Constellations: A Survey by Hersley Casero
Man has always looked to the heavens in search of direction, connection, the meaning of existence. This exhibit draws together Hersley’s works from different chapters of his life; fluid and timeless because it adheres to neither theme nor chronology. As the artist puts it, “Each work is a star, each body of work a constellation…vast, evolving, and still being discovered. Perhaps a constellation is not something that was always there, but something we discover by connecting the points.”
Hersley’s artistic talent was recognized early on, in kindergarten; upon reflection, one could say the same for his recurring theme of flight. He was all of five, and had sketched himself a helicopter, garnering his first big, life-changing win: “Artist of the Week.” As Hersley recalls with childlike delight, “I even got juice and bread. I think those little moments made me want to keep going… In a way, I think I’m still that little boy. I see something, I feel something, I wonder about it, and I want to make it exist somehow.”
Constellations may not be a retrospective of Hersley’s work, he is still too young for that. But having witnessed his creative metamorphosis through the years, and his personal evolution from impressionable young man to doting husband to proud father, this misinterpretation cannot be helped. Most notably, this is the first exhibit featuring collaborative pieces with his firstborn, daughter Galaxy.
This collection is a random sampling of the artist’s oeuvre, personally surveyed pieces covering a quarter of a century, the earliest aptly called “Untitled” (2001) a semi-abstract drawing revealing a self-portrait of the artist suspended in space (in utero?)—curious, struggling. Fast forward a decade or so, to 2013, Hersley’s beloved Dumaguete polarized by the city’s enforcement of the Helmet Law, giving context to the “Helmet” series (2012-2013). At first blush we recognize an amusing depiction of the artist’s palette as helmet, but beneath the imagery, a call to awareness of our shared fragile mortality.
A gauge to the ethos of the times, Hersley’s creations illuminate the magical symmetry in the mundane, that extra layer of serendipity in the abstract. They are gateways to different worlds, epitomized in the multi-faceted “Constellations” (2026), a series which reflects the eloquence, versatility, and that intense restless spirit of the Gemini, the artist’s constellation.
Hersley’s worlds exist, somehow, because the artist is first and foremost, a storyteller: one who compels us to collaborate on the narrative. This spontaneous response to conspire, even wax existential with the artist is palpable in “Toward a Larger Sky I & II” (2026), where we have two wanderers on kilometric tikarang (stilts) nonchalantly meandering their way across a squadron of clouds. Where are they bound? What is their game plan? Is there a game plan?
Clearly Hersley’s capacity to enchant, for whimsy, is tempered with metaphysical commentary on that all-consuming thread, the human condition. In “The Weight of Dreams” (2021), one instinctively feels for the shackled supplicant, juggling with life’s curveballs, and weighted down with sediments of regret. We feel a familiar solidarity with the subject; indeed, this is the price we pay for pursuing our dreams. (Do I detect some buoyancy? I imagine all is not lost.)
Much like his imagination, Hersley’s creative odyssey has been boundless, and the sky was never the proverbial limit; twenty-five years ago, the artist had already harnessed no less than the cosmos as his canvas. Today he flies us full circle to “Where the Stars Lead” (2026), captivating our inner child with the star-collecting, wool-gathering boy and his caped, lopsided-eared dog on a banca, a look of supreme, celestial contentment on the little boy’s face, sheer excitement on the dog’s, while jet streams from swallows propel their boat across constellations, galaxies, and adventures unknown.
A.L. Adriano
Hersley-Ven Casero is a multidisciplinary visual artist and street and documentary photographer based in Dumaguete City, Philippines. A graduate of Foundation University with a BSC in Marketing, he was named Artist of the Year by the university, and in 2018 received the Negros Oriental Young Heroes Award for Visual Arts. In 2019, Casero became the first Filipino artist awarded a sponsored residency at the Chalk Hill Artist Residency in California, USA. In 2024, the Dumaguete City Council honored him with a Resolution of Recognition and Commendation as a Dumaguete Luminary. And in 2025, he became the youngest ever recipient of the city’s prestigious Outstanding Dumagueteño Award, a tribute to his exceptional achievements and invaluable contributions to the arts, which have brought honor and lasting distinction to Dumaguete, both locally and internationally.
Born and raised in Dumaguete, the city continues to shape his creative lens and serves as both subject and backdrop for many of his works. Casero actively shares his talents through local classes, workshops, and talks, including with the Department of Education, while also exhibiting his work across the globe. His paintings and photographs have been featured in exhibitions and publications in the USA, India, Ukraine, Dubai, Poland, Germany, Portugal, France, Cyprus, and Italy.
Casero’s work has appeared in The Dumaguete MetroPost, Negros Chronicle, Island News, Visayan Daily Star, The Freeman, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, and Manila Bulletin’s Picture Perfect, as well as in Smile, Cebu Pacific’s inflight magazine. In 2023, VOGUE Philippines featured an article about his life and photography. Internationally, his work has been published in The Los Angeles Times, VIEW Magazine (Germany), national publications in Denmark and India, The Lonely Planet, and a wide range of online galleries including The Pictorial List, Street Photographers Foundation, Street Photography International, EyeShot, The Independent Photographer, 121 Clicks, and Bored Panda, among others.
