“Ugnayan,” a Lesson on Collaboration and Exchange

The dominance of Manila as the center of the Philippine art scene has long defined the narrative of success and visibility of Filipino artists. But this centralism might soon be yielding...

Alchemy in Alan Cabalfin’s Artworks in Clay 

Alan Cabalfin's workshop is more of an alchemist's laboratory than an artist's studio. His inventory lay bare: canisters labeled "manganese" and "cobalt" lined the...

Art in the Context of Squares, or, How We Unwittingly Deduce these Squares into a Cerebral Notion of Emptiness

In an artistic occasion where instead of the celebrated figures of humanity and its concomitant attributes (the bursting life, visual colors and stories), the square, or to be precise,...

Artist Log: Philippine Visual Arts Summit in Cebu City

I’ve had the honor and privilege to be one of the resource persons invited to the Philippine Visual Arts Summit - Visayas Leg organized by the National Commission for...

[Ink]lings and Pain[things]: The Art of J. Elizalde Navarro

Today is the birth anniversary of J. Elizalde Navarro. The National Artist would have been 101 years old today.  Personally, I found him to be a rather obscure figure among...