jeresano The title of the exhibition, Kolab, while it points at this welcome collaboration between Jereseno and Acantilado, also sounds as “co-love,” which signifies to a sharing of this deep, human emotion. Indeed, love and art can mix, often resulting in immense pleasures and glorious compositions. The viewer stands in awe at the works of these two artists who have expressed their commitment not only through being partners but through the brush making strokes on the expansive space of the medium of painting—a vow made visual. Volume 2: Birds on Honeycomb | April Clairelynn Uy Birds on a Honeycomb: Volume II deliberates upon Clairelynn Uy’s interest in the potential of the image not merely as a form of description of what is familiar to us in the world but a way of examining the complex labyrinths of the perceiving eye and mind. For in this suite of large-scale works, the artist quotes and subverts the illusionistic faculty of painting by doubling a side of an image, presenting only half a story or, rather, making the repetition itself as the story, resisting the fullness of disclosure in what is otherwise hyperrealistic figuration Paradox of Silence | May Renato Habulan, Guerrero Habulan & Proceso Gelladuga Paradox of Silence examines the gaps of the stories we tell ourselves about the world and our future within it. Will we go with a bang or whimper? Will we have been good stewards of the Earth? Who will we be in the culmination of civilization? Certainly, the future—if not the end—of man will be a complex scenario of decisions made, unmade, and not made. In the aftermath of history, human silence will become speech. City of Traitors | April Dave Lock In his recent collection of works, Dave Lock explores the subject of the human condition in a more emotional perspective. The works featured in this exhibition are portraits of people around him, or possibly those he have met at some point in life. In this show the artist dives deeper into the abandoned cavities of the human condition in where man’s darkest, most self-sustaining sentiments thrive, like bottom-feeders lurking on an ocean’s abyss. These things take root deep, but they hide beneath the outer mask of human decency because they fear exposure. Journey | June Sal Ponce Enrile Journey takes its title from the lone semi-figurative symbolist work in the collection of thirteen paintings which make up the show. The other twelve are abstract expressionist works with titles which seemingly describe her art (such as Ethereal, Cosmic, and Celestial); what she has had because of it (Stamina, Endure), or what her art has done for her (Comfort, Redemption). And these are apparent in the works that combine her luminous works, accented with wisps of gold, which seem to have the flashing rainbow play-of-color of opals. Transformations | June Jay Yao In the thirteen photographs comprising Jay Yao’s solo exhibition, the theme of transformation is apparent. Whether it is the the breaking down of dead wood into soil to give way to new life in a forest, or how a plant withers just as its berries ripen by the foot of tree stump, or how water from the sea evaporates to clouds; we see nature transforming from one form to another. We see life lose its shell to come back again to its primal state – how a tree becomes a seed, becomes a tree again. To live is to transform. Self. Shadow. Surface | August Kiko Urquiola For this particular exhibition, he further explores that metaphor of the innocence (self) and the helplessness (shadow), which when dissociated become prey to what is truly dark, violent, and evil. Pushing his creative boundaries, he presents unsettling figurative portraits of unparalleled beauty and unrivalled technical skills. Baring his figurative subjects and leaving them only with the most basic of clothing, he paints them with powerful gazes, intriguing movements, inviting flesh, and pensive expressions that are all too raw, poignant, and profoundly honest. Smoldering Refuge | September Isko Andrade, Lawrence Cervantes, Rafael La Madrid & Tony Mercado News of war, terrorism attacks, racial violence, refugee crises, collapsing economies, increasing marginalization and poverty, and the rise of authoritarian governments with their concomitant abuses, have continuously mounted and