A Bench in a Park
Various Artist
Juan Alcazaren, Annie Cabigting, Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan, Jemima Yabes, Veronica Lazo, Sam Bumanlag
Juan Alcazaren, Annie Cabigting, Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan, Jemima Yabes, Veronica Lazo, Sam Bumanlag
26 April - 25 May 2025
Curated by
Nicole Tee
26 April - 25 May 2025
A Bench in a Park
In A Bench in a Park, works allude to instances and mullings anchored on notions of place. However, these are not so much re-imaginations of locations as they are attempts to reference, recapture, and reckon with spaces charged with personal significance. At times, this involves engagement with materials, with the physical environment as source and inspiration for artistic experimentation, straddling as it were, one’s home and work place. For some, this requires a sensitivity to the process of transit. Henriell Baltazar Pagkaliwangan’s waiting matter/s, for instance, presents the detritus left from the chunks of time spent on the road. It references the movement of one’s self through space and time, happening in communion with other mobile bodies in their regular, urban commute. Or perhaps, as with Juan Alcazaren III’s Deliverance, one can nurture an almost nomadic relation to the environment, as the feeling of place heightens in solitary reflection and transience in nature.
Indeed, this individual communion with material and environment seems to arrive easier for artists. Much of creative labor, more often than not, involves a personal and idiosyncratic understanding of the world. At the extent of it, they venture towards the creation of landscapes. This is apparent in Sam Bumanlag’s Early Morning Desires, which crafts a candy-colored world based on trinkets and various odds and ends that one picks up in thrift stores. Or perhaps, the intention may turn towards a critique of artificiality of said landscapes, such as in Veronica Lazo’s Defiant Garden. That is, in the questioning of our distance from nature and what this detachment entails.
Ultimately, one cannot escape other human beings occupying the same spaces. Whether this is found in the hobbies that reanimate our lives, allowing the active respite of play, as in Nicole Tee’s the rope connecting two I and II, or in the vital joy and comfort of a shared spirituality, as captured in Altar Flowers I and II by Jemima Yabes. In this co-occupation, we find community and commonality. At this point, we hew closest to what sociologist Ray Oldenberg coined as the “third place”. It’s a place that’s neither home nor work, ideally accessible, and one that elicits discussions and the creation of social support systems. Third places are regarded as important in fostering engagement, a sense of community, or a notion of civic-mindedness. At times, even as a crucial aspect of democracy. On a more human and visceral level, it allows for a sense of embodied belongingness. Of the body as part of larger bodies, while being anchored within a particular socio-spatial construction.
Unsurprisingly, the third place may take the form of gatherings over food and drinks, in kitchens or dining tables. Ella Mendoza’s time carved out alludes to these discussions, moments of respite amidst artistic labor. And inevitably, as with Annie Cabigting’s Maybe five seconds or more (after Robert Irwin), to even the art spaces. To the places where they can present to the public their works, while also giving space to mingle and converse with friends or strangers.
About the Artist
About the Artists
Sam Bumanlag (b.1999) creates paintings and installations to capture the tenderness and sentiment of memory embedded within the complex relationship of humans to objects. She juxtaposes the past and the present through the illustration and display of memorabilia, trinkets, and personal effects. Her works have been featured at Artery Art Space, Mono8 Gallery, West Gallery, Art Fair Philippines, and The Drawing Room. In 2023, she was a finalist in the Hong Kong Art Futures Awards.
Nicole Tee (b. 1993) is a visual artist from Manila, Philippines. Her practice explores forms and textures anchored on domestic processes, with themes revolving around facets of memory, place, and the home. She utilizes various media such as textile, thread, flora, collage, oil painting, and multimedia in her works. Of late, her preference has been the use of fabric as subject matter and material. Tee is attracted both to its formal attributes and to the slow, repetitive gestures that the manipulation of fabric entails.
Tee graduated with a BFA in Painting from the University of the Philippines in 2016. She received the Department of Studio Arts Outstanding Thesis Award. She was shortlisted for the Ateneo Art Awards (2017) and the Sanag: UP Art Prize (2023). She has been participating in various group shows around Metro Manila, and has mounted solo exhibitions at Artinformal, Blanc Gallery, Finale Art File, Tin-Aw Art Gallery, Underground Gallery, and West Gallery.
Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan explores stories behind mundane yet indispensable objects to examine Philippine history and material culture. Drawing from natural history illustration, she documents personal and historical narratives through hand-pulled prints and drawings.
