Mountain Echoes, Island Imprints by Francisco Jinsung Lee
I. Communication has always been a defining feature of humanity. From messages in bottles, secret mirrors, letters written on underwear, to golden discs in space, we have always had something to say, and in moments where conventional methods are unavailable, our creativity goes into overdrive and we make sure the message is still sent.
Well into the 21st century, several very old conundrums still persist: the significance of women artists in contemporary art, and the value of printmaking as a contemporary art form. For sure many significant strides have been taken in acknowledging these contributions in many ways, shapes and forms. Not so long ago, the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) hosted three printmaking exhibitions that highlighted women in Philippine printmaking. The shows were: Proven and Printed: ILOMOCA Print Festival 2023, curated by Con Cabrera; Potential, Potency, and Women Printmakers: Selection of prints from the CCP 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection, curated by Marika Contantino and Georgina Jocson, and the Print Exchange curated by Angela Silva. These ran from late 2023 well into 2024, and set the stage for a continued awareness of these projects and initiatives. This brings us to Mugna Gallery’s first exhibition of 2025, a long-awaited printmaking exhibition of women printmakers from the Philippines, aptly titled “Echoing Messages.”
As it’s setting, imagine Negros Island as a sentence, one that is punctuated by the peaks and valleys of the Cuernos de Negros, that magnificent mountain range that bisects the island into its occidental and oriental. Now, its high points do not necessarily have names, aside from iconic formations such as Mt Talinis and Mt Kanlaon, but let’s consider for a moment the participants of this exhibition as embodiments of this terra incognita. Works by Marz Aglipay, Kristen Cain, Marge Chavez, Irma Lacorte, Hershey Malinis, Fara Manuel, Maya Muñoz, Gabi Nazareno, Tin Palattao, and Angela Silva will guide us through both familiar and unexplored terrains of printmaking.
II. The vast vocabulary of techniques and materials that can be used in printmaking is explored by the ten artists, ranging from relief and reduction printmaking, collagraphs, monoprints, and serigraphy playfully yet skillfully merged with many non-traditional methods and techniques such as laser-cuts, stamping, artist books, gel plate printing, and mixed-media collages.
Materials for printmaking take up a wide spectrum, so do the messages conveyed via the images in the prints. Activism is represented in the works of Nazareno, Manuel, and Cain, in all its aspects currently relevant to the world such as climate and decolonization. Thoughts on the ground (literally like food wrappers, canned food, etc), such that easily capture the eye and imagination can be found with Aglipay, Malinis, and Manuel’s depictions of the everyday. Tapping into nostalgia and consumerism, these map out social and urban developments in the face of quickly evolving ecologies. The freedom of matrices provide a wide and stable ground for more abstract concepts to be explored and transformed into the visual field. Silva and Aglipay harness time via history and nostalgia, as Nazareno and Lacorte map body through shapes. As they go hand in hand, memory and place are both tackled by Nazareno, Silva, and Palattao, as do Cain and Muñoz. As they can be considered the Matriarchs of the group, Silva and Lacorte locate and impress their learnings of identity. Of course one of the key points of printmaking would be the capacity for simple yet precise shapes and articulation, as demonstrated by Chavez and Muñoz.
III. The artists were provided with the prompt: what message do you want echoed? Well, they shouted from the peaks of their mountains, and as the echoes reverberate, the experience of the exhibition stays in the mind. We invite you to consider your experience as a print hand pulled from a ten-part matrix, and the imprint is one with a message that echoes through time, space, and generations.
Marz Aglipay is a printmaker and independent writer-curator. She has honed her practice by creating handmade stamps and now serves as
the chief creative at Marz Today Studio.
Her practice is driven by a desire to chronicle daily life through stamps that capture the likeness of objects and people. Her work explores themes of comfort and nostalgia in relation to consumerism.
Aglipay’s prints have been included in exhibitions organized by the Association of Pinoyprintmakers and have been displayed at institutions such as the Manuel Antonio Rodriguez Sr. (MARS) Print Center, the Iloilo Museum for Contemporary Art, and the BenCab Museum among others.
Her largest curatorial project to date is The Marzing Machine Print Exchange at the Luzon Art Fair (2024), which showcased the work of 39 printmakers from across the Philippines. As a printmaker, her distinctions include an honorable mention at the 2021 Awagami International Miniprint Exhibition in Japan and being shortlisted at the 1st International GCB MiniPrint competition in Germany.
