10 Filipino Artists to Watch Out For, According to Manila's Top Gallerists

(SPOT.ph) It was thrilling to hear that many from Spot's list of Filipino artists to watch for truly soared in the art landscape in 2025, opening big solo shows here and abroad, with two—movement artist Joshua Serafin and painter Catalina Africa—making it to the Thirteen Artists circle last October. Meanwhile, as we speak, TRNZ is being celebrated at Art Fair Philippines, thanks to his poignant, beautifully scored animated short, The Keeper. Not that we had anything to do with their triumphs. But it was great to have been able to confirm that these guys—and their works—were truly worth looking out for, that we picked the right talents and alerted you, dear readers, about them. Because when it comes to who's who in art, we'd rather you're not left behind.

Inspired by the success of last year’s list, we thought why not give it another go? Ask art insiders again who are the next big things, the promising names, the ones they feel will do remarkable work in the near future. And who better to approach but some of the most influential gallerists in the country, all members of The ALT Collective, the group staging another much-awaited ALT exhibition on February 13 to 15 at the SMX Convention Center.

“What's exciting about ALT is that it's built from scratch,” says member Jay Amante of the ALT show. “The galleries have more room to do their thing this year in terms of the physical space/design and more importantly we are not bound by parameters set by event organizers. It's just more unchained to do it this way. Each gallery will have 150 sqm of space to work with, one ALT Project Space and one ALT Discoveries. It's going to be so good!” We don't doubt it, the group has consistently come up with thoughtfully curated exhibitions in the past. In between setting up for the big show of the year, the gallerists—Soler Santos of West Gallery, Evita Sarenas of Finale Art File, Jun Villalon of Drawing Room, Pia Reyes and Gaby Dela Merced of Vinyl on Vinyl, Tina Fernandez of Artinformal, Mawen Ong of MO_Space, and Silvana Diaz of Galeria Duemila—took their time to nominate a name to our list.

And after seeing their works and getting to know their stories, plus hearing some of the gallerists talk about their strengths, we’re feeling very confident we’ve come up with a credible, legit group. Just like last year's list, if you’re a young collector, this is a good article to bookmark. If you just like to follow local art and are interested in knowing who’s who, this will get you up to speed in your art-watching this Arts Month and the coming months. Consider this list a snapshot of what’s happening out there today—the doors being cracked open, the questions being asked, the works pushing you to let a curious perspective in and welcome new ways of seeing the world. (And if you want to see the artists' latest works up close, all the more reason to go check out this year’s ALT.)

Also read: ICYMI, ALT Philippines 2026 is Coming Up—Here's What You Need to Know

Wipo is not exactly a new name in the art scene but guys like Jay Amante think it’s a name more people should know. “Wipo's ideas are always interesting,” says the man behind Blanc Gallery in Katipunan. “He has this uncanny ability to transform these ideas into art pieces. It's always a treat to experience his exhibitions. Super galing ‘yan.”

The 34-year-old Wipo himself would admit he also came late in the game, for years content in keeping his artmaking a hobby, with advertising work occupying much of his time. But art has since taken a great hold of the guy's life, especially after surviving a car accident in 2014 that nearly killed him and two people close to him. It changed everything, not just his name (he went from Jeff Baligad to Wipo, for “will power”) but also his canvases (from conjuring silhouettes of human figures, he went into non-representational imagery).

Since then, art has provided the much needed expression and release for Wipo’s innermost fears and most immediate existential questions, his photography a way to preserve what he can of his past and present, scared as he was of losing his memory.

Memory is a subject the 36-year-old continues to explore in his art, tracing its vibrations in his visceral abstractions, finding new ways in recording what can easily be gone. He looked back on that fateful day in 2014 for a show at Blanc last year, painting on a car hood with the same color (red), throwing a bust he made on it to create the markings of a crash. But this particular looking back, he told the Inquirer, came with great appreciation. “Over the past decade, I’ve witnessed so much—the good, the bad, and the tragic—and creating art that has healed me feels like enough reason to be grateful.”

“I’m looking forward to creating more shows about rags—until seamstresses and rag vendors themselves see that they are holding art in their hands.”

Garryrloid Pomoy may like to paint rags or the humble basahan but there’s nothing lowly about them in his eyes—he makes art out of them because they hold so much value. “I often see rags everywhere, and they remind me of my mother,” Garryloid tells Spot. “Making rags used to be our bonding time. I would even sell them to earn extra allowance. People usually ignore or throw them away, but for me they are art—like unconscious collage, abstract forms, or assemblage. I’ve always been fascinated by them, even before. I’d catch myself just staring at them.” 

Garryloid grew up surrounded by dressmakers and tailors and mananahis like his mom, and when before he would just play with their tools and materials, now those very objects are the stars of his artmaking. “As a child, my imagination was very active, and I thought I would become a seamstress/tailor like them. I believed I would follow the same path, but instead I used my mother’s experiences as inspiration for my work.” 

