Some exhibitions introduce new names; others reaffirm why certain artists continue to matter. Ascent, which ran from April 11 to 25, 2026, did precisely that—bringing together a group of artists whose practices have steadily and meaningfully shaped the Philippine art landscape over time.
Dex Fernandez
Lynyrd Paras
Featuring Dex Fernandez, Lynyrd Paras, Mark Andy Garcia, Max Balatbat, and Winner Jumalon, the exhibition moved beyond the need for a singular aesthetic or theme. What connected the works was something more enduring: a deep commitment to process. Each artist has remained engaged with a distinct set of questions and methods, refined through years of navigating shifts in taste, market, and discourse, resulting in practices that feel both grounded and continuously evolving.
Mark Andy Garcia
Max Balatbat
In a local context where artistic lineages are often felt rather than formally outlined, Ascent made that lineage visible. These are artists whose works have circulated widely, been challenged and reinterpreted, and gradually absorbed into the visual language that younger artists now encounter and respond to—whether knowingly or not. Seeing them together in one room offered a clearer sense of that influence, not as a fixed legacy, but as something still unfolding.
Winner Jumalon
The experience of the exhibition was not about arriving at a single reading. Each artist held their own ground. Fernandez’s works carried a sharp, graphic energy that resisted stillness; Paras approached material with a quieter, more introspective portrait tension; Garcia’s compositions emphasized abstract structure and control without losing sensitivity; Balatbat’s surfaces balanced restraint, experimental with underlying intensity; and Jumalon’s works moved between figuration and atmosphere, allowing ambiguity to remain. What emerged was not uniformity, but a layered conversation—one that required time and attention to fully register.
The exhibition was made possible through DF Art Agency, led by Derek Flores, in collaboration with Leon Gallery International under Jaime Ponce de Leon. Together, they created a platform that foregrounded both the individuality of each artist and the broader significance of bringing these practices into dialogue at this moment.
In the end, Ascent didn’t dwell on the past as much as it clarified what it means to keep a practice in motion. What it offered was a closer look at artists who have stayed with their work long enough for it to shift, to be questioned, and to take on new forms—without losing the core of what makes it theirs.