Kristen Cain grew up in Central Texas and has lived in Manila for over 13 years. An interdisciplinary artist for as long as she can remember, she has been working with the Philippine Association of Printmakers for more than 12 years. Her printmaking involves collagraphs and monoprints using found objects, beach trash, plastic rubbish and discarded textiles. She explores various concepts in recycling and repurposing things instead of discarding them. Interested in just about anything involving nature, her work frequently references climate issues and our relationship to this big beautiful Earth we all share.
Marge Chavez is a full-time artist based in Leon, Iloilo. She dabbles in multiple media namely: oil painting, acrylic painting, digital arts, printmaking, and pen and ink illustrations.
She supplements her private studio practice by engaging with community work as a core member of Kikik Kollektive. She believes in the power of visual art to communicate profound ideas and continually seeks to learn new methods of articulation.
Irma Lacorte is a Tacloban-born visual artist currently based in Dumaguete City. Her extensive body of work ranges from gender issues and identity in the 2000s and, in recent years, explores the formal elements of art-making using organic materials by drawing and printmaking. She participates in regional and national group exhibitions such as the Visayas Islands Visual Art Exhibition and Conference (VIVA ExCon) in Bacolod City (2014) and Iloilo City (2016), PROMDI at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2016. She is a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant in 2003 for her residency at the Vermont Studio Center and in 2016 for her research in mural-making and public art in Philadelphia and New York City. She completed her Masters in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, in 2012 and has been teaching art appreciation classes and fine arts in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (2004-2014) and Silliman University (2014-present). Her contribution to the visual arts in the Philippines is cited in the Philippine Encyclopedia for the Arts (2018), published by the CCP. In 2021, together with her partner and artist Tin Palattao, Lacorte co-founded ILCP Art Space, a self-funded artist-run platform based in Negros Oriental for sustainable production and exhibition of creative output.
Hershey B. Malinis maintains an active teaching, research, and artistic practice engaging in printmaking, arts education, and design. She holds a BFA, MFAD, a professional interior design license and teaches fine arts, production design, and interior design at the De La Salle- College of Saint Benilde where she serves as Chairperson of its Fine Arts in Culture-Based Arts Program. Malinis’ works have been exhibited in local and international exhibitions, and she had her first solo show, Within 4sqm., at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Gallery in 2019. Her editioned print “Bilyon” is included in 20/30: A Limited Edition Print Portfolio in Celebration of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2021). An active member of the Association of Pinoyprintmakers, Malinis practices the fine art of printmaking and various materialities through three-dimensional forms exploring quotidian ecologies and human conditions.
Fara Manuel is a multimedia designer and intermedia artist whose work spans graphic arts, photography, and installation. Born and raised in Quezon City, Fara completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication from the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines Diliman in 2003. She also holds a Graduate degree in Art Theory from the same institution. Fara is currently a doctoral scholar at Massey University, College of Creative Arts, New Zealand. In 2008, Fara began her teaching career at the University of the Philippines Baguio. From 2020 to 2022, she served as its Chair of the Committee on Culture and the Arts.
She is an active participant in Association of Pinoy Printmakers annual exhibitions at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and has showcased her work in various private galleries. Her international residencies include the Bamboo Curtain Studio in Taipei, Taiwan in 2014 and Art No Wall in Khon Kaen, Thailand in 2015. Her work was also selected for the Awagami International Mini Print Juried Exhibition in Tokushima, Japan in 2015.
In 2023, Fara was honored as one of the 12 selected women printmakers from across the Philippines for “Bakas,” an exhibition at the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art. Fara has also made significant contributions as a curator. Her curatorial work reflects her engagement in the socio-cultural dynamics of Baguio, a city borne from indigenous roots and at the crossroads of urbanization and environmental challenges. Her projects often address critical themes such as decolonialism, material culture, and urban overdevelopment, fostering dialogue and reflection within the community.
Maya Muñoz lives and works in Bicol.
Gabi Nazareno is a visual artist and printmaker from Bohol. She finished her studies in Mass Communication in the University of the Philippines Cebu (2011), before completing a BFA in Studio Arts (Painting), from the University of the Philippines in Diliman (2017), where she was awarded the Dominador Castañeda Award for Outstanding Thesis. She was also a recipient of the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Award for Outstanding Achievement in Culture and Arts in 2007. She has been actively showing her works in notable galleries and institutions within the country. Her work has also been exhibited abroad – specifically in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Taipei and Vietnam.
She has mounted two solo exhibitions in Manila: “Where Are We?” at NCCA Gallery in 2020 and “Moments of Quietude” at Gravity Art Space in 2022. She is currently part of the College of Communication, Art and Design faculty of the University of the Philippines Cebu, where she teaches Philippine Arts & Culture, Printmaking, and Visual Perception.
