‘DyNasty,’ DengCoy Miel, pen and ink on book paper, from the ‘Philippine Star,’ 1987
‘The Christian Way,’ DengCoy Miel, pen and ink on book paper from the ‘Philippine Star,’ 1987
‘Reviving ML?’, DengCoy Miel, pen and ink on book paper, from the ‘Philippine Star, ‘1986
‘Balimbing,’ DengCoy Miel, pen and ink on book paper, from the ‘Philippine Star,’ 1986
AFTERGLOW–Edsa: 40 years later, an exhibit of vintage illustrations and new and recent mixed media works by DengCoy Miel, Noel Rosales, Jose Tence Ruiz, and Pinggot Zulueta, curated by Jose Tence Ruiz, runs from Feb. 22 to March 21, 2026 at the vMEME Contemporary Art Gallery at the Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons, Pasig.
From the exhibition catalogue:
To those of us pummeled by those typhoon winds that blew away 20 odd years of dictatorship, the ecstacy and lingering anguish are somehow all that remain after 40 years, four decades rushing by in a blur. The euphoria, the joy, the dopamine tsunami was palpable, but so was the unease. New options came forward, as did old questions: Was a popularly mechanized putsch actually going to renew the structure of Philippine society, or was it just another unprecedented moment of upper class realignment? Was the verdict of the millions of warm bodies of Metro Manila and Luzon in general ever going to sit well with the Visayas and Mindanao? Would the Philippines step up as a nation and be an exemplar for its Asean siblings, for a world ensconced by the cold war in multiple dictatorships? Was People Power going to lift the economy, or just shift its exploitative parameters to another set of players, and the status quo would again settle, and the business of resurrecting a nation returned to the hands of the class that had sucked it into destitute mediocrity?
‘EdsA,’ Noel Rosales, mixed media construction, 2026
History is said to be fickle, ambivalent, and subjective. But history is, at least, founded on the eyewitness, because those who have lived in the times can best recount and express them. The four artists in this gathering were all working in Manila during these fateful four days that expelled a 20-year tyranny. They were all employed in journalism in one way or another, and were thus properly implicated in the miracle of 1986. That they have lived to this time, when said miracle has become a nasty, ironic joke on the reformers, is even more touching, but also significant: To see your aspirations undone or reversed has to be both a mischievous trick of existence and a privilege of longevity. EDSA was a true zenith of joy, but also an undisputed moshpit of inchoate longing. DengCoy Miel, Noel Rosales, Jose Tence Ruiz, and Pinggot Zulueta had all soared off into the rapture of social upheaval and endured the slow comeback of post-colonial torpor and recidivism. EDSA can be both a fever dream and a tedious soap opera, and the works in this show are shared testament to this gamut of enduring.
‘Feb 26, 1986/And I Hope, Poverty…,’ Jose Tence Ruiz, pen and ink on vellum the ‘Manila Chronicle,’ 1986
‘The Inchoate Revolution,’ Jose Tence Ruiz. pen and ink and graphite on vellum, 1987–2026
‘The Weight of Colonial Histories,’ Jose Tence Ruiz, pen and ink on Bristol board, ‘Who’ Magazine, 1983
‘Gising Bayan, Bukas Tayo’y Lalaban,’ Pinggot Zulueta, pen and ink on illustration board, 1985
‘Trono ng Hari,’ Pinggot Zulueta, mixed media construction, 2016
‘The Media Activist,’ Pinggot Zulueta, pen and ink on vellum, 1991
DengCoy Miel
DengcCoy Miel seriously began his practice as an apprentice to the late great Nonoy Marcelo, who may not have imagined that his protégé would be an International two-time Reuben Award winner, handed to him by no less than the inimitable Sergio Aragones.
He shared his draughtsmanly wit with The Philippine Collegian, Sinag, Jingle magazine, The Philippines Daily Express, The Philippine Star, and for over 33 years, with The Singapore Straits Times, all the while syndicating his humor, irony and insight globally with Newsweek, South China Morning Post, International Herald Tribune, World Press Review, Asahi Shimbun. Asiaweek, and The Toronto Star, to name a long list of serious news providers.
A 2010 Ani ng Dangal awardee from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Dengcoy also set out to do serious painting, cultivating a practice that dwells on Philippine history, culture, and personalities, this in spite of having to work 45 hours weeks abroad for 33 years to support his family. His latest one man show is coming this March, but DengCoy is booked until 2027 to share his unfiltered perspective on art and Philippine society. An exhibit like Afterglow would not have shown as well without him.
Noel Rosales
A precocious art award winner in his teenage years in Butuan, Noel Rosales moved from winning more prizes at the Mindanao State University in the 1970s to larger, more demanding competitions in Manila throughout the 1980s: the University of the Philippines (UP)-on-the-Spot Painting Contest, Art of Ecology Competition, METROBANK Painting Competition 1990, and the Expocision de Pintura Hispanidad 1982 were just a few of these conquests.
He took this abundant talent to illustrate for Adarna House, The Observer, The Independent, Newsday, and The Singapore Straits Times and the Singapore Press Holdings Creative Lab, where he stayed from 1996 to 2019. He has come back to paint, where he has had group shows with Ludwig Ilio, Eric David, Pinggot Zulueta, Hermisanto, Kat Inton-Casapao, and the gang of Afterglow, with whom he shares the crossover passion for art, journalism, and generally trying to make critical sense of a crazy planet.
Jose Tence Ruiz
In a word, Jose Tence Ruiz is restless, being into performance, editorial cartooning, sculpture, installation, art reportage, painting, book design and illustration, artists biographies, digital art, independent curating, and reliable dishwashing and home maintenance.
This five-time Art Association of the Philippines medalist and 2003 Araw ng Maynila Awardee’s happiest moments came in the news and publication rooms where he spent 21 of his 70 years, as well as at his 2015 representation of the Philippines at the 56th Biennale de Venezia, our national comeback after 51 years of absence. He was also an OG member of Kasihaan, Alab, Bakas, and Concerned Artists of the Philippines, and a founding member of Abay.
Pinggot Zulueta
Pinggot Zulueta is a mixed media visual artist, editorial illustrator, photojournalist, and art documentor. He is a meticulous illustrator of political commentary for the University of Santo Tomas’ The Varsitarian, Abante, and National Midweek, The Manila Chronicle, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Daily Globe, Dyaryo Filipino and The Philippine Graphic.
He has presented nine solo shows, including Tilamsik (1985), Asinta (2002), the Aotearoa Series in New York (2005), Makatulog Ka Pa Kaya with poetry by Rio Alma (2013), and Melankolia (2020). His artwork was featured in the 2014 Langkawi Art Biennale in Malaysia, and he was part of the major COVID era group show Colonia—Jimenez, Tence Ruiz, Zulueta, in 2020 at Kaida Contemporary. In 2015 and 2018, he produced and did the major portrait photography for two important anthologies of Filipino artmakers, Filipino Artists in Their Studios, I and II. A third volume is in the pipeline. He graduated from UST Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major in Painting and was declared Distinguished Thomasian Alumnus of 2023 as well as Outstanding Atelier Alumnus (UST Fine Arts) of 2024. He joined a recent group exhibit, Gothic Romantic, in Melbourne, and is prepping a one man show to come, also in Melbourne.
