As summer continues to sizzle (then turn into sudden downpours mid-afternoon), Manila’s art scene offers a refreshing counterpoint, with both the reprieve and shelter of spaces that highlight artists and welcome walk-ins.
From traditional gallery and museum exhibitions to culinary experiences reworked with artists and jewelry fairs, and even collaborations that blur the line between photography and film, this month’s range of artistic experiences engages every artistic sensibility and hints that in Manila’s artistic sphere, creative expression might just flourish in the heat.
1. “Early Philippine Contemporary Art (1969–1985): Works and Documents from the Collection of Judy Freya Sibayan” at Calle Wright
Opening on May 25, Calle Wright presents an important landmark exhibition that traces the roots of contemporary art in the Philippines through Judy Freya Sibayan’s personal collection.
Sibayan is a pioneering female artist in Philippine conceptual art known for her self-parodic practice and performed institutional critique, which was developed at a time when the country was still finding its contemporary artistic voice.
“Early Philippine Contemporary Art (1969–1985)” features works and documents from her collection, including pieces and gifts from fellow trailblazers such as Roberto Chabet, Ray Albano, Johnny Manahan, and Huge Bartolome. CCP 13 Artist Awardees Nap Jamir II, Fernando Modesto, Bencab, Marciano Galang, and Ben Maramag are also represented in the exhibition.
The exhibition interrogates the very emergence of “contemporary” as both terminology and philosophical stance in the archipelago, as it traces how conceptual art, performance, and installation practices infiltrated and transformed local visual language.
“Early Philippine Contemporary Art (1969–1985)” runs from May 25 to August 31, 2025 at Calle Wright, 1890 Vasquez St., Malate, Manila
2. Now Now Canteen’s inaugural cultural incubation and artist residency program with Isabel Santos, “ReNOWn”
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For their inaugural edition of “ReNOWn,” NowNow Canteen presents a limited-time culinary reimagining headed by chef Kelvin Pundavela in collaboration with contemporary artist Isabel Santos.
Entering the canteen, guests are greeted by Santos’ work printed directly onto the glass panels above the open kitchen as well as limited-edition works on wood on the table—brightly colored fragments characteristic of her collage technique that appropriates period images from the 1950s and 1960s.
“That day zero conversation between the artists and the chefs—where they asked each other, ‘How do you begin creating?’ really precipitated the idea of NowNow. It became clear this could be a space where gastronomy artists and contemporary artists enter each other’s fields and processes, and create something truly unexpected,” says head curator Patrick de Veryra.
The menu highlights include an early starter pear salad—which arranges fresh ingredients like oakleaf, mizuna, ginger ponzu, lotus chips, pear, and hibiscus pickles—reflecting Santos’ approach to rearranging images in an intentional way. The main patchwork pasta meanwhile represents Santos’ artwork in its collage sense, with beef tongue curry sauce, black garlic cheese, nori pesto, and papaya chutney, all under connective, colorful pasta squares.
This collaboration marks the first in a quarterly artist residency program, each running for four months.
Reservations for reNOWn x Isabel Reyes Santos open on May 14, with public dates from May 21 to 23 and May 28 to 30, 2025 at NowNow Canteen, Ground Floor, 497-C Rosa Building, Calbayog, corner L. Esteban, Mandaluyong City
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3. “The Golden Hour: A Miladay Fine Jewels and Art Exhibition” at The Emerald Events Place
Overlooking the breathtaking Antipolo sunset, long-standing Filipino heritage jewelry brand Miladay hosts an art exhibition alongside its fine jewels. Playing with the ideas of the sun and light, “The Golden Hour” exemplifies the brilliance reflected in Miladay’s fine gemstones, the warm hues of the exhibit location’s setting sun, and artwork inspired by this sense of lightness.
The all-female artist lineup includes both emerging and established artists that range in use of mediums—Ea Policarpio, Camille Ver, Celeste Lecaroz, Chinnich, Dana Bote, Isobel Francisco, Kadin Tiu, Katrina Cuenca, Lanelle Abueva Fernando, Madonna Mortera, Maria Pureza Escaño, Melissa Yeung Yap, Michelle Dayrit Soliven, Roma Valles, Sandra Fabie-Gfeller, Tammy de Roca, Toots Magsino, Tracie Anglo-Dizon, and Valen Valero.
Miladay, a family-run brand founded by Mila and Ting Dayrit, opened the Miladay Art Center in Makati in its early years, which grew to be a gathering place for artists and students alike. The founders also collected works by Filipino masters such as Amorsolo, Legazpi, and Sansó.
Today, the brand’s president is Michelle Dayrit Soliven, an artist herself, who shares how making art became a form of healing during her experience with cancer. Personally guided by Dr. Joven Cuanang of Pinto Art Museum, he now lends his expertise to this exhibition, mounted near his own museum. Also joining is Annika Buensalido, a fourth-generation Dayrit family member, who will have a special participation in the show.