Tin Palattao is a cyanotype artist and printmaker based in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. Her works are personal exploration of the limits of space with current location as reference point and interpretation of memory using tactile and alternative methods of image making. As a printmaker, she participated in group exhibitions and print exchanges at Fundacion Sanso (2022) and Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (2023) organized by Angela Silva and Marzing Machine Print Exchange organized by Marz Today at the Luzon Art Fair (2024). In 2021, she co-created ILCP Art Space, a self-funded, artist-run platform for creative output, with visual artist Irma Lacorte. Among their exhibitions are “Lulan, Ulila, Liham, Alaga, Naman” (2024) at Parola, UP Diliman, and “Women in their Environment” (2023) at Museo De La Salle, DLSU-Dasmariñas.
Angela Silva was born in Iloilo, Philippines, in 1955. She is a mixed-media artist and printmaker based in Talisay, Negros Occidental. Before moving to the Philippines, she taught workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area on image transfers, portrait collage and artists books.
In her work, she explores identity, memory, time, and place to create layers of nuance and meaning. She uses printmaking, mixed-media collage, and image transfers to convey an “antiquarian sensibility.” She makes artist books as a structural form to expand a given narrative across time.
Angela has exhibited in printmaking group shows since 2018. Her studio, Rolling Paper Press, has organized several events for fine art printmaking: the online Limbag Kamay Contemporary Print Fair in 2021, the Contemporary Fine Art Prints at the Modern Contemporary Art Fair, two Print Exchange+ events at the Fundacion Sansó Museum in 2022, and Print Exchange+ @ILOMOCA, 2023, and the Asia Pacific Print Club show at Gravity Art Space, Quezon City in 2024.
Angela is also a cyanotype artist using a form of camera-less alternative photography to produce a characteristic monochromatic blue image. She uses this antique process, which predates the film camera, to render the images timeless. Her tagline is “Blue is also the color of the ocean, of distance and longing.” Her cyanotype works have been shown in group shows in Bacolod and Manila since 2018. Angela’s works have been shown at the Art Fair Philippines every year since 2020, Fotomoto 2021 and 2022, and in the Visayas Art Fair, 2021 and 2022. She has held solo shows at Qube Gallery, Cebu, in 2022, and at the Negros Museum, Bacolod in 2024.
Mountain Echoes, Island Imprints by Francisco Jinsung Lee
I. Communication has always been a defining feature of humanity. From messages in bottles, secret mirrors, letters written on underwear, to golden discs in space, we have always had something to say, and in moments where conventional methods are unavailable, our creativity goes into overdrive and we make sure the message is still sent.
Well into the 21st century, several very old conundrums still persist: the significance of women artists in contemporary art, and the value of printmaking as a contemporary art form. For sure many significant strides have been taken in acknowledging these contributions in many ways, shapes and forms. Not so long ago, the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) hosted three printmaking exhibitions that highlighted women in Philippine printmaking. The shows were: Proven and Printed: ILOMOCA Print Festival 2023, curated by Con Cabrera; Potential, Potency, and Women Printmakers: Selection of prints from the CCP 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection, curated by Marika Contantino and Georgina Jocson, and the Print Exchange curated by Angela Silva. These ran from late 2023 well into 2024, and set the stage for a continued awareness of these projects and initiatives. This brings us to Mugna Gallery’s first exhibition of 2025, a long-awaited printmaking exhibition of women printmakers from the Philippines, aptly titled “Echoing Messages.”
As it’s setting, imagine Negros Island as a sentence, one that is punctuated by the peaks and valleys of the Cuernos de Negros, that magnificent mountain range that bisects the island into its occidental and oriental. Now, its high points do not necessarily have names, aside from iconic formations such as Mt Talinis and Mt Kanlaon, but let’s consider for a moment the participants of this exhibition as embodiments of this terra incognita. Works by Marz Aglipay, Kristen Cain, Marge Chavez, Irma Lacorte, Hershey Malinis, Fara Manuel, Maya Muñoz, Gabi Nazareno, Tin Palattao, and Angela Silva will guide us through both familiar and unexplored terrains of printmaking.
II. The vast vocabulary of techniques and materials that can be used in printmaking is explored by the ten artists, ranging from relief and reduction printmaking, collagraphs, monoprints, and serigraphy playfully yet skillfully merged with many non-traditional methods and techniques such as laser-cuts, stamping, artist books, gel plate printing, and mixed-media collages.
