“Kuan” functions as a general introduction to familiar themes and settings as we enter the new decade and are faced with the same, if not, more important economic and political concerns affecting our personal lives. Here, the artists take us through different trajectories that allow us to commiserate with the ideas, thoughts, and feelings of the depicted situations. Navigating through tropes that look at the collective reactions of people in times of danger, tragedies, and celebration, “Kuan” magnifies many of our current inexplicable dispositions.

Among the bold and captivating portrayals of recognized scenes, the artists’ conscious use of materials and images arranges a narrative that makes formidable statements about power, poverty, violence, solidarity, and resiliency. In “Kuan”, our hesitations to describe our circumstances are transformed into concrete substantiation of truths, mending the gap between realities and language. This exhibition features the works of Nicolas Aca Jr., Michael Bacol, Errol P. Balcos, Oca Floirendo, Michelle Lua, and Jericho Valjusto Vamenta

-Gwen Bautista