“The Golden Hour” opens with a private preview on Sunday, May 25, and runs from May 26 to 27, 2025, at The Emerald Events Place, Cabrera Road, Antipolo City
4. Trek Valdizno, “Convoluted Universe” at Galleria Duemila
Trek Valdizno writes, “‘Convoluted Universe’ is my perspective of the world at large—my motivation and pressure in this time and age, where everything catapults an existence of disbelief into the world of fake narratives and falsehoods.”
Through dreamlike yet highly sophisticated large-scale pieces, his abstractions exist in a compelling duality, simultaneously familiar and foreign, rendered in a spectrum of vibrant colors that draw viewers ever deeper into their complexities.
The exhibition notes by Jonathan Olazo compare Valdizno’s work to the abstractions of masters H.R. Ocampo and Joya, while also recognizing his distinctive use of line and color reminiscent of Art Nouveau. Through his refined command of medium and form, the artist addresses contemporary concerns about information manipulation in a distinctly stylistic visual language that invites both contemplation and critique.
Trek Valdizno, “Convoluted Universe” runs from March 22 to June 14, 2025 at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring St., Pasay City
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5. Fernando Zobel, “Finding Zóbel Prints,” at Ayala Museum
Ayala Museum presents “Finding Zóbel Prints,” an unprecedented survey of Fernando Zóbel’s prints from Philippine institutional collections alongside reproductions from overseas repositories, sparked by Aprille Tijam’s significant 2019 discovery of Zóbel’s previously undocumented donation to the British Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings.
The revelation included not only his own works but also pieces by Spanish abstract artists from the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español in Cuenca, Spain. While Ayala Museum has previously mounted two exhibitions of Zóbel’s prints in 2016 and 2023, this marks the first comprehensive gathering of his graphic works beyond Ayala Museum’s holdings.
The curation follows a chronological narrative that illuminates the interplay between thematic elements and pivotal moments in Zóbel’s life as both artist and patron locally and abroad, inviting closer examination of variations between different impressions of the same prints, with the subtle distinctions that result from modifications in the printing process.
“Finding Zóbel Prints” runs from April 27 to August 31, 2025 at the 3F gallery of Ayala Museum, Greenbelt Park, Makati Ave. corner Dela Rosa St., Ayala Center, Makati City
6. “Between Takes: Lupon ng Ilaw at Anino” at Modeka Art Space.
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Visual art continues to seep into other mediums, this time notably with film and cinematography in “Between Takes: Lupon ng Ilaw at Anino” at Modeka Art Space.
The group photo exhibition by Lupon ng Pilipinong Sinematograpo (LPS) explores the interplay between light and shadow, stillness and movement, capturing stories in the pause between frames. The show is co-curated by Arvin Viola, LPS, Malay Javier, LPS, and Dindo Martinez, LPS, and sponsored by Aputure Philippines.
LPS writes, “As cinematographers—we are storytellers of motion, architects of light and shadow. But beyond the moving image, we are artists still. Photography is where we return to the essence of seeing. Without the pull of sequences and timelines, a single frame becomes everything.”
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“Between Takes: Lupon ng Ilaw at Anino” runs from May 10 to 31, 2025 at Modeka Art Space, Warehouse 20A La Fuerza 1 2241, Don Chino Roces Ave., Makati City
7. Jayson Cortez’s “Hybrid” at White Walls Gallery
For Cortez’s fourth exhibition at White Walls Gallery, the artist maintains his interest in human faces, while evolving his methods of abstraction, drawing influence from Hilma af Klint’s “esoteric and mystical” approach as well as Jackson Pollock’s disruptive use of color.
Exhibition notes writer and critic Ren Aguila writes, “The hybridity which he claims to define this exhibition is in how the modes of realism and abstraction interact and provoke renewed reflection on how we as humans are capable of growth despite the pressure of expectations that seem to keep us stuck.”
The oil on canvas works range in depictions, from faces obscured by ornate frames and white doves to botanical overlays of the Virgin Mary as well as drawings of animalistic figures that reflect the spectrum of human emotions. Aguila describes the exhibition as “a celebration of artistic rebirth” and “an invitation to see one’s life ripe with the possibility of transformation.”
“Hybrid” runs from April 23, 2025 at White Walls gallery, Warehouse 12a, La Fuerza compound, 2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City
8. Lala Gallardo, “Hidden Behind Teeth” at Bunso Gallery
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In her solo exhibition “Hidden Behind Teeth” at Bunso Gallery, Lala Gallardo continues her exploration of softness as a visual and emotional language.
Working in her signature muted palette, Gallardo “captures moments of vulnerability through portraiture, depicting women in soft, slumped postures,” as the writer and the artist’s sister Waya Gallardo notes. The figures are slumped, their eyes watery, evasive. The subjects appear caught in a private process of reckoning, each one tenderly rendered but withholding, their grief implied rather than declared.
“The absence of direct narrative invites contemplation,” Waya continues, “The show’s title pertains to the tendency to hold our hurts just below the surface,” hinting at hurt held behind smiles, pain disguised in poise. Especially in an age of curated selves, Lala’s “Hidden Behind Teeth” calls attention to the courage it takes to feel deeply, and to the quiet power of restraint.
“Hidden Behind Teeth” runs from May 4 to 25, 2025 at Bunso Gallery, 53 Connecticut St., San Juan City