Materials for printmaking take up a wide spectrum, so do the messages conveyed via the images in the prints. Activism is represented in the works of Nazareno, Manuel, and Cain, in all its aspects currently relevant to the world such as climate and decolonization. Thoughts on the ground (literally like food wrappers, canned food, etc), such that easily capture the eye and imagination can be found with Aglipay, Malinis, and Manuel’s depictions of the everyday. Tapping into nostalgia and consumerism, these map out social and urban developments in the face of quickly evolving ecologies. The freedom of matrices provide a wide and stable ground for more abstract concepts to be explored and transformed into the visual field. Silva and Aglipay harness time via history and nostalgia, as Nazareno and Lacorte map body through shapes. As they go hand in hand, memory and place are both tackled by Nazareno, Silva, and Palattao, as do Cain and Muñoz. As they can be considered the Matriarchs of the group, Silva and Lacorte locate and impress their learnings of identity. Of course one of the key points of printmaking would be the capacity for simple yet precise shapes and articulation, as demonstrated by Chavez and Muñoz.
III. The artists were provided with the prompt: what message do you want echoed? Well, they shouted from the peaks of their mountains, and as the echoes reverberate, the experience of the exhibition stays in the mind. We invite you to consider your experience as a print hand pulled from a ten-part matrix, and the imprint is one with a message that echoes through time, space, and generations.
Marz Aglipay is a printmaker and independent writer-curator. She has honed her practice by creating handmade stamps and now serves as
the chief creative at Marz Today Studio.
Her practice is driven by a desire to chronicle daily life through stamps that capture the likeness of objects and people. Her work explores themes of comfort and nostalgia in relation to consumerism.
Aglipay’s prints have been included in exhibitions organized by the Association of Pinoyprintmakers and have been displayed at institutions such as the Manuel Antonio Rodriguez Sr. (MARS) Print Center, the Iloilo Museum for Contemporary Art, and the BenCab Museum among others.
Her largest curatorial project to date is The Marzing Machine Print Exchange at the Luzon Art Fair (2024), which showcased the work of 39 printmakers from across the Philippines. As a printmaker, her distinctions include an honorable mention at the 2021 Awagami International Miniprint Exhibition in Japan and being shortlisted at the 1st International GCB MiniPrint competition in Germany.
Kristen Cain grew up in Central Texas and has lived in Manila for over 13 years. An interdisciplinary artist for as long as she can remember, she has been working with the Philippine Association of Printmakers for more than 12 years. Her printmaking involves collagraphs and monoprints using found objects, beach trash, plastic rubbish and discarded textiles. She explores various concepts in recycling and repurposing things instead of discarding them. Interested in just about anything involving nature, her work frequently references climate issues and our relationship to this big beautiful Earth we all share.
Marge Chavez is a full-time artist based in Leon, Iloilo. She dabbles in multiple media namely: oil painting, acrylic painting, digital arts, printmaking, and pen and ink illustrations.
She supplements her private studio practice by engaging with community work as a core member of Kikik Kollektive. She believes in the power of visual art to communicate profound ideas and continually seeks to learn new methods of articulation.
Irma Lacorte is a Tacloban-born visual artist currently based in Dumaguete City. Her extensive body of work ranges from gender issues and identity in the 2000s and, in recent years, explores the formal elements of art-making using organic materials by drawing and printmaking. She participates in regional and national group exhibitions such as the Visayas Islands Visual Art Exhibition and Conference (VIVA ExCon) in Bacolod City (2014) and Iloilo City (2016), PROMDI at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2016. She is a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant in 2003 for her residency at the Vermont Studio Center and in 2016 for her research in mural-making and public art in Philadelphia and New York City. She completed her Masters in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, in 2012 and has been teaching art appreciation classes and fine arts in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (2004-2014) and Silliman University (2014-present). Her contribution to the visual arts in the Philippines is cited in the Philippine Encyclopedia for the Arts (2018), published by the CCP. In 2021, together with her partner and artist Tin Palattao, Lacorte co-founded ILCP Art Space, a self-funded artist-run platform based in Negros Oriental for sustainable production and exhibition of creative output.
Hershey B. Malinis maintains an active teaching, research, and artistic practice engaging in printmaking, arts education, and design. She holds a BFA, MFAD, a professional interior design license and teaches fine arts, production design, and interior design at the De La Salle- College of Saint Benilde where she serves as Chairperson of its Fine Arts in Culture-Based Arts Program. Malinis’ works have been exhibited in local and international exhibitions, and she had her first solo show, Within 4sqm., at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Gallery in 2019. Her editioned print “Bilyon” is included in 20/30: A Limited Edition Print Portfolio in Celebration of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2021). An active member of the Association of Pinoyprintmakers, Malinis practices the fine art of printmaking and various materialities through three-dimensional forms exploring quotidian ecologies and human conditions.
