“When you stop trying too hard, things start falling into place.”
Visions of floating and falling fill the spaces. Pieces, the entire whole is made up of pieces. We always assume an entirety, a completeness in ourselves, until we reach the realization that we are incomplete.
In childhood, we are seen as blank slates. Minds and souls to be formed according to society’s current standards. From being too innocent and naive, we become adults. A coming of age is due, and suddenly we’re supposed to know better. We’re supposed to be wiser, stronger, yet somehow most of us age further and further without knowing where we’re going.
Jana Jumalon begins from the end. Muted colors and pale glazes layer into her works. Intention is evident in violated symmetry. Comfort is extricated at the sight of birds suspended upside down – not dead, not suffering – perhaps trying out a new way to do things. The water ripples as their beaks touch the surface. Reality is thrown out the window as elements come together for a jarring composition. Ghostly shades permeate the canvas. Roses are not red, violets not blue.
For many of us, perhaps more than those who care to admit, things have unraveled ever so softly. All our lives we have built different sides and aspects of our personalities, and then the dominoes fall. As they do, time pushes forward, shifts and surrounds us like phases of the moon. Time and again, time flows and things change. We are the only ones that feel that time, as the world turns differently for each and every one.
Crashing, visions of an ideal life come falling down. But the pieces are actually meant to shatter, hammered so softly. If you look closely, the edges were never meant to align perfectly, but the image remains intact. Two sculptural installations mark two points in time. One with arms wide open, perhaps falling, perhaps floating. A flock of birds simulate wings, as overgrown roses anchor the field of vision downwards. The other complements with its arms lowered, the body opened up to receive. Minute details ensconced in pockets here and there whisper recollections. These two figures, two bodies are not made as singular pieces, with each built up through distinct segments: the sum of which make up a hole. Perhaps even until our last breath there is a void that remains open, but if we find ourselves surrounded by what we cherish, that is a different kind of being whole.
The most striking piece is a painting, a portrait that goes either way. Is she sinking? Is she coming out of the water? A crown of roses atop her head, a whirlpool surrounding, she appears helpless. In a state of surrender, what is certain is that her eyes speak volumes – a defiance that has no words.
It’s hard to feel pride after the fall, but it is only in this moment, this surrender, can one truly see the bigger picture and a better, more honest version of ourselves.
Francisco Jin Sung Lee,
Dumaguete, May 2025
As Mugna celebrates its third anniversary, there was no exhibition more fitting than that of she who was at the beginning.
For many of us, perhaps more than those who care to admit, things have unraveled ever so softly. Jana Jumalon begins from the end. Across canvases with muted colors and ceramic sculptures that defy gravity, she explores what it means to float, to fall, to surrender. While her exhibition that opened Mugna Gallery, “Tierra Quemada,” was a visual feast, Jumalon took the time to pause, reflect, and to give in, because when you stop trying too hard, things start falling into place.
“Surrender,” the second solo exhibition by Jana Jumalon opens at Mugna Gallery this 17 May 2025, with the opening reception at 6pm.
Jana Jumalon is a visual artist from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental – whose explorations of the immediate environment and investigations of her innermost thoughts, realized through ceramics and painting – have time and time again demonstrated her unique expression and artistry.
Hailing from a family of painters, the tradition is evident in her technical savvy on the canvas. Yet she proved that the creativity goes beyond that, and built her own ceramic practice around an innate curiosity and ingenuity. She discovered the immeasurable satisfaction in scouring the land for workable clay, which she researches and experiments on to formulate her own clay body and glazes, which in turn aid her in maximizing the forms that she creates. Her dedication to clay is further underscored by her unwavering support for the ceramic communities and towns that she visits and learns from.
Jumalon’s recent exhibitions include solo presentations at the National Museum of the Philippines-Dumaguete (Huni sa Tubig, 2024) and at Viva Excon Antique (Lutaw, 2023), as well as group exhibitions at Orange Project, Bacolod (Traversing Grounds, 2023), Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery, Makati (Resonance, 2024), Qube Gallery, Cebu (Ballad of the Watcher, 2024), and The Henry Gallery, Dumaguete (ATOA 3: Dagat, 2025). Her solo exhibition Tierra Quemada was the inaugural show of Mugna Gallery in 2022.