Casero’s photography has been part of major international exhibitions such as #ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis at the International Center for Photography in New York; the traveling City vs Quarantine show in Lviv, Ukraine and across Europe; and the Tehran Street Photography Festival 2023. His work was featured in Art Fair Philippines in both 2023 and 2024 through collaborations with Fotomoto and MUGNA Gallery. His solo exhibit, Onion Kids, debuted in 2023 at Art Fair Philippines, showcasing some of his most iconic street photographs printed at their largest scale to date, and later returned for Onion Kids: Homecoming at MUGNA Gallery in Valencia, Negros Oriental. In 2024, Casero served as a guest judge for the Italian Street Photography Festival and exhibited at StreetSoup Art Gallery in Milan.
In 2026, Casero was appointed to the international Jury of Honor for the 3rd edition of the Street Macadam Awards, a French-based international street and documentary photography contest. He also served as a member of the final jury for RomePhotoLab 2026, an international street photography competition in Rome, for the Single Shot – Streets of the World category.
His photography has earned numerous international awards and honors, including: Silver Medal, Paris International Street Photography Awards (2020), First Prize & Category Winner, Muse Photography Awards (2021), Finalist, Sony World Photography Awards (2021), Finalist, Street Photography International Awards (2022), Finalist, Miami Street Photography Awards (2022), Finalist, Eyeshot Open Call (2022), and 2nd Prize & Finalist, Italian Street Photography Awards (2022).
Among his most notable long-term photography projects is Catch A Moment, a street & documentary photography series capturing uncanny, poetic, and humorous moments of everyday life. In 2021, he published his first photography book, All in Good Time, which features Catch A Moment photographs taken around Dumaguete.
Throughout his artistic journey, Casero has explored a wide spectrum of mediums, themes, and collaborations. He advocates for creativity, authenticity and self-expression through community-based art projects like Ha?: The Laughing Boy Project. In 2022, he illustrated the children’s book The Great Little Hunter, an imaginative tale inspired by Filipino mythology and the natural world of Dumaguete and Negros.
Casero’s art and photography perpetually inform and inspire each other, encouraging him to stay curious, to wonder daily at the whimsicality of the world around him, and to find, catch and immortalize the magic that exists in the mundane of everyday life within his hometown of Dumaguete and beyond.
Constellations: A Survey by Hersley Casero
Man has always looked to the heavens in search of direction, connection, the meaning of existence. This exhibit draws together Hersley’s works from different chapters of his life; fluid and timeless because it adheres to neither theme nor chronology. As the artist puts it, “Each work is a star, each body of work a constellation…vast, evolving, and still being discovered. Perhaps a constellation is not something that was always there, but something we discover by connecting the points.”
Hersley’s artistic talent was recognized early on, in kindergarten; upon reflection, one could say the same for his recurring theme of flight. He was all of five, and had sketched himself a helicopter, garnering his first big, life-changing win: “Artist of the Week.” As Hersley recalls with childlike delight, “I even got juice and bread. I think those little moments made me want to keep going… In a way, I think I’m still that little boy. I see something, I feel something, I wonder about it, and I want to make it exist somehow.”
Constellations may not be a retrospective of Hersley’s work, he is still too young for that. But having witnessed his creative metamorphosis through the years, and his personal evolution from impressionable young man to doting husband to proud father, this misinterpretation cannot be helped. Most notably, this is the first exhibit featuring collaborative pieces with his firstborn, daughter Galaxy.
This collection is a random sampling of the artist’s oeuvre, personally surveyed pieces covering a quarter of a century, the earliest aptly called “Untitled” (2001) a semi-abstract drawing revealing a self-portrait of the artist suspended in space (in utero?)—curious, struggling. Fast forward a decade or so, to 2013, Hersley’s beloved Dumaguete polarized by the city’s enforcement of the Helmet Law, giving context to the “Helmet” series (2012-2013). At first blush we recognize an amusing depiction of the artist’s palette as helmet, but beneath the imagery, a call to awareness of our shared fragile mortality.
A gauge to the ethos of the times, Hersley’s creations illuminate the magical symmetry in the mundane, that extra layer of serendipity in the abstract. They are gateways to different worlds, epitomized in the multi-faceted “Constellations” (2026), a series which reflects the eloquence, versatility, and that intense restless spirit of the Gemini, the artist’s constellation.
Hersley’s worlds exist, somehow, because the artist is first and foremost, a storyteller: one who compels us to collaborate on the narrative. This spontaneous response to conspire, even wax existential with the artist is palpable in “Toward a Larger Sky I & II” (2026), where we have two wanderers on kilometric tikarang (stilts) nonchalantly meandering their way across a squadron of clouds. Where are they bound? What is their game plan? Is there a game plan?