Fara Manuel is a multimedia designer and intermedia artist whose work spans graphic arts, photography, and installation. Born and raised in Quezon City, Fara completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication from the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines Diliman in 2003. She also holds a Graduate degree in Art Theory from the same institution. Fara is currently a doctoral scholar at Massey University, College of Creative Arts, New Zealand. In 2008, Fara began her teaching career at the University of the Philippines Baguio. From 2020 to 2022, she served as its Chair of the Committee on Culture and the Arts.
She is an active participant in Association of Pinoy Printmakers annual exhibitions at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and has showcased her work in various private galleries. Her international residencies include the Bamboo Curtain Studio in Taipei, Taiwan in 2014 and Art No Wall in Khon Kaen, Thailand in 2015. Her work was also selected for the Awagami International Mini Print Juried Exhibition in Tokushima, Japan in 2015.
In 2023, Fara was honored as one of the 12 selected women printmakers from across the Philippines for “Bakas,” an exhibition at the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art. Fara has also made significant contributions as a curator. Her curatorial work reflects her engagement in the socio-cultural dynamics of Baguio, a city borne from indigenous roots and at the crossroads of urbanization and environmental challenges. Her projects often address critical themes such as decolonialism, material culture, and urban overdevelopment, fostering dialogue and reflection within the community.
Maya Muñoz lives and works in Bicol.
Gabi Nazareno is a visual artist and printmaker from Bohol. She finished her studies in Mass Communication in the University of the Philippines Cebu (2011), before completing a BFA in Studio Arts (Painting), from the University of the Philippines in Diliman (2017), where she was awarded the Dominador Castañeda Award for Outstanding Thesis. She was also a recipient of the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Award for Outstanding Achievement in Culture and Arts in 2007. She has been actively showing her works in notable galleries and institutions within the country. Her work has also been exhibited abroad – specifically in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Taipei and Vietnam.
She has mounted two solo exhibitions in Manila: “Where Are We?” at NCCA Gallery in 2020 and “Moments of Quietude” at Gravity Art Space in 2022. She is currently part of the College of Communication, Art and Design faculty of the University of the Philippines Cebu, where she teaches Philippine Arts & Culture, Printmaking, and Visual Perception.
Tin Palattao is a cyanotype artist and printmaker based in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. Her works are personal exploration of the limits of space with current location as reference point and interpretation of memory using tactile and alternative methods of image making. As a printmaker, she participated in group exhibitions and print exchanges at Fundacion Sanso (2022) and Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (2023) organized by Angela Silva and Marzing Machine Print Exchange organized by Marz Today at the Luzon Art Fair (2024). In 2021, she co-created ILCP Art Space, a self-funded, artist-run platform for creative output, with visual artist Irma Lacorte. Among their exhibitions are “Lulan, Ulila, Liham, Alaga, Naman” (2024) at Parola, UP Diliman, and “Women in their Environment” (2023) at Museo De La Salle, DLSU-Dasmariñas.
Angela Silva was born in Iloilo, Philippines, in 1955. She is a mixed-media artist and printmaker based in Talisay, Negros Occidental. Before moving to the Philippines, she taught workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area on image transfers, portrait collage and artists books.
In her work, she explores identity, memory, time, and place to create layers of nuance and meaning. She uses printmaking, mixed-media collage, and image transfers to convey an “antiquarian sensibility.” She makes artist books as a structural form to expand a given narrative across time.
Angela has exhibited in printmaking group shows since 2018. Her studio, Rolling Paper Press, has organized several events for fine art printmaking: the online Limbag Kamay Contemporary Print Fair in 2021, the Contemporary Fine Art Prints at the Modern Contemporary Art Fair, two Print Exchange+ events at the Fundacion Sansó Museum in 2022, and Print Exchange+ @ILOMOCA, 2023, and the Asia Pacific Print Club show at Gravity Art Space, Quezon City in 2024.
Angela is also a cyanotype artist using a form of camera-less alternative photography to produce a characteristic monochromatic blue image. She uses this antique process, which predates the film camera, to render the images timeless. Her tagline is “Blue is also the color of the ocean, of distance and longing.” Her cyanotype works have been shown in group shows in Bacolod and Manila since 2018. Angela’s works have been shown at the Art Fair Philippines every year since 2020, Fotomoto 2021 and 2022, and in the Visayas Art Fair, 2021 and 2022. She has held solo shows at Qube Gallery, Cebu, in 2022, and at the Negros Museum, Bacolod in 2024.
