This September, not even the rain and relentless floods (fueled by a lack of flood control) can wash away the colors of creativity and the persistence of the local art community. Across galleries, museums, and even a historical hotel lobby, artists are finding new ways to look at familiar surroundings. Here are the exhibitions worth braving the rains this month.
Anna Bautista, “Undergrowth” at León Gallery International
Sept. 10 to 24
“A garden can conceal as much as it reveals,” writes Kim Escalona for Bautista’s show. Under Bautista’s skillful paintbrush, unassuming flora are arranged in the coded language of Victorian floriography. Always one to comment on social phenomena, she fashions petals from documents such as contracts, employment papers, and birth certificates—seemingly ordinary papers that can make or break a life.
Through these, the artist pushes past the surface of pretty and into a call for better civic responsibility.
“Beyond Existing Forces” at Modeka Art
Sept. 10 to Oct. 3
Curated by visual artist Christina Lopez, “Beyond Existing Forces” brings together Ally Tresvalles, Auspicious Family, Diego Aquilizan, Herald Stalin, Nash Cruz and Shara Francisco in an all-video and moving-image presentation across sound, projection, collage, animation and installation.
From Cruz’s layered footage and Aquilizan’s contemplative projections to Tresvalles’ video documentation of buntal weaving, the exhibition considers image-making as a way of sensing and building new worlds.
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“Behind the Lens: Cultural and Border Crossings, 1950–2000s” at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila
Aug. 6 to Oct. 11
Bringing together photographs by larger-than-life writer F. Sionil Jose and photojournalists George Gascon, Romeo Gacad, and Xyza Cruz Bacani, the show traces human encounters across borders and decades.
Presented in collaboration with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the exhibit asks what a photograph can reveal about the person behind the camera, as well as the world they witnessed.
Bitto, “flower | bird | wind | moon” at Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery
Sept. 5
The title comes from the Japanese idiom “kachō fūgetsu,” also a translation for the “beauty of nature.”
Bitto plays with unconventional landscapes, and while the forms at first seem organic, many turn out to be artificial, as a closer look reveals plastic balloons over a field of flowers or deflated in front of a still-life. SC writes in the exhibition notes, “The subversion of the philosophy of kacho fügetsu is, for the artist, a representation of a capitalist reality on the ground—one that does not permit nature time to grow and unfurl its seasonal beauties, but one that sells us contentment with simulacra until the original is no more.”
“Dark Matter” at Fort & Tailler, New World Makati Hotel
Sept. 12
Fort & Tailler opens its artisanal showroom for a group show featuring Richard Buxani, Robert Besana, Allen Sanchez, Marlon Asparen, Kent Fortugaleza, and Lucien, kickstarting the beginning of a collaboration with The Monarch and a rotating selection of art and sculptures—set to become a permanent part of the showroom.
Dex Fernandez, “GC4: A Walk Home”
Sept. 10 to Oct. 10
We don’t know what to expect yet, but there’s always something to look forward to in a new exhibit by Dex.
“Echoes of Horizon: Art in Resonance” at The Peninsula Manila
Sept. 4 to Oct. 30
Curated by Vinyl on Vinyl founder Gaby dela Merced, the sprawling show brings together National Artist Arturo Luz, Ramon Orlina, Gerardo Tan, Demosthenes Campos, Dennis Bato, Geremy Samala, and Michael Orlina across the historical hotel lobby.
Dela Merced describes the multigenerational lineup as reflecting the passage of time itself: “A horizon is an ever-changing landscape, much like how the art scene is constantly evolving.”
“My background is in street art, which is known for its site specificity,” the curator continues. And it makes sense, as each work converses with the hotel space well, from Luz’s towering “Anito” sculpture close to the check-in counters to Samala’s ecstatic frames flanking the locations where the Pen’s iconic tapestries usually stay.