relentlessly continue unabated. We no longer live securely. It is a dangerous time to be alive. This precarity is the essence of the group exhibit “Smoldering Refuge,” featuring works of four young figurative artists, who are among the most sought after in their genre. Out of the Depths | October Kristone Capistrano “Out of the Depths” reveals the beauty and fragility of human mortality; the contrasts in black and white, darkness and light, correspond to the struggles and challenges of humanity. In this exhibition, we become enthralled by the fact that the drawings in front of us are charged with tales of people not too different from ourselves. In the artist’s words, the people behind these portraits speak and ask us, “Look at me. I am here. I am waiting.” Walk that Walk | November Lui Manaig Walk that Walk may be seen as a metaphorical mirror through which the viewer can gain access to what makes him different from the rest and, in realizing this, feels encouraged to embrace, cultivate, and enlarge it. No thumbprints are identical, and so goes with people who are endlessly changing, growing, and projecting different combinations of self. In presenting a discourse in body positivity, confidence, and individuality, Manaig dares the viewer to see difference as divinity Morphogenesis | July Erick Villarruz For Morphogenesis, Villarruz trains his eyes indoors, to the private domesticity of a home. Each work is a woven tableau of a receiving space, with a combination of a cushion sofa, chairs, and/or drawers, with an occasional view of a window or a door. What is present among them is an explosion of greenery: indoor plants that can thrive with minimal supervision. Being Human | August Gian Miroe Surban In Being Human, Surban presents a gritty, ghoulish and unwholesome introspective take on mental health using a language beyond the written and the spoken. Without glamorizing the already stereotypically discussed matter, he wishes to transgress multiple dimensions on what is truly happening in the lives of the victims and the preys when nobody is watching over them, and hopes to illicit dialogues between his art and his viewers. Sentiments | September Kim Santiago Sentiments is a thoughtful exercise in figuration, of how to convey transparency to the eye with the use of pigment. But more important, the show reveals the relationship of human beings with objects whose purpose is not merely utilitarian but offers protection, nourishment, and illumination. Father Figure | October Daniel Coquilla & Kris Soguilon In this two-man exhibition, Father Figure, Dansoy Coquilla and Kris Soguilon shine a spotlight on the father as subject matter, whose deeds and sacrifices are usually unsung. Both fathers who work during the day and create art during the night while still carrying the responsibility of being the head of their respective families, the artists feel compelled to essay the vital roles a father plays—from performing non-conventional tasks at home to doing their jobs with passion and integrity Nonlinear | November Renato Habulan, Benie Cabrera, Jess Santiago, Adi Baen Santos, Neil Doloricon, Fred Liongoren, Alvin Sales, Steven Natal, Mel Cabriana, Marvin Quizon, McCoy Lazaruz, Don Bryan Bunag & Lawrence Cervantes Fearful of their fate as witnessed in Non-Linear, these artists ponder in each of these works as one has been healed and honed further. Each has abled to paint some more in whatever life has to offer. With their tired manual hands outstretched in struggle, in these paintings they have emerged more conscious with fervor, as they uplift our people. You Sea What You Want to Sea | July Pogs Samson You Sea What You Want to Sea is meant to be an eye-opener, as what we currently choose to see is not aligned to the crisis of the times. Certainly, long-held cherished beliefs which inform our ways of thinking and seeing are hard to let go. But if we are to ascertain our continued existence as individuals and as a species, Samson engages us to root out the true evils that stalk our lives. Diabolic Charm | August Reynold Dela Cruz "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty” is a line from a poem written by the English Romantic poet, John Keats. It speaks of looking beyond what our eyes can see and understanding that the manifestation