His most recent outputs feature sewing machines and rags, and he would incorporate real pins and threads onto the canvas. “They are signs of labor, love, and a possible future different from its original purpose,” says Vita Sarenas of Finale Art File when asked what makes Garryloid’s works outstanding. “His basahans are paintings with threads sticking out of the canvas which means Garryloid, like his mother, sews too but in his own way. His work also gives an illusion and breaks expectations on what’s real and what’s not.” 

“His works are thought-provoking and at the same time beautiful,” says Tina Fernandez of Ardeña whose works she’s exhibited in Artinformal. The Negros Occidental-based artist is known for his “ghost paintings,” where he paints grids or flower bouquets on used tarps and then cracks parts of the dried paint to allow tiny portions of the image underneath to peek through. He finds meaning in materials most accessible to him, like the discarded tarps, elastomeric paint, and basahans from the market— this last one a source of income for poor Negrense families. Painting is the way Ardeña brings their story to the fore; the rags become the takeoff point for a work's color palette, or he would sometimes paint their likeness on the tarp itself. It’s a way of creating his own art language, and avoiding the dictates of Western traditions and techniques.

Having spent his growing up years living in different countries, including Spain, has given Ardeña a uniquely global-yet-local perspective. “The places and people who have made an impact in my artistic life have taught me that no place, culture or artistic endeavor is better than the other,” he tells Spot. “That is why I work where I am and I explore different facets of Negros island that lead to experiments focused on painting. How do you re-imagine, re-think and challenge the global practice of such a Western-centric medium with all its historical conventions as an artist coming from and rooted in the Philippines? It's not enough to be equal, we have to strive to be equitable.”

Julieanne in her own words: "My process begins with observing my surroundings as a way of learning how to navigate and situate myself within them. I’m drawn to objects that are often overlooked—such as candles and incense sticks—and I investigate their materiality, physical form, and historical and cultural connotations. Most of the time, I allow the process to guide me, letting the material lead. This is my way of respecting the material—by responding to its inherent properties. I translate visual and performative forms into patterns that reflect repetition and ideas of utility. These patterns speak to the macrocosm of production and become a language that bridges the material and natural worlds, as well as machine and man. In response to the monotony of mass production, I engage in a patient and mindful process—equally intense, yet meditatively repetitive."

On the ideas she's exploring through her work: "I’m currently expanding my practice beyond physical objects and into representation through images. I’m experimenting with CCTV footage as a way to question space, perception, and the senses. This approach allows me to explore how we navigate our place in society—not only through space, but also through the accumulation of objects. The work is still in its early stages, but it’s slowly taking shape."

On what she's looking forward to this year: "Aside from ALT, I’m preparing for my second solo exhibition of the year this July with Provenance Gallery, following my first solo with West Gallery. I also have something in store for September—but I’ll keep that a secret for now."

“Albu has the funniest takes on everyday things,” says Blanc’s Jay Amante. “Sobrang likot mag-isip, at ang husay magpinta."

Albu is Aldrin Tamidles in real life, and Alburoto is a name this Caviteño came up with while riding a bike with a friend some years back, and while Taal volcano was throwing a tantrum and spewing ash from a distance. He’s always wanted an alias and Alburoto sounded perfect. “Ganda ng panahon,” he recalls to Spot of that moment. “May kaba sa pagputok ng bulkan, saka yung excitement na mahanap yung pseudonym na babagay sa work at practice ko.” One imagines this Kawit native’s life is full of bucolic scenarios like this, having grown up in such a historic town and in close proximity to cousins and lolos and lolas and titas. He says he’s had quite a happy childhood, and it’s a vibe that definitely shows in his art and disposition. “Nakakalaro ako ng malaya, marami ako nakikita at nakakasalamuhang tao. Kaya siguro ganito practice ko: mas naka-focus sa buhay, sa kapiligiran at kalayaang ipahayag ang mga kuwento ng sarili habang ini-enjoy ang buhay.”

Albu's art leans towards editorial cartoon, where he is able to distill his thoughts and opinion no matter how heavy. Children, the stars of his canvases, balance that heaviness. “Yung works ko kasi social commentary kaya masyado nang seryoso at mabigat. Kaya naisip ko yung bata na main character ng work ko ay symbol of innocence. And yung pinaka-gusto ko ay yung exploration ng bata sa mga bagay na first time niya pa lang ma-encounter—yung pakiramdam kasi na yun ang nagpapa-unlock ng buhay.” 

Joar in his own words: "I create art between my love and pain, inspiration and rage, fear and hope for life. My primary practice is marine engineering—but life is truly wonderful in that somewhere along the oceans, down  the heat and chaos  of the engine room, I was called to become an artist. My love for this country fuels my practice; I cannot stop making art because this archipelago is worth saving and painting for."

