Chaos and grace as compasses
March 2026 arrives at a rare and drastic inflection point, as the global landscape undergoes a shift so volatile that the very state of world affairs feels caught in a permanent flux.
And in this climate of seismic uncertainty, the art world provides two distinct ways to navigate the noise. On one side is the protest of Manuel Ocampo, whose work acts as a “shout in the dark”—a raw, visceral reaction to the fracturing around us. In sharp contrast is the hope found in the benefit show by Nikolai Quiambao and Zaha Cruz, ages 13 and 14, whose collaborative artworks for the Indigenous children of Palawan represent a different kind of signal centered on communal care and future-building.
Between these two poles of resistance and renewal lie several other vital exhibitions that challenge our perceptions and offer new ways of seeing, coping, and being human amid a fraying world. Together, these exhibitions show us that while one artist may shout to expose the cracks, others work to fill them, ensuring we do not navigate this road in isolation.
“Intonarumori: A Three-part Exploration of Chaos, Mutation, and the Grotesque” featuring Manuel Ocampo, MM Yu, and Romeo Lee
“The big idea behind Intonarumori is simple yet radical: Noise is not something to be silenced, but something to be embraced. The show argues that the chaotic, contradictory, and often grotesque frequencies of Filipino identity are not bugs in the system; they are the system.
Taking its name from Luigi Russolo’s Futurist ‘noise instruments,’ the exhibition transforms the gallery into a resonating chamber where dissonance becomes symphony.” – Manuel Ocampo, visual artist
“Intonarumori” opens on March 7, 2026, and will run through March 28, 2026, at Blanc Gallery, 145 Katipunan Ave, Quezon City, 1110 Metro Manila
“Let’s Watch Paint Dry” featuring Jayson Oliveria
“While a single painting is a discrete particle, 50-plus paintings in a confined gallery space achieve a Critical Mass of Meaning. The space bends toward general relativity. An event horizon forms near the entrance. Once crossed, no small talk escapes. The paintings generate an ergosphere: zones of frame-dragging that pull observers into co-creation (or risk spiritual spaghettification). Angular momentum increases with every prolonged stare.” – The Temporal Autonomous Church of Painting
“Let’s Watch Paint Dry” opens on March 7, 2026 and will run through March 28, 2026, at Blanc Gallery, 145 Katipunan Ave, Quezon City, 1110 Metro Manila
“Panahon Panahon” featuring Frelan Gonzaga
“‘Panahon Panahon’ invites the public to move through moments of stillness and disruption, reflecting on how time, weather, and unforeseen events shape our lives. Through portraits, landscapes, sculptures, and collaborations, the exhibition explores how we endure crisis, confront mortality, and find meaning in both calm and catastrophe. At its heart, the show asks a simple but urgent question. When life tests us through change, loss, or uncertainty, how do we respond and how do we continue?” – Frelan Gonzaga, visual artist
“Panahon Panahon” will run through March 21, 2026, at Orange Project, Art District, Lopue’s Annex Building, Lacson St, Bacolod, Negros Occidental
“F-Holes” featuring Jason Montinola
“Yung Bangkok show is essentially a prologue para kay F-holes—ang first character ko since 2006. By showing her portraits across different timelines, binibigyan ko ang viewers ng glimpse sa visual universe na ginagalawan niya.
Pero ang origin story ni ‘F-Holes’ mas ilalabas ko sa next solo show ko. Pag gumagawa ako ng character, kailangan ko ng maraming studies para sa history, references, attitude, purpose, design, mannerisms, at lifespan nito, pati na rin kung papaano siya magkokonekta sa larger visual universe ko.” – Jason Montinola, visual artist
“F-Holes” is currently on view at La Lanta Fine Art, Unit B, 3rd Floor, 2198/10-11 Narathiwas Rajanakarin Road, Soi 22, Chong Nonsi, Yan Nawa, Bangkok 10120, Thailand
“Woven Traces” featuring Angela Silva and Francis Dravigny
“I expect visitors to linger and take their time looking. The original intention of the photograph is gone. The new intention is for them to see these portraits for the first time, in a new light.
The small sizes of the photographs were from the camera films most common at that time. Some are real photo postcards (RPPC), usually 3×5 inches, that were taken in a photography studio for personal remembrance. Many others were personal snapshots, collected from albums that were taken apart. I included dedications written on the back wherever I could.
The indigo blue backgrounds are cyanotype prints, a form of early photography before cameras and film. I appropriated magazine articles and handwritten endearments from more found photos. I created collages based on themes and narratives that I chose to give these snapshots a new meaning.” – Angela Silva, visual artist
“Woven Traces” will open on March 12, 2026, and will run through April 11, 2026, at Alliance Française de Manille, 209 Nicanor Garcia St, Bel-Air, II, Makati City, 1209 Metro Manila
“Contraluz” featuring Abraham Lacalle
“The public can expect a vibrant and thought-provoking exhibition where imagined landscapes serve as a metaphor for alternative realities. The big idea behind ‘Contraluz’ is a struggle against the ‘hegemony of light,’ or the dominant, official version of reality, using painting to explore parallel dimensions and the duplicity of identity.
As the artist himself states, the show is a metaphor for ‘the search for the alternative,’ a ‘struggle against the hegemony of light, understood as the metaphor for Day, for what is established as official.’ Contraluz means against the light or backlighting.” – Osie Tiangco, gallerist behind Pablo Galleries
“Contraluz” is currently on view at Pablo Fort Gallery, C-11, South of Market, Taguig, 1634 Metro Manila
“Material Instincts” featuring Olivia d’Aboville, Marionne Contreras, Monica Delgado, and Michelle Perez
“In their unrelenting investigations of materiality, Olivia d’Aboville, Marionne Contreras, Monica Delgado, and Michelle Perez redefine abstract art. In their continuous experimentations with both color and material, they constantly challenge themselves to create, as Barnett Newman himself said of color field painting, ‘images whose reality is self-evident, and which are devoid of the props and the crutches that evoke associations with outmoded images, both sublime and beautiful.’” – Bambina Olivares, curator
“Material Instincts” opened on Feb. 11, 2026, and will run through April 30, 2026, at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, 30th St, Taguig, Metro Manila
“To Know a Bird’s Song Go to the Mountains,” featuring various artists and curated by Janice Liuson-Young
“I paint the dining table as an image of members of a household converging, talking, being in company, settling or forgetting differences, and getting nourished with and by each other. It is a place to grow, to take root, and to unfurl one’s leaves. It could also be a space to simply take a seat and pause, quiet and at peace.” – Shireen Co, visual artist
“To Know a Bird’s Song Go to the Mountains” opens on March 15, 2026, and will run through April 7, 2026, at Kaida Gallery, 129 Kamias Rd, Diliman, Quezon City, 1101 Metro Manila
“You. I. Luv.” featuring Ian Inoy
“During my solo exhibition, ‘You. I. Luv.,’ audiences can expect an immersive, multi-sensory presentation of painting, sculpture, installation, and performance that unfolds with deliberation, inviting rest, reflection, and participation rather than spectacle. The exhibition centers on resilience within the Filipino experience, examining how it has been historically shaped by colonial legacies, structural violence, and collective trauma rather than simply inherited as an innate strength.
Ultimately, the work reframes resilience not as endless endurance, but as a critical and ethical practice that creates space for grief, refusal, and the reconfiguration of how we live with history collectively.” – Ian Inoy, visual artist
“You. I. Luv.” opens on March 13, 2026, at Art Cube, Unit 104 G/F Building 3, OPVI Centre, 2295 Chino Roces Ave, Makati City, Metro Manila
View the full list on lifestyle.inquirer.net
