All Stories

Everything we've published, newest first.

The coffee-table book Glenn Bautista: An Artist Drowning in Visions by Igan D’Bayan stands on a paint-spattered studio table among jars of brushes, oil paint tubes and a box of Sennelier pastels

The Art of Drowning in Visions

Glenn Bautista drew Rizal’s monument from a line by line transcription of his 39 poems, then vanished for 15 years. On the artist we forgot.

By Igan D'Bayan · September 4, 2023
Jurors of the Philippine Pavilion for the 60th Venice Biennale standing and sitting together in a conference room during deliberations

Beyond the veil: Carlos Quijon Jr. & Mark Salvatus to represent PH at the Venice Biennale

Curator Carlos Quijon Jr. and artist Mark Salvatus on taking the Philippines to Venice, and the curator’s shift from shaman to jack of all trades.

By Igan D'Bayan · August 14, 2023
A skull-faced figure in shirtsleeves and a waistcoat types at an old typewriter in a dark room, facing a second skull wired into a tangle of cables and machinery

Who’s afraid of big, bad artificial intelligence?

Talking nicely to the chatbots in case they remember us later, and finding that the scariest thing online is still the people doing the typing.

By Igan D'Bayan · July 28, 2023
Detail of a lifelike dead female centaur with a spotted horse body lying on pale stone tiles

People, events, dead centaurs, places

A family of dead centaurs in the Danish Pavilion, a German floor torn up to its Nazi-era joints: pavilion-hopping at the 59th Venice Biennale.

By Igan D'Bayan · April 10, 2023
German pianist Joja Wendt playing a black Steinway grand piano at the PGA Cars gallery

Steinway artist Joja Wendt plays boogie-woogie & Beethoven (with flying bumblebees in between)

The German pianist who swings from boogie-woogie to Beethoven, in Manila for Steinway & Sons’ The Artistry in Modern Precision at PGA Cars.

By Igan D'Bayan · March 11, 2023
Weaving installation with red threads and textiles hanging from the rafters of the Arsenale during the Philippine Pavilion exhibition at the Venice Biennale

An invisible thread that binds us all

The Pavilion’s closing act reaches the Pinoys of Venice: the waiters, the healthcare workers, the household helpers, all one existential tapestry.

By Igan D'Bayan · December 25, 2022
Two works by Marco Ortiga: a black steel hoop sculpture and a faceted polyhedron lined with mirror shards

The art of Marco Ortiga: Through the looking glass, weirdly

The conceptual artist holds a mirror up to this ‘see-me world’, and instead of showing clarity and reflection, purveys cracks and malformation.

By Igan D'Bayan · October 17, 2022
Portrait of NCCA Chairman Nick Lizaso posing in a garden in Venice, wearing a barong Tagalog

Nick Lizaso: 10,000 stories and one heart for the masses

After a life on stage and screen, the NCCA chairman calls himself simply an audience member now, watching people watch performances.

By Igan D'Bayan · June 27, 2022
A gondolier steers passengers along a Venetian canal past faded orange palazzi

Heavy liquid: Milk of Dreams at the Venice Biennale

Surrealism, an emptied Russian Pavilion and a fountain smuggled out of Kyiv in a white Audi: the 59th Biennale, where the going gets weirder.

By Igan D'Bayan · May 16, 2022
A large, colorful hand-woven tapestry hanging inside the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Backstage at the Biennale

Talking art with the curator and artists of the Philippine Pavilion over liters of Birra Moretti in the beautiful sinking city.

By Igan D'Bayan · May 9, 2022
Fiber artist Aze Ong stands beneath her sprawling white crochet installation, webbed panels and rings spanning the dark ceiling, one lacy length draped over her shoulder like a gown

Aze Ong weaves a tale of pain & transcendence

Chronic pain in the hands of a fiber artist who crochets for a living: Aze Ong on making her largest work yet for Art Fair Philippines.

By Igan D'Bayan · March 21, 2022
Portrait of Filipino author Miguel Syjuco leaning against a wall and looking at the camera

Miguel Syjuco & the ongoing war over who will tell the stories the world will know as true

The Ilustrado novelist on disinformation, power, and who gets to tell the stories the world will know as true, from a desk of literary detritus.

By Igan D'Bayan · March 14, 2022