“When you stop trying too hard, things start falling into place.”
Visions of floating and falling fill the spaces. Pieces, the entire whole is made up of pieces. We always assume an entirety, a completeness in ourselves, until we reach the realization that we are incomplete.
In childhood, we are seen as blank slates. Minds and souls to be formed according to society’s current standards. From being too innocent and naive, we become adults. A coming of age is due, and suddenly we’re supposed to know better. We’re supposed to be wiser, stronger, yet somehow most of us age further and further without knowing where we’re going.
Jana Jumalon begins from the end. Muted colors and pale glazes layer into her works. Intention is evident in violated symmetry. Comfort is extricated at the sight of birds suspended upside down – not dead, not suffering – perhaps trying out a new way to do things. The water ripples as their beaks touch the surface. Reality is thrown out the window as elements come together for a jarring composition. Ghostly shades permeate the canvas. Roses are not red, violets not blue.
For many of us, perhaps more than those who care to admit, things have unraveled ever so softly. All our lives we have built different sides and aspects of our personalities, and then the dominoes fall. As they do, time pushes forward, shifts and surrounds us like phases of the moon. Time and again, time flows and things change. We are the only ones that feel that time, as the world turns differently for each and every one.
Crashing, visions of an ideal life come falling down. But the pieces are actually meant to shatter, hammered so softly. If you look closely, the edges were never meant to align perfectly, but the image remains intact. Two sculptural installations mark two points in time. One with arms wide open, perhaps falling, perhaps floating. A flock of birds simulate wings, as overgrown roses anchor the field of vision downwards. The other complements with its arms lowered, the body opened up to receive. Minute details ensconced in pockets here and there whisper recollections. These two figures, two bodies are not made as singular pieces, with each built up through distinct segments: the sum of which make up a hole. Perhaps even until our last breath there is a void that remains open, but if we find ourselves surrounded by what we cherish, that is a different kind of being whole.
The most striking piece is a painting, a portrait that goes either way. Is she sinking? Is she coming out of the water? A crown of roses atop her head, a whirlpool surrounding, she appears helpless. In a state of surrender, what is certain is that her eyes speak volumes – a defiance that has no words.
It’s hard to feel pride after the fall, but it is only in this moment, this surrender, can one truly see the bigger picture and a better, more honest version of ourselves.
Francisco Jin Sung Lee,
Dumaguete, May 2025
As Mugna celebrates its third anniversary, there was no exhibition more fitting than that of she who was at the beginning.
For many of us, perhaps more than those who care to admit, things have unraveled ever so softly. Jana Jumalon begins from the end. Across canvases with muted colors and ceramic sculptures that defy gravity, she explores what it means to float, to fall, to surrender. While her exhibition that opened Mugna Gallery, “Tierra Quemada,” was a visual feast, Jumalon took the time to pause, reflect, and to give in, because when you stop trying too hard, things start falling into place.
“Surrender,” the second solo exhibition by Jana Jumalon opens at Mugna Gallery this 17 May 2025, with the opening reception at 6pm.
Jana Jumalon is a visual artist from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental – whose explorations of the immediate environment and investigations of her innermost thoughts, realized through ceramics and painting – have time and time again demonstrated her unique expression and artistry.
Hailing from a family of painters, the tradition is evident in her technical savvy on the canvas. Yet she proved that the creativity goes beyond that, and built her own ceramic practice around an innate curiosity and ingenuity. She discovered the immeasurable satisfaction in scouring the land for workable clay, which she researches and experiments on to formulate her own clay body and glazes, which in turn aid her in maximizing the forms that she creates. Her dedication to clay is further underscored by her unwavering support for the ceramic communities and towns that she visits and learns from.
Jumalon’s recent exhibitions include solo presentations at the National Museum of the Philippines-Dumaguete (Huni sa Tubig, 2024) and at Viva Excon Antique (Lutaw, 2023), as well as group exhibitions at Orange Project, Bacolod (Traversing Grounds, 2023), Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery, Makati (Resonance, 2024), Qube Gallery, Cebu (Ballad of the Watcher, 2024), and The Henry Gallery, Dumaguete (ATOA 3: Dagat, 2025). Her solo exhibition Tierra Quemada was the inaugural show of Mugna Gallery in 2022.