Clearly Hersley’s capacity to enchant, for whimsy, is tempered with metaphysical commentary on that all-consuming thread, the human condition. In “The Weight of Dreams” (2021), one instinctively feels for the shackled supplicant, juggling with life’s curveballs, and weighted down with sediments of regret. We feel a familiar solidarity with the subject; indeed, this is the price we pay for pursuing our dreams. (Do I detect some buoyancy? I imagine all is not lost.)
Much like his imagination, Hersley’s creative odyssey has been boundless, and the sky was never the proverbial limit; twenty-five years ago, the artist had already harnessed no less than the cosmos as his canvas. Today he flies us full circle to “Where the Stars Lead” (2026), captivating our inner child with the star-collecting, wool-gathering boy and his caped, lopsided-eared dog on a banca, a look of supreme, celestial contentment on the little boy’s face, sheer excitement on the dog’s, while jet streams from swallows propel their boat across constellations, galaxies, and adventures unknown.
A.L. Adriano
Hersley-Ven Casero is a multidisciplinary visual artist and street and documentary photographer based in Dumaguete City, Philippines. A graduate of Foundation University with a BSC in Marketing, he was named Artist of the Year by the university, and in 2018 received the Negros Oriental Young Heroes Award for Visual Arts. In 2019, Casero became the first Filipino artist awarded a sponsored residency at the Chalk Hill Artist Residency in California, USA. In 2024, the Dumaguete City Council honored him with a Resolution of Recognition and Commendation as a Dumaguete Luminary. And in 2025, he became the youngest ever recipient of the city’s prestigious Outstanding Dumagueteño Award, a tribute to his exceptional achievements and invaluable contributions to the arts, which have brought honor and lasting distinction to Dumaguete, both locally and internationally.
Born and raised in Dumaguete, the city continues to shape his creative lens and serves as both subject and backdrop for many of his works. Casero actively shares his talents through local classes, workshops, and talks, including with the Department of Education, while also exhibiting his work across the globe. His paintings and photographs have been featured in exhibitions and publications in the USA, India, Ukraine, Dubai, Poland, Germany, Portugal, France, Cyprus, and Italy.
Casero’s work has appeared in The Dumaguete MetroPost, Negros Chronicle, Island News, Visayan Daily Star, The Freeman, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, and Manila Bulletin’s Picture Perfect, as well as in Smile, Cebu Pacific’s inflight magazine. In 2023, VOGUE Philippines featured an article about his life and photography. Internationally, his work has been published in The Los Angeles Times, VIEW Magazine (Germany), national publications in Denmark and India, The Lonely Planet, and a wide range of online galleries including The Pictorial List, Street Photographers Foundation, Street Photography International, EyeShot, The Independent Photographer, 121 Clicks, and Bored Panda, among others.
Casero’s photography has been part of major international exhibitions such as #ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis at the International Center for Photography in New York; the traveling City vs Quarantine show in Lviv, Ukraine and across Europe; and the Tehran Street Photography Festival 2023. His work was featured in Art Fair Philippines in both 2023 and 2024 through collaborations with Fotomoto and MUGNA Gallery. His solo exhibit, Onion Kids, debuted in 2023 at Art Fair Philippines, showcasing some of his most iconic street photographs printed at their largest scale to date, and later returned for Onion Kids: Homecoming at MUGNA Gallery in Valencia, Negros Oriental. In 2024, Casero served as a guest judge for the Italian Street Photography Festival and exhibited at StreetSoup Art Gallery in Milan.
In 2026, Casero was appointed to the international Jury of Honor for the 3rd edition of the Street Macadam Awards, a French-based international street and documentary photography contest. He also served as a member of the final jury for RomePhotoLab 2026, an international street photography competition in Rome, for the Single Shot – Streets of the World category.
His photography has earned numerous international awards and honors, including: Silver Medal, Paris International Street Photography Awards (2020), First Prize & Category Winner, Muse Photography Awards (2021), Finalist, Sony World Photography Awards (2021), Finalist, Street Photography International Awards (2022), Finalist, Miami Street Photography Awards (2022), Finalist, Eyeshot Open Call (2022), and 2nd Prize & Finalist, Italian Street Photography Awards (2022).
Among his most notable long-term photography projects is Catch A Moment, a street & documentary photography series capturing uncanny, poetic, and humorous moments of everyday life. In 2021, he published his first photography book, All in Good Time, which features Catch A Moment photographs taken around Dumaguete.
Throughout his artistic journey, Casero has explored a wide spectrum of mediums, themes, and collaborations. He advocates for creativity, authenticity and self-expression through community-based art projects like Ha?: The Laughing Boy Project. In 2022, he illustrated the children’s book The Great Little Hunter, an imaginative tale inspired by Filipino mythology and the natural world of Dumaguete and Negros.
Casero’s art and photography perpetually inform and inspire each other, encouraging him to stay curious, to wonder daily at the whimsicality of the world around him, and to find, catch and immortalize the magic that exists in the mundane of everyday life within his hometown of Dumaguete and beyond.
