Audrey Lukban (b.1997) is a multidisciplinary artist based between Manila and London. She received her MA from Royal College of Art. Lukban works across painting, installation, and performance, investigating the relationship and boundaries between power and representation. Her practice often incorporates her personal belongings and archival images, often using shaped canvases, manipulating to recreate spaces of negotiation. Her works have been exhibited across Manila and London.

Cocoy Lumbao is an artist and writer based in Manila, Philippines. Being interested in the diverse forms of video practices and other emergent cultures that spring from it, Cocoy Lumbao draws from a wide range of sources that occupy the spectrum of videography—which he uses as his main platform in terms of making art. From single-channel projections to multiple screen installations; from manipulating found footage to appropriating images from the internet, Cocoy Lumbao’s works are attempts to cross the gap between observation and thought. Exploring antiquated notions like symmetry, writing, language, and text, and combining them with concepts that are inherent to video technology like digital manipulation, infrared lighting, and streaming data, his works become scenes for possible epiphanies from a new visual culture that belong to our age. 

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Francis Commeyne (b. 1988) studies the unique rhythm of Manila in his paintings and mixed media works. He casts detailed observations of scenes, spaces, and situations in new light with an awareness of being but not exactly belonging. Commeyne has a degree in painting and was college valedictorian at the University of the Philippines - College of Fine Arts. His works have been exhibited in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and in a number of institutions in the Philippines.

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Geraldine Javier (b. 1970 in Makati City, Philippines; lives and works in Batangas, Philippines) is one of the Philippines’ most important and collected contemporary artists. With a Nursing degree from the University of the Philippines that included a top rank in the licensure exams, she took a second university degree in Fine Arts, and pursued an art practice. Since 1995, she has held more than 30 solo exhibitions in the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, and China. From 1999 to 2003 she was a member of the Surrounded by Water collective.

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Much of her early work was in collage form but it was with paintings that she established her reputation as an inventive artist. These were characterized by either melancholy or wit: death and childhood were frequent subject matters. By 2008, she was making fabric works with the paintings and combining them in installations; exhibitions were a mixture of paintings, installations, and objects. Paintings would often have collaged elements, notably preserved beetles and butterflies.

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In 2013, she moved south from Manila to the countryside in the district of Batangas. Her work increasingly dealt with our relationship with nature. Current projects often involve the participation of the women in the community where she lives. She has exhibited at the Havana Biennial, in 2019, and the Helsinki Biennale in 2024

Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan (b. 1994, Cavite, Philippines) explores stories behind mundane yet indispensable objects to examine Philippine history and material culture. Drawing inspiration from natural history illustration, she documents personal and historical narratives through prints and drawings.

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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, 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 featured in solo and group exhibitions in the Philippines and abroad. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of the Philippines, where she also serves as a lecturer.

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Is Jumalon, a visual artist, renders the connection between self and the observed world through drawing and painting. Her work examines overlooked peripheries, delicate provocations, and nuanced metaphors, challenging perceptions and interpretations while manipulating subtleties across various mediums—acrylic, oil, charcoal, and pastel. She is keenly interested in exploring diverse forms and dimensions in her art practice. 

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Is Jumalon has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines, Diliman and presently lives in Manila.

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Dealing with concepts of value, materiality, and banality, Jan Balquin works across different media ranging from paintings to collage. Exploring conventional notions of material and subject matter vis-a-vis unconventional imagery and simulacra, her recent paintings expand into sculptural forms that interrogate the qualities of the blank canvas as an object.

An alumna of the Philippine High School for the Arts, Balquin (b.1989) graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, having received a grant to pursue her thesis.

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Jonathan Ching (b. 1969, Dagupan, Philippines) obtained his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1991 before becoming a visual artist. He pursued his artistic interests in 1993 and took up University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts – Visual Communication program. 

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He is one of the founding members of the arts collective Surrounded By Water, which successfully established an artist-run space from 1998 to 2004. Ching has exhibited extensively since his first solo exhibition in 2008 at West Gallery. His works were shown in several solo and group exhibitions in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

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José Santos III (b. Manila, Philippines, 1970) lives and works in Pasig, Philippines. Santos has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore; The Armory Show, New York, USA; Vargas Museum, Quezon City, Philippines; The Drawing Room, Manila, Philippines; Artinformal, Mandaluyong, Philippines; A3 Arndt Art Agency, Berlin, Germany; Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Nunu Fine Art, Taipei, Taiwan and MO_Space, Manila. 

In 2000, he was one of the Thirteen Artist Awardees by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. His works have been exhibited in Malaysia, China, Bangladesh, Denmark, Berlin, Paris, New York, London and Frieze Seoul, Korea. Santos is the first Southeast Asian artist to have his work housed at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC.

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JULIEANNE NG(b.1994) is a visual artist, painter, and cultural worker from Manila, Philippines. She graduated Magna cum laude with a degree in Fine arts(Painting) at the University of the Phililppines-Diliman in 2017. She was asemi-finalist in the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) competition in2018. Her solo shows include: Found Rejects (Pablo Gallery, 2019), More | Less(Gravity Art Space, 2024), and From Ash We Came (Art Cube Gallery, 2024). In2022, she finished her 2 month residency at Linangan artist residency in Alfonso, Cavite. Currently, she is actively participating in different group show and solos in the Philippines.

