7 Exhibitions to See This August
The recent downpours don’t seem to dampen the energy reverberating throughout the galleries in Metro Manila. Breathing with compelling shows that are sure to arrest enthusiasts and collectors, this season showcases artists materializing their individual meditations on the self, subjectivity, and society through dynamic and inventive forms.
From maximalist prints on textile to sonic immersions reflecting dystopian dispositions, the works demonstrate how art is a multimodal conduit that can contain and embody the material of our subconscious, here to remind us that while our days are anchored with routines, there still exists an intangible floating parcel of our humanity that transcends the material.
Mirrors, Merging: Catalina Africa at Silverlens Galleries (Manila)
Catalina Africa’s approach to painting is that of a priestess herding and sailing through the labyrinthine interiority of the self. Envisioning the process unfurling, Africa portrays the separation like water steered by contours distinct to the husk–our bodies–that houses it. As one views her works, they may find themselves arrested by the artist’s affinity for imagery alluding to the natural.
The exhibition runs through to August 25,2026. For more information, please visit the Silverlens website.
Small Vast Things: Ayka Go at Silverlens Manila
Ayka Go shows how quietude and witnessing cycles of life and decay up close can inspire an artist to depart from her usual style. Artists who have reached the stature of Ayka Go are not always willing to try something new, distinct from their visual language, and even more so when they have garnered a loyal patronage through it. In this show, Go resists this stagnation by also allowing her own practice to go through its own fluctuations, its own cycles of rebirth.
The exhibition runs through to August 25,2026. For more information, please visit their website.
TBD: Miguel Uy at West Gallery
An artist of transmission on multiple definitions, Miguel Uy operates like a world builder as he utilizes a slew of mediums in his studies of parallelism between theology and the history of human civilization. In this show at West Gallery, the artist makes use of sound as the main driver that anchors the various ways symbols have bounced between the vile and the sacred, atomic bombs and the church.
The exhibition runs through to August 29,2026. For more information, please visit their website.
Open House: Kaleidoscope: Various Artists at Modeka Gallery
Art is a testament of subjectivity manifested in unique visuals. With this rationale, Modeka Gallery gathers artists from the local scene who are at different points in their careers. What unifies them is not necessarily made apparent in their distinct styles, but in that which is also shared by every person–emotions, cycles, the mundane. In brief, the broadness and richness of life.
The exhibition runs through to August 29. For more information, please visit their Instagram profile.
The Fabric of Being: Mimi Tecson & Wesley Valenzuela at West Gallery
Mimi Tecson and Wesley Valenzuela offer an intriguing display in the mingling of their textile works as they probe the value of subjectivity in art and choice of material for the show. Tugging on different chords in our systems, the two artists display polarizing aesthetics and techniques in their works: Tecson applying tender embroidery in her narrative-strewn pictures, while Valenzuela brings fiery maximalist visuals.
The exhibition runs through to August 29,2026. For more information, please visit their website.
What We Hold Sacred: Pope Bacay at Artinformal Gallery
Pope Bacay studies the currency of attention, which has evolved to reverence. He draws the viewers’ attention to ordinary places—an electric post, a water tank, the corner of a pool—by creating scenes inside metal boxes. The artist asks, if such ordinariness were given the same reverence as that of a monument, how could views of the sacred shift?
The exhibition runs through August 29, 2026. For more information, please visit their website.
Tempest Palimpsest: Jonathan Olazo at Blanc Gallery
A question often asked of abstract artists is, How do you know when a painting is finished? Jonathan Olazo writes that this query has inspired a parallelism between his practice and the medieval material that is the palimpsest—a page of parchment or vellum scraped and reused to write so that its previous lives make themselves evident in the present form. This prompt also operates as a nod to his own style and practice, charged with history and theory through generations of artists and writers before him.
The exhibition runs through August 29, 2026 at Blanc, 145 Katipunan Ave, Quezon City, Metro Manila. For more information, please visit their website.