Thesis: Politics of Excess: Art and Alterity in 21st-Century Manila
Supervisor: Wenny Teo; Advisor: Sarah Wilson
Funded by CHASE AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership
I consider the theme of ‘excess’ in alternative art practices in 21st-century Manila. Entrenched in new materialist ideologies that are primarily guided by interdisciplinary decolonial scholarship, my research interrogates visual discourses concerned with politics and/or activism. By considering radical Filipino art and art-initiatives, I propose ‘excess’ as a decolonial framework that complicates hegemonic modes of value and challenges both western and local Philippine power structures.
As an art critic, my work has largely centred on reporting and interrogating the intersections of art and politics in my home country during the Rodrigo Duterte presidency (2016–22). I have published in ArtReview, ArtReview Asia, Burlington Magazine, Burlington Contemporary and exhibition catalogues. I am the editor of Turner Prize-nominated Pio Abad’s monograph, Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts (2024), and Black Artists in Asia (forthcoming). I have collaborated with institutions including London’s Serpentine Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery, Gasworks, School of Oriental and African Studies; Manila’s Ateneo Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design; New York’s Guggenheim Museum; and Berlin’s Künstlerprogramm des DAAD. I am a co-founder of the CHASE Decolonial Network.
Previously, I acted as Managing Editor of ArtReview, London and Managing Editor of the peer-reviewed journal ARTMargins (MITPress). In New York, I worked in the publications team of Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art department.
Education
2024 – present: PhD History of Art – Courtauld Institute of Art, London
2017–18: MA History of Art (Distinction) – Courtauld Institute of Art, London (MA Special Option: ‘Global Conceptualism. The Last Avant-Garde or a New Beginning?’ with Sarah Wilson)
2012–16: BA Art History & Anthropology (3.75/4) – Fordham University, New York City
Research Interests
- Modern & Contemporary Philippine Art
- Decoloniality and the Global South
- Radical Politics, Theory and Praxis
- Artist-Run Initiatives and Collectives
- Art Activism
Relevant Publications & Talks
Books & Catalogues
- Elsewheres & Elsewhens (Kuala Lumpur: A+ Works of Art, 2026 [forthcoming]), curatorial statement.
- Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan: Ellipses (London: Ames Yavuz, April 2025), exhibition catalogue.
- Goldie Poblador: The Rise of Medusa (Manila: Mono8 for Art Fair Philippines, 21– 23 February 2025), exhibition catalogue and didactics.
- Potential Histories (Manila: Mono8 for Art Fair Philippines, 21–23 February 2025), exhibition catalogue and didactics.
- ‘Jumpcut: An Ongoing Archive of Community, Artist-Led Initiatives, and New Media in the Philippines since 1999’, (Berlin: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst [DAAD], August–September 2024), exhibition catalogue.
- ‘Editor’s Note’, in Pio Abad: Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts, ed. Marv Recinto (Manila and London: Ateneo Art Gallery and Hato Press, 2024), 6–7.
- ‘Waxing Lyrical: Abundance, Bees, and Collaboration in Issay Rodriguez’s Song of Increase’, in Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth, ed., Sam Marcelo (Manila: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, 28 March–23 July 2023), exhibition catalogue.
- ‘Woman at the Threshold: Decolonising the Wild in Wawi Navarroza’s As Wild As We Come (2022)’, As Wild As We Come (London: Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, 19 August–17 September 2022), exhibition catalogue.
Features, Opinons & Reviews
- ‘Eco Exhibitions Won’t Save Us’, Opinion, ArtReview.com (18 July 2023).
- Review of How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future, by Maria Ressa, ArtReview (May 2023): 105 (print),
- Review of Lakbayan at Savvy Contemporary Berlin, ArtReview (May 2023): 88 (print).
- Review of The Making of the Modern Philippines, by Philip Bowring, ArtReview Asia (Autumn 2022): 95-6 (print).
- ‘Imelda Marcos’s Picasso Is the Least of Our Problems’, Opinion, ArtReview.com (27 May 2022).
- ‘Kerima Tariman’, ArtReview (April 2022): 56-59 (print).
- ‘Know Thine Enemy: Cian Dayrit’, ArtReview Asia (Winter 2021): 46–51 (print).
- Review of The Asian Modern by John Clark, Burlington Magazine (October 2021): 973–74 (print).
- ‘Artist Pio Abad Awakens the Spectres of Philippine History’, ArtReview Asia (Winter 2020): 66–75 (print).
- ‘Artist Martha Atienza and the Fight for Environmental Justice in the Philippines’, ArtReview Asia (Autumn 2020): Cover, 44–51 (print).
- ‘‘The House Is Still Burning’: Censorship, Pandemic and Art in the Philippines’, ArtReview Asia (Summer 2020): Cover, 78–83 (print).
- Review of Gathering: Political Writing on Art and Culture by Marian Pastor Roces, ArtReview Asia (Autumn 2019): 110 (print).
Talks
- ‘Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan: Elipses‘, Ames Yavuz, London. 1 May 2025.
- ‘AICA-UK: Labour of Love Roundtable’, Whitechapel Gallery, London. 28 March 2025.
- ‘Laugh of the Medusa: A Conversation on Monstrous Women and Ecology’, Art Fair Philippines, Manila. 23 February 2025.
- Moderator, ‘From the Underground: Conversations on New Media and Collectives in the Philippines with Big Sky Mind, Furball, Lost Frames, and the Curators’, featuring Mads Adrias, Bea Camacho, Cocoy Lumbao Jr, Erwin Romulo and Jun Sabayton, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Berlin, 26 August 2024.
- Book Launch, ‘Pio Abad: Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts’, Gasworks, London, 21 June 2024.
- ‘Contemporary Art & Art Criticism’, University Arts London, 22 April 2024.
- ‘Dissent and Protest: Alternative Curatorial Projects in Duterte’s Philippines (2016–22)’, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, 21 April 2023.
- Conversation with Pio Abad, ‘Artistic Production and International Solidarity’, School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), London, 3 November 2022.
- Moderator, ‘Intersections of Art, Activism, and Social Justice’, Transnational Coalition for the Arts x Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN),16 August 2021.
- ‘What Can Art Do?’, Panel Discussion with Norberto Roldan and Fi Churchman, Serpentine Gallery x ‘Thanks for Nothing’ x ArtReview, London, 23 October 2020.
Curatorial
- Elsewheres & Elsewhens (Kuala Lumpur: A+ Works of Art, 2026 [forthcoming]).
- Jumpcut 5: Videoke Philippinen (Berlin: DAAD, 2024).
- But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2016).
Other Revelant Information
Awards
- CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership (2024–27)
- Fordham Dean’s List (2014–16)
- Loyola Scholarship Fordham Tuition Award (2012–16)
- Youth Envoy to the United Nations, Philippines (2011)
- Migrant Heritage Commission’s Award for Most Outstanding Migrant in Performing Arts, Culture, and Sports (2011)
- Philippine National Champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics (2007–12)
Memberships
- CHASE Decolonial Network (co-founder)
- International Art Critics Association (AICA)
- International Council of Museums (ICOM)
- Concerned Artists of the Philippines
- Anakbayan-UK
Langauges
- Filipino
- Spanish