Rediscovering the Work of National Artist Larry Alcala in This Month-Long Free Exhibit at The Met

(SPOT.ph) Humor is a big part of the Filipino psyche. We are known as some of the happiest people on Earth; we can laugh at ourselves, make jokes about the direst of situations, and simply look at the brighter side of things. So it’s not surprising to find humor ever present in our art and media.

One of the most famous artists who brought humor to our lives is National Artist for Visual Arts Lauro "Larry" Alcala, who rose to prominence in the early 1950s for his cartoon works. To mark his 100th birth anniversary this year, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) recently opened a month-long free exhibit titled Return to the Popular: Drawing the Filipino Imagination at Gallery 2 of the Metropolitan Theater in the City of Manila.

Interestingly, the exhibit is also the first to open in the theater’s galleries. Co-organized with the Larry Alcala Estate, the CCP, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and Lennon Group, the exhibit showcases Alcala’s original works and memorabilia, reproductions of his iconic Slice of Life comic illustrations, and works by members of the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas.

Mang Larry, as he came to be fondly called, became known for the cartoon series Slice of Life, which depicts the unique, humor-filled everyday life in the Philippines. Every weekend, his readers would eagerly look for his caricature profile cleverly concealed within the busy scenes of the weekly comic. Yes, before Where’s Wally? (a.k.a. Where's Waldo?), Filipinos already had "Where’s Larry."

In fact, according to the exhibit curator Dr. Jose Santos "Chong" Ardivilla, this was Alcala’s ingenious way to get his readers to linger on each Slice of Life page—searching for Mang Larry led the reader's eyes to explore every part of the artwork, looking at each everyday story unfolding alongside the others.

"That’s what art really is—it’s about a series of narratives," Ardivilla notes, adding that the exhibit itself was designed like a comic strip. Each panel tells its own story about Alcala, his work, and the legacy he left on the Philippine art scene. Each artwork, reproduction, and piece of memorabilia on display is a testament to what made him a household name—hence the exhibit title Return to the Popular.

According to Ardivilla, Alcala’s genius lies in his keen eye for detail and observational skills, which form the foundation of his entertaining depictions of everyday happenings in our communities. Carinderias, tricycle stops, and jeepney terminals, barangay halls, construction sites, fiestas, and even humble homes are all rich in stories, culture, and distinctly Filipino activities—all of which are constants in Alcala's art.

"Larry Alcala’s Slice of Life cartoons are very sociological. He shows his observations on Christmas parties, exhibits, and even life in UP," Ardivilla notes. This eye for detail was also present in his designs for beloved characters like Mang Ambo, the quintessential Filipino man; Tipin, the favorite teenager-turned Filipina working girl; and Siopawman, his own version of the Filipino superhero.

"What’s really good about him (Alcala) is he’s really expansive. He tries to be more inclusive and also visible with different varieties of people. Even his rendition of the Pinoy superhero, Siopawman, is really cartoonish," the curator adds.

While Alcala is fondly admired and remembered for his comic series and cartoon characters, Ardivilla also wants visitors to take a closer look at the memorabilia that showcase his skill as a commercial artist and illustrator.

"As you can see here, he has made storyboards and commercial projects for brands and companies. So he’s not only a cartoonist, but he was also doing other things," the curator says as he points at the sketches and studies Alcala did for his commercial work.

"He’s also a really sharp illustrator as well, and he did a lot of them for his books. It’s also interesting that he’s the only National Artist for Visual Arts whose work is inked for commercial art. Typically, some National Artists would only do commercial work on the side."

Ardivilla also wanted to highlight lineage as one of the main thrusts of the tribute exhibit for Alcala’s 100th anniversary. This is why there’s a dedicated panel for the works of the members of the Samahang Kartunista ng Pilipinas, which the artist founded in 1978.

“My goal for the exhibit is not only to focus on the artist, but also his impact on other artists. This is why in this section, we brought in the works of SKP members as their contributions to the celebration of Larry Alcala’s legacy.”

Some of them, the curator notes, brought their own take on the details Alcala conveyed in his work, while others appropriated some of his characters to create their own Alcala-inspired comic strips. In the true spirit of the iconic cartoonist’s style, there are also tribute artworks that carry social and political commentary, representing comics as one of our ways to “creatively complain.”

The exhibit ends with “Nation Draws Back,” which invites exhibit goers to draw their own comics and sketches using the materials provided, and leave their creations for display on a dedicated panel. As a direct response to the issue of AI prompts and AI slop, Ardivilla placed prompts on one of the pillars inside the exhibit area to help visitors come up with their own cartoon artworks for this section. Ultimately, he wants to inspire the next generation of Filipino cartoonists and illustrators to hone their craft and tell their own visual story.

“I want the museum goers to be part of the exhibit themselves,” the curator says, adding that after the exhibit, they will be collecting the visitors’ artworks and will be adding them to the collection of the UP College of Fine Arts, where Ardavilla himself serves as an Assistant Professor. Coincidentally, Alcala was an alumnus of the college and the founder and first chairperson of its Department of Visual Communication, where the country saw its first college degree course in commercial design.

Other notable sections of the exhibit include A Living Slice of Life, a data-driven digital installation by experience studio World Wide Womb. It displays the city’s current weather, traffic conditions, and the names of exhibit guests for a given day.

Next to it is Drawn to Life by creative lab Tony&, which features a Siopawman figure with an NFC tag that can be scanned to view character profiles, as well as an immersive digital projection that visitors can interact with and switch between characters by moving.

These digital components bring Alcala’s enduring art style and legacy into the present using today’s technology and digital tools, inviting visitors to become one of his beloved characters.

“People often think of exhibits as very strict or very boring, so I wanted visitors to interact,” the curator says on incorporating immersive and interactive elements into the exhibit.

Asked which pieces visitors should take a closer look at, Ardivilla points to the Meet Mang Larry panel. It shows two of Alcala's original cartoon artworks that say a lot about him as an educator and an artist.

“Aside from these cartoons being sociological, they also show how Mang Larry used sound effects to visualize sounds and render them as images. These show his capacity as an artist, an educator, and a storyteller.”

As a final note, Ardivilla highlights how viewing Alcala’s work has no starting point. “You can start anywhere, and since Filipinos back then would spend time looking for his profile in Slice of Life, they’d be forced to look at everything to observe what’s happening.“ We can look at discovering or rediscovering Larry Alcala’s work the same way. It doesn’t matter where or how you begin—what does is that you look closer, immerse yourself in the details, and lean into the humor in the everyday.

Return to the Popular: Drawing the Filipino Imagination is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will run until September 19, 2026, at Gallery 2 of the Metropolitan Theater.

For more information, visit the Facebook pages of Larry Alcala, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and The Metropolitan Theater.

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