Johanz Mercurio’s paintings prompts the audience to go on a quiet contemplation. As an artist, Mercurio learned painting through years of consistent practice. Along with a perspective sharpened by his background in Psychology, his paintings, often miniature in scale, are visual poems of nostalgia, stillness, and the ethereal feeling of solitude.
Using acrylic and mixed media on wood, his paintings may feel both personal and universal. These small scale artworks beckon the viewer to look closer, transforming the act of looking at an artwork into a more intimate experience. In these paintings, the images feel less like places or scenes and more like states of being, encouraging a deeper, more reflective way of seeing.
Mercurio also channels his commitment to the theme in his community engagement as a youth mental health advocate and as the moderator for the “Arts & Soul” art club of Ateneo de Iloilo. Through his practice and his advocacy, Johanz Mercurio affirms that art, at its most powerful, is a conduit. Art can be a shared space for stepping quietly into the vastness of our own lives.
“Windows” came from those moments when I find myself just staring out, lost in thought. It’s not always deep thinking—sometimes it’s daydreaming, sometimes nothing at all—but there’s a quiet that I love in those pauses. I wanted the painting to feel like that: still, open, and a little hazy. The wood’s natural tone gives the work warmth, while acrylic layers let the light and shadows shift like they do when you’ve been gazing for a while. It’s a small, ordinary habit that somehow feels infinite when recognized.
Most mornings start with coffee and a slow look at whatever I painted the night before. If I’m in the middle of a project, I’ll make small changes before adding new layers or starting fresh. I like keeping the mornings unhurried—it’s easier to slip into that creative headspace when there’s no rush. Before any painting happens, my brother and I spent at least two months just cutting, sanding, sealing, and priming every wooden board—getting each one ready to hold its own story. I work almost every day in my studio-slash-dining area, a space where coffee cups share the table with brushes, paints, and half-finished pieces. It can get messy and sometimes go completely out of control, but that’s part of the process. My work moves between different emotions and is often sparked by the lives of people I’ve met, the voices I’ve read, and the artists or storytellers I’ve followed. All these fragments find their way into each piece, making the space not just where I paint, but where many worlds meet.
This piece began with a narrow path I pass through almost every day several years ago—a tucked-away path between walls and windows. Most days, it’s just a shortcut. But one late afternoon, after a bit of rain, the light shifted. The sunset spilled pink, gold, and a trace of indigo into the street, and a long puddle stretched along the path, catching it all like a mirror. For a moment, the cramped space felt open, wide and endless,—how something ordinary can quietly unfold into something wide and full of wonder. I painted it in watercolor years ago, to remember that feeling and on this piece, I remade it in acrylic on wooden boards.
About the artist
Johanz Daniel Mercurio is a self-taught artist with a degree on Psychology, based between Aklan and Iloilo for the past 17 years. He works primarily in acrylic and mixed media on wood and canvas, often in small formats that explore stillness, memory, landscapes and the quiet beauty of ordinary moments. Over the years, he has participated in numerous art fairs and exhibitions in Iloilo City, including exhibitions at Thrive Art Gallery and Puluy-an Art Gallery. He is also a member of the Baysulangpu Artists Society, a collective of Iloilo-based artists bound by a spirit of solidarity and mutual growth—working together like an interconnected colony, each contributing to the strength of the whole.
A mental health advocate for youth and children, Johanz (or Sir Yo) serves as moderator for Arts & Soul, an art club at Ateneo de Iloilo. Alongside his brother Jed, he co-created BREATHE (QUAD Series), a collaborative collection blending their individual creations into a shared visual story.
Our series “A Day in the Life” is a documentation of creative process straight from the artists themselves. Submit your feature request through thriveartorg@gmail.com.