of beauty is valid if it is the truth. Reynold Dela Cruz’s latest one-man exhibition, “Diabolical Charm”, depicts beautiful women who are dressed and poised in a display of elegance and authority. Their heads are kept high without a hint of self-doubt or confusion but with condescending sneers, which command power to graciously invite their prey. :) | September Michael Villagante, Kenneth Santiago, Pisssquidhead, Wyndelle Remonde, Nissa Tayle, Lynyrd Paras, Gori, Josef Lauzeano, Somar, Doktor Karayom, Ata, Gus & Pau, Reen Barrera, Max Balatbat, and Arley Carig Under the ambit of the smiley, these artists come together to exhibit their works as a show of force and solidarity. For a few, this will be their first time to showcase their works. For some, this is just one of the many that they have participated in. No walls, however, segregate them. They occupy the same space of power and visibility. Like a big smiley spray-painted menacingly on the surface of the world, they will not be silenced. Romancing the Inevitable | October Vincent Padilla Vincent Padilla renders an urgent social concern by way of sculpture for this project. The composition is an installative collection of a hundred half-heads and five five-footer sentinels which give us as an instant sensation that reels from our soles. Our eyes actually are the first ones to feel this fizzle or current, as the impending suddenly becomes visible even without all other apertures of a mise-en-scène of a disaster. Magtanim ay 'di Biro | November Mark Lester Espina Magtanim ay ‘di Biro extends Espina’s sense of appropriation to homegrown works. For some time, he has been depicting works from the Western canon. The choice of Amorsolo may have emerged from a sense of affinity, as both Espina and the master are notable portraitists. This connection notwithstanding, the exhibit proves that Amorsolo’s legacy is inexhaustible. The Divine Comedy | July Tiffany Lafuente In the works of Tiffany Lafuente, a sense of menace always haunts privileged domestic interiors. It is her way of exposing the complicated and complex layers of human behavior: we may conduct ourselves as prim-and-proper and respectable on the surface, and yet we cannot escape our inherent animalistic drives and instincts. Everyday life is one tangled mess of various impulses if we only care to look. Renaissance | August Darby Alcoseba, Mark Belicario, Rainer Duhaylungsod, Crispin Bobier, Renulo Pautan, Maria Francisca Andraianne Juarez & Orley Ypon Renaissance celebrates the gains of the Italian masters and those who came after them through refreshing takes that make us look at the world around us in new ways. As what these artists show, figuration is still an important tool to tell the story of men and women whose dreams, hopes, aspirations, and struggles are never-ending. There are no new stories, only new story-tellers. The artists of this exhibition are telling us these age-old stories in profound, moving ways. Memento | September Martin Maturan Maturan chooses to slow down, and focus on familiar objects that are deeply personal, and charged with both emotion and meaning; and use them to express his insight into contemporary life. In his previous exhibitions, these were cameras, picture frames, and worn out toys. He would choose these objects to imply a critique. A camera for example, can be about the addiction to selfies, which in turn can be seen as the need to standout, to be recognized, to have a moment in the spotlight. He uses objects from the past to zoom in on the present condition. In Memento, he focuses on the carousel. Aninag | October Paolo Icasas The light that used to lie in wait in Paolo Icasas’ paintings has started to creep. Like smoke, like whispers, it gently diffuses, weaving itself into what once were twilit landscapes. Now one could somehow make out the edges of the grass, the underbrush, the thicket; now one could see the crisp of where that light made its way through. Boundaries Without Borders | December Year- End Exhibit The exhibit aims to bridge the gap between the gallery, the artists, and the audience where there’s an encouragement of discourse and putting value to questions as a response to today’s situation. This is the power of art: to object by asking questions, to go beyond boundaries.