Her practice investigates the materiality, physical form, and historical and cultural connotations of objects. These objects (i.e.plastic cups, paper, fabric, incense) are often “overlooked”, taken from her surroundings. She grew up and currently live in an industrial compound in Valenzuela City, where her family commercially manufactures household plastic products. The sensorial experience of heavy machinery and assembly lines of identical products influence her work, where she focus on and

question the construction of self-identity and art-making. Taking the inherent properties of these objects, she translate visual and performative form into patterns as a reflection on repetition and ideas of utility. These patterns express the macrocosm of production and transform in to the language that bridges the material and natural world, machine and man. She respond to the monotony of mass production with her own patient and mindful process, no less intense yet meditatively repetitive. These things that are overlooked transcend their origin into something worthwhile.

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Louie Cordero was born in 1978 in Manila, Philippines and is currently based in Cuenca, Batangas. A graduate of the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines and held a residency in the United States at the Vermont Studio Center (2003). He’s a recipient of numerous awards including the Thirteen Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2006). His work has been exhibited at Sonsbeek ’16 transACTION, Netherlands (2016); the Open Sea exhibition at Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, France (2015); World of Painting, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Australia (2008); Singapore Biennale (2011); the 14th Jakarta Biennale (2011); and PANORAMA, Singapore Art Museum (2012).

His work has been exhibited in the Philippines, Jakarta, Thailand, Denmark, Berlin, the Netherlands, France, Australia, and the United States.

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Lyra Garcellano’s research centers on the exploration of art ecosystems and historical narratives, and her output is often presented as paintings, installations, moving images, comics and writing. She is particularly interested in how prevailing models in the artworld impact artistic practice.

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Lyra graduated with a BA in interdisciplinary studies from the Ateneo de Manila University. She holds two other degrees from the University of the Philippines:  a BFA in studio arts from the College of Fine Arts, and an MA in art theory and criticism from the Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters.

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She is a recipient of the 13 Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines and she has received grants from the Asian Cultural Council, Unesco-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, MMCA Korea (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), and Mekong Cultural Hub.

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She is the creator of the comic strip MIKI BLUE, and a co-founder of TRAFFIC –– an anthology of texts in the field of cultural and arts. 

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In 2024, her first book of essays, Elsewhere: Writings on Art, was published by Grana Books.  And her boardgame Stakeholding: Chapter One –– a developing, contemplative and discursive tabletop game designed to understand the intersecting art and cultural systems –– was also produced as a prototype under the grant she received in the first Benilde Open.

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Mariano Ching (b. 1971) graduated from the Fine Arts Program of University of the Philippines (UP) and studied at the Kyoto Arts University, Japan as a Research Student, Major in Printmaking. He has shown in both solo and group exhibitions at various galleries and institutions worldwide, such as the Singapore Art Museum, Valentine Willie Fine Art in Kuala Lumpur, Art Taipei, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Owen James Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, the Voice Gallery, Kyoto, Silverlens Manila and Singapore, as well as Finale Art File, among others.

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Miguel Lorenzo Uy (b. 1993) lives and works in the Philippines.

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As society continues to rapidly change, his artistic practice follows the phenomena that accompany it, exploring the roles and paradoxes of technology, media, culture, and globalization within the struggles of individuality, identity, and independence. The themes in his work stem from the social context in which he is situated, raising questions that address immediate concerns surrounding religious beliefs and conventions, media consumption and production, and the volatile possibilities of futures yet to unfold.

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His practice traverses and intersects across multiple mediums, including painting, photography, sculpture, video, sound, and installation. His works have been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila (2025), S.E.A. Focus, Singapore (2024), and his 2021 solo exhibition I Am That I Am was shortlisted for the 2021 Ateneo Art Awards Fernando Zóbel Prize for Visual Art.

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He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Arts from De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde.

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Nicole Tee (b. 1993, Manila) explores forms, textures, and themes revolving around facets of memory, place, and the home. Her art practice is rooted in processes that demand patience and repetition, such as needlework, painting, and photography. These slow, material processes are conceptually informed by both the intimate rhythms of interior life and the vast, tactile realities of the natural world.

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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, The Drawing Room, Tin-Aw Art Gallery, Underground Gallery, and West Gallery.

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Pardo de León’s paintings are reminiscent of the style of the old European Masters, and she is known for her distinctive style of painting marked by a ‘sense of line, gesture, and touch.’ Belonging to a generation of painters whose works are mainly based on found photographic imagery, de León approaches painting both intuitively and methodically. Working adeptly in both abstraction and figuration, she confronts conventions in painting through the juxtaposition of images, the layering of different forms and motifs, or by zooming in on particular aspects and details of the subject.

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Pardo de León graduated with a degree in Painting from the UP College of Fine Arts in 1987. She was a recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 1988. She also received a studio residency grant from the Italian-Swedish Cultural Foundation in Venice, Italy in 1999, which was awarded the best show of the year by the state council. De León has had numerous solo and group exhibitions at various galleries and museums including the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Finale Art File, MO_Space, Blanc Gallery, Manila Contemporary, Valentine Willie Fine Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Art – La Salle College of the Arts in Singapore. She currently lives and works in Baguio City.

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The pioneering Filipino conceptual artist, curator, and teacher Roberto Chabet is known for his groundbreaking experimental work which ranges from paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, and installations that harness the found and the ordinary. 

As the founding Museum Director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Chabet (1937-2013) initiated the Thirteen Artists Award in 1970 which aimed to support young artists whose body of work expressed “recentness and a turning away from the past.” 

Posthumously awarded the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining in 2015, he had taught at the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Diliman for over thirty years. 

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