Pagkaliwangan graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman, College of Fine Arts (Major in Studio Arts) in 2015, where she also received one of the Department of Studio Arts Outstanding Thesis Awards for her undergraduate thesis titled Taxonomy of Things. In 2017, she won the grand prize in the Don Papa Rum Art Competition, which included a one-month residency in Florence, Italy. A recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ 13 Artists Awards in 2024, her work has been exhibited in the Philippines and internationally. She is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of the Philippines, where she also serves as a teaching associate.
Jemima Yabes (b. 1995) is a visual artist based in Manila, Philippines. Her practice revolves around the overlooked details of everyday life, exploring themes of transience, routine, and the quiet impact of the mundane. Through her work, she reflects on the often-overlooked and quiet influences that shape our experiences and perceptions.
Yabes completed her BFA in Painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 2017. She has exhibited her works in numerous group shows across the Philippines and has held solo exhibitions at Blanc Gallery, West Gallery, Finale Art File, and Underground.
Veronica Lazo is an artist and industrial designer whose works are commentaries that re-evaluate how civilization interacts with nature. Responding to modernist notions ofnatural resources, and the intersections of craft, industry, and technology, Lazo’s work reappropriates forms, imagery and process to challenge the imaginary of dominant ecosystems.
Lazo received her BFA from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where she teaches as part of its Industrial Design faculty. She has joined residencies and exhibitions across the Philippines and Singapore.
Ella Mendoza (b. 1993) started working with ceramics in 2015 while earning her BFA degrees in Painting (2014) and Art History (2017) at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and has since been an active presence in the field. Her practice in making functional wares in her early years later evolved into a play on contemporary counterparts of traditional vessels which then materialized in her conceptual, sculptural and installation work.
She has held solo exhibitions with Artinformal Gallery and has participated in group exhibitions and art fairs in Manila and Bacolod, as well as in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. She has presented her work at the Australian Ceramics Congress, Art Fair Philippines 2022 Open Studios, and is a workshop presenter at The Ceramics School. She recently took part in the inaugural Maybank Foundation Artist Fellowship Program which was held in Bali, Indonesia last December 2023.
Juan Alcazaren (b. 1960) is a sculptor, bricoleur, collagist and object maker who works with a wide variety of materials ranging from construction steel to industrial and household detritus to ubiquitous everyday things like plastic monoblock chairs, school supply materials and melaware plates. Everything is material to him. In the 90’s he learned steel welding from Napoleon Abueva, CCP National Artist for Sculpture and has since always come back to this medium attracted by the way steel only “knows” how it wants to be formed. He always maintains a patina of rust on his steel pieces to show earthly life’s steady march towards death.
He tries to coax profundity out the ephemeral and overlooked in the world of the permanent and covetable. Alcazaren’s faith informed sensibilities make him see humble material as a metaphor for our own material nature, being creatures created by the Uncreated one. Juan Alcazaren has a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture and studied sculpture the University of the Philippines where he also was a lecturer in 1995 at the College of Fine Arts. He was conferred the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2000. He lives and works in Pasig City, Philippines and continues to actively exhibit in major galleries and art fairs in his home country and around the region.
Annie Cabigting (born in 1971) majored in Painting at the University of the Philippines. She has been publicly exhibiting her works since 2001. Her first solo exhibition, “100 pieces” (2005), was shown in Finale Art File’s space in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong. She is a recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards and her work was included in the Prague Biennale in Czechoslovakia. Her works have been exhibited in galleries and art fairs in Metro Manila, Antipolo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Tokyo, Berlin, Basel, Madrid, Beirut, and Milan.
Her work, which ranges from painting to installation, is known for questioning what constitutes art: the various aspects of producing, looking and privileging visual images throughout history. Her subject matter involves people viewing art. They highlight the importance of the viewer to an artwork, for they determine whether the object is an artwork. She paints these paintings in a photorealist style.
Related Exhibitions
About the Artists
About the Artist
Sam Bumanlag (b.1999) creates paintings and installations to capture the tenderness and sentiment of memory embedded within the complex relationship of humans to objects. She juxtaposes the past and the present through the illustration and display of memorabilia, trinkets, and personal effects. Her works have been featured at Artery Art Space, Mono8 Gallery, West Gallery, Art Fair Philippines, and The Drawing Room. In 2023, she was a finalist in the Hong Kong Art Futures Awards.
Nicole Tee (b. 1993) is a visual artist from Manila, Philippines. Her practice explores forms and textures anchored on domestic processes, with themes revolving around facets of memory, place, and the home. She utilizes various media such as textile, thread, flora, collage, oil painting, and multimedia in her works. Of late, her preference has been the use of fabric as subject matter and material. Tee is attracted both to its formal attributes and to the slow, repetitive gestures that the manipulation of fabric entails.