INTERCEPTION Marvin Quizon 16 May 2020 Interception Marvin Quizon 16 May — 06 June Quizon’s Game For the living imagination of visual artist Marvin Quizon, it has always been the struggle between rationality and passion--a bitter war against maneuvering clichés—ever since he started mixing paints on canvas for seven years now. His third solo exhibition, Interception, culminates with finality what has been evenly fought for in his previous two exhibitions dealing deeply on positive realizations of pain and suffering like flowers emanating from a rubble. With the extended lockdown looming at large, Quizon’s sense of time resulted in a moment of temporal unity for these binary opposing forces. Against a contemporary art scene of restlessness, churning out paintings after painting in every auction, art fair or biennale that comes along, Quizon offers a pregnant pause of the sublime in these six paintings. There is something in the midst of Bulacan that transposes a poetic element in Quizon. Even with a short distance from Manila, the allure of the province draws the melancholic and even recluses like him. The vast expanse of the remaining rice fields or sudden change of the season—that misty still unpolluted air while cumulative clouds slowly parade—allows one to find sanctuary and immediately seek contemplation. This lieu seems much more conducive to creative people such as musicians, writers more so hungry young artists. Quizon visualizes purposely how the mind and heart interchangeably return to their constant engagement in the self-titled Interception--a work on paper with three-dimensional cut outs. With radical and energetic determination, Quizon has roamed freely from that conventional into an internal existence of wonder and fantasy. Using tentacles to symbolize the enticing even teasing flirtations of the consciousness, Quizon philosophically quizzes the viewer how man can surrender to himself, give in to temptation, and ultimately succumb to overthinking in a single arrested development. We are oftentimes hapless victim of our own faulting that we create our own tentacles that continue to rob us blind leaving us in misery. We are trapped by our own making or even our hands become the very tentacles that wallow us. There are times Quizon gets utterly torn as to what his mind says from what his heart feels although deep within he has already made up his heart. Shown in The Antagonist as it tips the scale for once with the brain overwhelmed by his tempting limbs. The figurative brain forms the subliminal octopus which has the ability to protect, defend, overarching itself to cling on something it focuses itself into. Although everything exists in the brain our deepest desire, and ultimate longing is what our heart wants. The brain is physical while the heart is your soul. The fictitious tentacles envelope the man even becoming the man himself in Alter Ego making it the closest portrait Quizon can depict the blatant personified quagmire he becomes. In Discordant Comfort Zone Quizon configures idleness as a solitary enemy. Lounging is a feeling of repose, a vacated sofa lingers comfortably while his creativity is held hostage. Done in raw sepia-finish, one is seemingly invited to jump in the comforting pillow-like palm of a giant. Everyday reality has been distorted, exaggerated, brought to excess, dressed up and supplanted. Time Intercepted is evident to the mechanical call to order by a clock. In his profound solitude Quizon produces exemplary parallelism in counting an infinity of the little hours while painting in lockdown, he reduces the brain to logical rationality and the heart to its purely visual function. It is necessary to purge thought of all that is not in relation to ideas, ridding it of all the myths with which the senses overlay the truth. Quizon interprets the uncanniness in surrealist brushstrokes as Nature of Mind and Soul is a masterpiece rendered in a dream-like manner. In what he interprets as an experiment in psychological layering, found at the dead aim center is a man caught in flames signifying he is in a peril state of saturation. The confusion overwhelms him on whether to be rational or hear the pulsating beat of his heart. The resolution remains evident by the where flowers in bloom. Quizon favors ongoing dialogues of strange objects into a new visual language. These explorations of incongruousness in existence are often highlighted by intricate details and unusual perspectives. Notice the brain and how it is highlighted to represent knowledge. It is inherent that we think what is right for us through where the light leads us. Often he distorts his space using hyperrealism marked by rustic finish and in raw and limited monotone palette often depicting his mood. Quizon is fond of depicting symbols, allegories and odd juxtaposes of objects. The heart is in a dim part but it still glows as it grows. Proof that the heart wants what it wants, it is the soul that benefits. Quizon has even left ample space in the foreground for the viewers to interlude as Quizon opens up the invitation to look intently on the canvas. There is an open clamor as the viewer could even get burned by his fatal indecision. Compared to his contemporaries, Quizon prefers his slow creative process to be long and arduous. Quizon paints everyday leaving only a day to regain his momentum. He usually does rough sketches and writes his thoughts. He continues with unfinished studies as he conceptualizes further on canvas. Quizon is organic in approach that he usually ends up adding from what his initial