Artist Aileen Lanuza celebrates individuality and femininity in “Sanctuary of Singularity” at Galerie Stephanie.

The new series of works draws from Lanuza’s well-known strength in figuration and costumery. The works seem to derive from the portrait genre, with the faces of women figures partly obscured by floral depictions that appear to enhance their femininity.

“There are layers to everything,” Lanuza said. “Visually, the process of painting every red rose does not begin with the application of just red. There is a Van dyke brown, earl grey, hues of magentas and oranges underneath to achieve that red. Much like a person, the facade of every individual, though it is unique in itself, [is made up of various layers]. There are stories that make you who you are. You achieve layers with age and experience.”

“Ego Sum Integer” (I Am One And I Am Whole) represents a garden of eccentricities, poetically producing a beautiful irony of finding fulfillment in the realization that peculiarities make them similar and different at the same time.

Lanuza (b. 1982) graduated cum laude in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines, and has had 60 group and solo shows in the the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Canada. —CONTRIBUTED

“Sanctuary of Singularity” will open on May 15, 6 p.m. at Galerie Stephanie (4/F East Wing Shangri-La Plaza, Mandaluyong). It will run until May 31.

E-mail [email protected], tel. 9405726.