Tee graduated with a BFA in Painting from the University of the Philippines in 2016. She received the Department of Studio Arts Outstanding Thesis Award. She was shortlisted for the Ateneo Art Awards (2017) and the Sanag: UP Art Prize (2023). She has been participating in various group shows around Metro Manila, and has mounted solo exhibitions at Artinformal, Blanc Gallery, Finale Art File, Tin-Aw Art Gallery, Underground Gallery, and West Gallery.
Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan explores stories behind mundane yet indispensable objects to examine Philippine history and material culture. Drawing from natural history illustration, she documents personal and historical narratives through hand-pulled prints and drawings.
Pagkaliwangan graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman, College of Fine Arts (Major in Studio Arts) in 2015, where she also received one of the Department of Studio Arts Outstanding Thesis Awards for her undergraduate thesis titled Taxonomy of Things. In 2017, she won the grand prize in the Don Papa Rum Art Competition, which included a one-month residency in Florence, Italy. A recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ 13 Artists Awards in 2024, her work has been exhibited in the Philippines and internationally. She is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of the Philippines, where she also serves as a teaching associate.
Jemima Yabes (b. 1995) is a visual artist based in Manila, Philippines. Her practice revolves around the overlooked details of everyday life, exploring themes of transience, routine, and the quiet impact of the mundane. Through her work, she reflects on the often-overlooked and quiet influences that shape our experiences and perceptions.
Yabes completed her BFA in Painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 2017. She has exhibited her works in numerous group shows across the Philippines and has held solo exhibitions at Blanc Gallery, West Gallery, Finale Art File, and Underground.
Veronica Lazo is an artist and industrial designer whose works are commentaries that re-evaluate how civilization interacts with nature. Responding to modernist notions ofnatural resources, and the intersections of craft, industry, and technology, Lazo’s work reappropriates forms, imagery and process to challenge the imaginary of dominant ecosystems.
Lazo received her BFA from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where she teaches as part of its Industrial Design faculty. She has joined residencies and exhibitions across the Philippines and Singapore.
Ella Mendoza (b. 1993) started working with ceramics in 2015 while earning her BFA degrees in Painting (2014) and Art History (2017) at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and has since been an active presence in the field. Her practice in making functional wares in her early years later evolved into a play on contemporary counterparts of traditional vessels which then materialized in her conceptual, sculptural and installation work.
She has held solo exhibitions with Artinformal Gallery and has participated in group exhibitions and art fairs in Manila and Bacolod, as well as in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. She has presented her work at the Australian Ceramics Congress, Art Fair Philippines 2022 Open Studios, and is a workshop presenter at The Ceramics School. She recently took part in the inaugural Maybank Foundation Artist Fellowship Program which was held in Bali, Indonesia last December 2023.
Juan Alcazaren (b. 1960) is a sculptor, bricoleur, collagist and object maker who works with a wide variety of materials ranging from construction steel to industrial and household detritus to ubiquitous everyday things like plastic monoblock chairs, school supply materials and melaware plates. Everything is material to him. In the 90’s he learned steel welding from Napoleon Abueva, CCP National Artist for Sculpture and has since always come back to this medium attracted by the way steel only “knows” how it wants to be formed. He always maintains a patina of rust on his steel pieces to show earthly life’s steady march towards death.
He tries to coax profundity out the ephemeral and overlooked in the world of the permanent and covetable. Alcazaren’s faith informed sensibilities make him see humble material as a metaphor for our own material nature, being creatures created by the Uncreated one. Juan Alcazaren has a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture and studied sculpture the University of the Philippines where he also was a lecturer in 1995 at the College of Fine Arts. He was conferred the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2000. He lives and works in Pasig City, Philippines and continues to actively exhibit in major galleries and art fairs in his home country and around the region.
Annie Cabigting (born in 1971) majored in Painting at the University of the Philippines. She has been publicly exhibiting her works since 2001. Her first solo exhibition, “100 pieces” (2005), was shown in Finale Art File’s space in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong. She is a recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards and her work was included in the Prague Biennale in Czechoslovakia. Her works have been exhibited in galleries and art fairs in Metro Manila, Antipolo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Tokyo, Berlin, Basel, Madrid, Beirut, and Milan.
Her work, which ranges from painting to installation, is known for questioning what constitutes art: the various aspects of producing, looking and privileging visual images throughout history. Her subject matter involves people viewing art. They highlight the importance of the viewer to an artwork, for they determine whether the object is an artwork. She paints these paintings in a photorealist style.
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