studies were. He accepts this as his visual style—a way of surrendering into his subconscious. Sometimes Quizon ends up with a different yet more improved version of his initial studies. He then proceeds to photograph his references even edits them in his computer as he is well-versed to be. He proceeds to layer his oil paints how the way masters like his influence Rembrandt of the 17th century Dutch Golden Age does it. He finishes off by color glazing much like the way his fellow artists from Bulacan do theirs as well. Upon careful reflection on his pieces, Quizon subdues his colors to suit his intended emotions. Quizon is an old soul at barely 26 years old, his commitment to his craft and his pursuit for artistic emancipation reflects within his soft-spoken character. In the end, he believes we can love completely without even complete understanding. - Jay Bautista

DUALITY ARNICA ACANTILADO & DONDON JERESANO March 23,2022 - April 02,2022 View Catalogue Video DUALITY In this two-artist exhibition, Duality, Arnica Acantillado and Dondon Jeresano present their respective conceptions of space, how it shapes behavior and identity, and how it functions in relation to human health and happiness. Those familiar with the works of the artists, who have already collaborated in previous exhibitions, are already aware of their individual pre-occupations. Acantillado focuses on nature and its fierce inhabitants, highlighting our origin and how we have become divorced from our true source while Jeresano, on the other hand, presents crumbling architectural structures as a commentary on the state of humanity. The duality alluded to in the title is rural vs. urban, nature vs. civilization, organic vs. man-made. The works of Acantillado emplaces human figures in natural settings, situating images of celebration (ballgowns, balloons, tables set with china) not as foreign features but as a way of welcoming back humans into the fold of Mother Nature. Her works, which reveal Edenic beauty, evoke a sense of homecoming. Nature, through the lens of Acantillado, is not dangerous or threatening, as how disaster movies have made us to believe. Our bodies don’t forget our deep connection to light, air, and space, despite how the cities have alienated us nature. Jeresano’s works have consistently been about the failure of our cities, whose decay is readily apparent in the jumble of shanties, ruins, and destroyed palatial buildings. Through the elements of theater, such as the proscenium and the box office, the artist dramatically reveals the artificialty of our man-made structures (not unlike the cardboard sets found on a stage) and how, compared to the features of the natural environment, are temporary, prone to devastation. Even the proudest of civilizations, such as the Roman Empire, will ultimately end up in ruins. We are simply distracted by the amusements that we have created to momentarily forget that, just like everything in nature, we, too, are mortal. Duality, expressed through the highly descriptive figurations of Acantillado and Jeresano, underscores that what we perceive as a split in man is simply separation from nature. Despite the tall, shimmering structures we have built as fortress from the rest of creation, we cannot abandon our natural origin. Otherwise, our bodies will remind us the disconnection: the illnesses that plague the flesh and the mind. Acantillado’s paintings state that will always have a place in nature and, like a prodigal son, we will be welcomed to partake its nourishments. The works of Jeresano call us to have a sense of urgency to care for the planet that’s heating up in a pace not seen in history. Nature’s suffering will bring about our own demise. -Carlomar Arcangel Daoana Ronald “Dondon” Jeresano is a Filipino painter hailing from Sorsogon City, Bicol Region. He studied BS Architecture in Polytechnic University, Sta. Mesa, Manila. Jeresano’s body of work always has a distinct flair, its style is always identifiable and simply stands out. He has been known as an artist who rigorously paints in figurative form to convey his thoughts. Since the beginning of his career, his works are either direct or oblique references to his observations and responses to his surroundings and the things that move him. Lately, he has turned to structures, dwellings, and architectural references to convey complex themes like power structures, physical presences, acts of occupying, trespassing, collapses, interiorities, surfeit, and excesses opposite dispossession. Ronald Jeresano has exhibited in major art galleries in Manila and won several prizes for his works including the Grand Prize in the 2008 Metrobank Art Design Excellence (MADE) Arnica Acantillado Born and raised in the Philippines, Arnica Acantillado initially took up Architecture at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Lucky to have peers and a firm support system from her family, Acantilado was enticed to work harder to improve her skills which then birthed her into entering art competitions. She was constantly driven by her will to achieve and contribute to the art scene in the Philippines. Acantilado’s perseverance and diligence in honing her skills forged her to gain recognition for her works and was then awarded in several competitions such as Shell National Student Art Competition, Eyebank Foundation Painting Competition, PLDT-DPC Telephone Directory Cover, Metrobank Art, and Design Excellence to name a few. Currently, Acantilado has been doing exhibitions – both group and solo shows in various galleries in the country.