A painting called ‘Pride’
Justin Nuyda (1944-2022) is best known as a pioneering visual artist and the youngest founding member of the Saturday Group. Fewer know he concocted the infamous Weng Weng cocktail or that he helped imagine inclusive spaces like the Hobbit House. But since the recent culinary art collaboration “Justin Nuyda: Origin Story” at Hapag, another layer of his identity has come to light as common knowledge: He was a lepidopterist, one of the Philippines’ most devoted butterfly collectors.
And as an avid butterfly collector, he was also drawn to a rare, gender-fluid species of the insect that exhibits both male and female traits. This fascination found his way into a 3×4 feet painting called “Pride,” completed after his eye surgery in 2020.
The eyes are arguably an artists’ most valuable asset, and this surgery prompted reflection. “When he fell ill, he looked inward,” says his daughter Ayni Nuyda, artist and founder of nonprofit Search Mindscape. “My father has always been an ally of the LGBTQIA+ community. He embraced individuality.”
“To him, [butterflies] embody something rare, wondrous, and worthy of being regarded with reverence. That same quiet strength pulses beneath ‘Pride.’”
On the painting and the prints
“Pride” is part of Nuyda’s “Helix” series, which visually explores the transformation of circular forms with interconnected spheres and smaller spirals painted in luminous hues. “The circular shapes reveal my dad’s sensitivity to transformations, refracting light and presence without spectacle,” says Ayni.
This oil on canvas painting drew inspiration from CDs, vinyl records, pencil shavings, seashells, and butterfly wings. It also marked a shift in palette with earthy, warm tones, complemented by bright primary colors. His chosen palette draws parallels to the Pride rainbow flag designed by Gilbert Baker in San Francisco in 1978, at the request of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk.
It’s no secret that obtaining paintings of such caliber is often a challenge, as a numbers, networking, and knowledge game. But Search Mindscape, which has often encouraged deeper engagement and more accessibility among the Philippine art community, has made these prints accessible.
The organization is now releasing open edition archival prints of “Pride,” scaled down from its original size. Each print also comes with a copy of the recently launched legal guidebook, “Justice with Pride: LGBTQIA+ Community Legal Guidebook in the Philippines.” And on its cover is Nuyda’s painting of color and light.
The guidebook with a higher purpose
Supported by pro bono work from premier law firm SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, the legal guidebook was developed in partnership with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the British Embassy, and TrustLaw.
At the heart of it is Mujer-LGBT, a Zamboanga City-based grassroots human rights organization largely dedicated to the protection of LGBTQIA+ people in Mindanao, especially those who are victims of gender-based violence.
“We persisted. We raised our voices louder. We built safe spaces where silence once prevailed,” writes Mx. Alvin Toni Gee Fernandez, executive director of the Mujer-LGBT organization. “And we made ourselves visible in systems that have long ignored us.
The guidebook is a practical tool. Not necessarily legal advice for particular circumstances, but a summary and guiding light aimed at systemic change. In it are a summary of laws and LGBTQIA+ protections that exist in the country, ready to equip anyone regardless of sexual orientation, as well as valuable information for safety against red-tagging, arbitrary arrest, or discrimination.
Carolina Henriquez-Schmitz, director of Access to Law at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, writes how in the Philippines, the absence of anti-discrimination laws and legal recognition of same-sex marriage leaves many vulnerable. “This has been sorely felt by civil society organizations,” she states. “Many of whom are experiencing increasing levels of reprisal through tactics like ‘red-tagging’… under the country’s Anti-Terror and Human Security Acts.”
Art, advocacy, and legacy
Alongside the archival prints, a short film zooming in on the nuances of “Pride” is also being released, narrated by Nuyda’s grandson Henry and written by his daughter Ayni. “What if ‘Pride’ could talk?’ Ayni asked.
In response, her poem writes, “what you see is not many voices–but one, caught in a different light”
Beneath these shifting angles of lights in paint and print, “Pride” glints with glimpses of freedom that illuminate the facets of queer existence, accompanied by a transformative legal tool for education, carrying forward a vision that is vibrant, expansive, and ever in motion.
