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 political aesthetics of “exess” in the Philippines from 1998–2022. 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, I propose ‘excess’ as a decolonial framework that complicates hegemonic modes of value and challenges both western and local Philippine power structures.
I co-founded the The Decolonial Network and am organising the annual assembly, ‘Unlearning & Undoing’, which will be held at Goldsmiths, University of London on 15 and 16 May 2026. Later this year, my exhibition Territorium: Tell Us What Happened about land and postcolonialism in Southeast Asia will open in Kuala Lumpur.
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 where I worked on 50+ catalogues. 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), which was nominated for two National Book Awards. I have collaborated with institutions including London’s Serpentine Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery, Gasworks, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), SOAS University of London; Manila’s Ateneo Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design; New York’s Guggenheim Museum; and Berlin’s Künstlerprogramm des DAAD.
Education
2024– : 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
Academic Work
Books
- ed., Pio Abad: Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts (Hato Press & Ateneo Art Gallery, 2024).
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- Nominated for two national book awards (Best Art Book & Best Design)
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Lectures
- ‘ruangrupa’s documenta 15’, MA Global Conceptualism: Last Avant-Garde or a New Beginning?, Courtauld Institute of Art, London. 24 November 2025.
- ‘Discursive Value: Art, Criticism and the Political Aesthetics of Excess’, University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, Manila. 5 November 2025.
- ‘Contemporary Art & Art Criticism’, University Arts London. 22 April 2024.
Conferences
- ‘Signos (Omens, 1983) and Magliliyab (Ignite, 2018): Concerned Artists of the Philippines’ Art & Actvisim’, in ‘Video from the Margins’ panel, College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, 20 February 2026, Conference.
- ‘Dissent and Protest: Alternative Curatorial Projects in Duterte’s Philippines (2016–22)’, in ‘Curating in Challenging Times’, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, 21 April 2023, Conference.
- Conversation with Pio Abad, ‘Artistic Production and International Solidarity’, School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), London, 3 November 2022, Conference.
- Moderator, ‘Intersections of Art, Activism, and Social Justice’, Transnational Coalition for the Arts x Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN), 16 August 2021, Conference.
Selected Art Criticism & Writing
Books & Exhibition Catalogues
- Jim Jasper Lumbera & Joey Alexis Singh: Gallbladder Time (Manila: 125 Projects, February 2026), exhibition catalogue and didactics.
- 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
- Review of Power and the Street: Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia after 1970, by Iola Lenzi, Burlington Contemporary (21 October 2025).
- ‘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
- Moderator, ‘Cian Dayrit: A Country, A Body – with Cla Ruzol and John Kenneth Paranada’, Copperfield Gallery, London. 28 February 2026.
- Panelist, ‘UK Premiere: Come la notte, dir. Lyric dela Cruz’, London Migration Film Festival, ICA London. 29 November 2025. https://www.ica.art/films/where-the-night-stands-still-q-a.
- Moderator, ‘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.
- ‘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
- Territorium: Tell Us What Happened, A+ Works of Art, Kuala Lumpur, September 2026, Exhibition (curator).
- Jumpcut 5: Videoke Philippinen, Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, Berlin, 23 – 28 August 2024, Exhibition (co-curator).
- But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 11 April – 17 June 2016, Exhibition (curatorial intern).
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