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“Holding Structures, Soft Bodies” at Gajah Gallery Manila
Sept. 12 to Oct. 11
Gajah always has fascinating programming, and this three-person exhibition of Southeast Asian artists should be no different.
Indonesian artist Jemana Murti works in technology—you might’ve seen his bright-blue works at Art Fair PH, which bring Yves Klein to mind, though Murti’s are 3D-printed. Then there’s Kayleigh Goh, who explores the inner dimensions of healing through painting and spatial experience, while Singaporean multidisciplinary artist Sarah Choo Jing explores the dynamics of urban life.
The show aims to make you see structures—social, architectural, technological, and personal—of everyday life, just a little bit differently.
Lesley Anne Cao, “Atlas in a bright room” at Artinformal
Sept. 9 to Oct. 9
In the small gallery at Artinformal, Cao looks at animals as they appear on paper currency from different parts of the world, both in and out of circulation. Through collecting, cropping, erasure, and presentation, she reconsiders how we understand the established systems of knowledge that circulate in our natural and visual world.
Lou Lim, “Mending – An Opening” at Finale Art File
Sept. 10 to Oct. 3
Lim’s exhibition moves between personal and collective experiences of healing, as well as the physical, spiritual, private, and public dimensions of repair. Lim questions whether mending can ever truly return something to its original form, or open up to “what it could now be?”
Mark Andy Garcia, “Mga Pahiwatig ng Isang Pintor” at West Gallery
Sept. 10 to Oct. 10
Known for his distinctive style of intuitive mark-making and heavy impasto textures, Garcia’s upcoming exhibition seems to hint at a show that signals a deeper world of the painter’s psyche.
MM Yu, “sum of its parts” at Silverlens Manila
Aug. 29 to Oct. 3
Yu continues her signature dripping technique, treating individual canvases as components that can be separated, flipped, and rearranged. She also presents “Untitled Pantone,” a collection of 500 pictures with elements from various urban environments.
In the exhibition notes, Chesca Santiago writes how Yu creates a “response to an art ecology that operates on constant making,” while continuing to remain “faithful to the media she has long explored.”
Tosha Albor, “Invasive Species” at Artinformal
Sept. 9 to Oct. 9
Filipino-American artist Albor explores plants and their colonial histories of displacement, from the Rhododendron ponticum introduced to the UK to Opuntia cacti in Spain. Through botanical migration, she turns “spaces of loss and grief into resilient ecosystems where life and meaning insist on taking hold.”
“Unconditional” at YOD Gallery, Tokyo
Sept. 9 to Oct. 3
For those looking beyond Manila, the presentation for Tennoz Art Week brings together multiple Filipino artists including E.S.L Chen, Patrick De Veyra, Martin Honasan, Isadore Lerio, Nara Marin, Jason and Victoria Montinola, among many others. The show considers the “conditions” of memory and culture through materials, time, and everyday life.
Wawi Navarroza, “The Orchid Pavilion” at Silverlens Manila
Aug. 29 to Oct. 3
The first installment of the trilogy, “The Double-Naveled and Triple-Tongued, A Tropical Gothic Troika,” Navarroza looks into the Philippines’ layered histories of exchange, now focusing on the country’s pan-Asian heritage, specifically the deep-rooted Chinese presence. Drawing from literature, poetry, material culture, and imagined scenes of Manila as a cosmopolitan meeting point, she continues to use her own body to inhabit different identities, presenting a highly sensory reimagining of the many cultures that have shaped Filipino identity over centuries.
Zean Cabangis, “Greatest Species” at Artinformal
Sept. 9 to Oct. 9
Cabangis continues his practice of layering fragments of places he has passed into new imagery.
Construction cranes, billboards, towers, and plants become caught between development and collapse, as he “represents how landscapes register to him as information, as images, as imprints, and as feelings,” writes James Tana in the exhibition notes. “Cabangis paints landscapes by journeying through time at his own pace and in his own space.”