How his surroundings influenced his artmaking: "I grew up in Iloilo, on Panay Island, by a small long river along the coasts of the Visayan Sea. I was surrounded by water, yet I witnessed many people from the island leave and travel for foreign work—including my mother. My curiosity for the world and my dream for a better life pushed me to pursue a maritime career, setting aside my creative interests growing up. But then, traveling the world and being away from my island, from my country, and seeing the other side of the oceans, art emerged inside the very ships I worked on. Working in close proximity with water and machines, the distance and the flow of the water shaped the artist that I am now and this  seafaring experience became my lens through which I view  the world."

On the ideas he's exploring through his art: "I explore the memories and movements of different bodies and histories across the water—from our regional seas toward global currents. The movement of people and labor, shipping logistics, machineries, oceans, ports, and the friction between coasts and lands are recurring themes. I use my personal archive and my family stories as my artistic foundation to treat my work like a visual logbook and respond to the call of meaning-making."

“Cheese is always honest with her brush strokes, her non-representational works are always a treat to the senses,” says Jay Amante whose Blanc has been host to Chesca Co’s exuberant abstracts. Chesca says her process often employs an inner dialogue between observation and technique. “I like leaning into landscapes, as their sense of openness allows room for ideas to develop,” she tells Spot.

While to some her paintings might evoke a kind of chaos one imagines the life of a working single parent like her deals with every day, Chesca’s paintings are most likely meditations, her artmaking a kind of centering. Which is also how she says she learned to deal with often moving from one place to another when she was young. “It let me observe a constant sense of movement and density. Over time, I learned to recognize a sense of calm within that chaos, a quiet that isn’t fueled by fear or doubt. That rhythm, the way energy builds and releases, has influenced how I approach my work, like the point where a groove begins at the crescendo.” 

Vinyl on Vinyl’s Gaby Dela Merced on Dennis Bato: “Dennis Bato has always been experimental on his approach. He grew up in a household with teachers and engineers, took up architecture then eventually found himself engulfed in the world of street art. This foundation formed a unique way of analyzing space, structure, identity and environment; particularly how people inhabit and adapt to urban and marginal conditions.

“His multi faceted background makes him move fluidly between public space, installation and gallery contexts; giving his work both social immediacy and theoretical depth. His work today lies in how directly it speaks to contemporary urban life in the Philippines and similar environments globally. His focus on adaptive spaces and lived environments resonates strongly in a time marked by rapid urbanization and migration which aren’t abstract themes: they reflect everyday realities in Philippine cities where people constantly negotiate space, shelter, and identity under unstable conditions.” 

Kolown is another already familiar name in this group, having come up in the scene in the years before the pandemic. In fact, he's held shows around Asia, in New York and Seoul, Korea, and has been bestowed major honors, among them the Ateneo Art Awards - Fernando Zobel Prize in 2018 and the Thirteen Artists Award recognition from the CCP in 2021. Kolown is described to be more than just an artist but a multifaceted entity, meaning that he's also "a network, applications and bots." His bio talks about his work as intervening in "physical and digital spaces, engaging with found objects, open‑source approaches, spontaneous collaborations, and evolving material practices that remain fluid and adaptive. Grounded in playful experimentation, they move through human and digital ephemeral networks, inviting audiences into unpredictable encounters that shape the work itself."

Jun Villalon of Drawing Room on Kolown: “We see Kolown as a vital force in Philippine contemporary art, creating work that responds directly to the issues of our time. Through interactive public and digital projects, their practice makes art immediate and participatory, reshaping how audiences engage with ideas and with one another.”

“I selected Jiddu San Jose as a promising young artist because of his restrained use of colors in creating atmospheric work,” says Soler Santos of West Gallery where San Jose has had two solo shows. “His paintings transport you into a state of contemplation and quiet. I also think he has a good eye for composition and a great feeling for creating mood, and am looking forward to what else he can make.”

Julio “Jiddu” San Jose, a Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Philippines, paints nature like a dreamer, transfixed perennially by the view of the sky and seeing, quite literally, just the tops of trees, as if training one’s gaze down would make everything too real. Which is also the other way San Jose paints nature—closer to a melancholic animated film, establishing only a tone, setting a mood for what’s to come, which the viewer would need to supply for himself.

This is sort of confirmed by San Jose’s CV (our questions failed to reach the artist) which says that his body of work “centers on the exploration of settings and backgrounds as key elements in storytelling.” Movies, TV and comics often inspire their work, which mirror the “techniques of production design, concept art and model-making. By highlighting these often overlooked creative processes, San Jose’s scenic artworks aim to celebrate and elevate the artistry behind the visual storytelling disciplines that inspire them.”

ALT ART will be happening this February 13 to 15 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City. For more information, visit their Instagram.