Selections from the CCP 21st Century Art Museum Collection
November 16, 2023 - November 21, 2025
The 21st Century Art Museum’s (21AM) visual arts collection of the Cultural Center of the Philippines features a gathering of paintings, photos, drawings, sculptures, prints, and reliefs with a strong representation of printmaking, abstraction, experimental, and conceptual art from the 1970s to the 1990s. The acquisition of these works began in the late 1960s, before the CCP’s inauguration, with site-specific commissioned artworks from National Artists for the Visual Arts such as Vicente Manansala, Arturo Luz, and Cesar Legaspi.
From these early acquisitions, the collection grew through purchases, gifts, and donations managed by the CCP Museum, with a core of significant works coming from the now-defunct Museum of Philippine Art (MOPA). From the 1990s onward, the collection expanded to include social commentary art and works by artists based outside Metro Manila, reflecting a shift in institutional programming that promoted diverse artistic practices through changing exhibitions and regional outreach activities.
The exhibition Selections from the 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection continues the institution’s efforts to promote the collection to a wider audience by assembling artworks that trace the early trajectories of Philippine contemporary art from the 1960s to the 1980s. Anchored in the initial formation of the collection under the CCP Museum and MOPA, and guided by the visual themes of illumination, materiality, nature, and spirited innovation, the exhibition is organized into two sections: The Possibilities of Luminance and Man and Nature. These sections spotlight artists who challenged traditional art forms and broke new ground in conceptual, experimental, and abstract practices.
Although divided into two thematic exhibitions, the featured artistic practices collectively depict and deconstruct figurative and non-representational forms through creative expression, gestural spontaneity, material exploration, and personal philosophy. The Possibilities of Luminance examines the visual affinities, media, and materials of abstract art through impressions of light and darkness, while Man and Nature highlights works by select National Artists for the Visual Arts represented in the collection, exploring humanity’s shared relationship with nature through sculptural and two-dimensional forms.
Taken together, the exhibition reflects the collecting impulses of the Cultural Center of the Philippines as a historic cultural institution whose patronage supported visual artists experimenting with conceptual thought and the expressive potential of new materials and media.
The Possibilities of Luminance
“Mga Tangka ng Tanglaw”
Gallery XXVII
The Possibilities of Luminance is anchored on the concept of brightness or luminance as an artistic expression that connects the visual characteristics and affinities found in the artworks of the CCP 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection. The term tanglaw, or light, connotes the visual perception and traversal of lightness and darkness. It also presents an understanding and control of light expressed through the intensity of its source.
As a curatorial prompt, The Possibilities of Luminance seeks to explore the passages and evocations of lightness and darkness present in these artworks, which are defined by dense tonalities ranging from black to white, as well as the excess or absence of value. The exhibition also brings together meditations on form and new media, including shape, material, texture, and translucency, all of which evoke the spirit of their time.
From the late 1960s through the 1980s, these emerging innovations in abstraction were largely presented and championed by the CCP’s museum arm under the directorship of Roberto Chabet and later Raymundo Albano. Significant acquisitions during this period included Romulo Olazo’s large-scale “Diaphanous” paintings, Arturo Luz’s textured burlap paintings, and Lao Lianben’s Zen-inspired works. These artworks were among the many that articulated influential movements that continue to shape the landscape of Philippine contemporary art today.
Man and Nature
“Tao at Kalikasan”
Gallery XXVIII
Man and Nature is an exhibition from the CCP 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection that explores the relationship between people and nature through the works of selected National Artists for the Visual Arts. The exhibition features modernist and abstract artworks from the Philippine contemporary art scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Instead of focusing on traditional landscape or everyday-life paintings, the artists examine themes of human emotion, materiality, and the connection between people, objects, and their surroundings.
The exhibition includes works that reflect classical artistic traditions, such as the early portraits of Guillermo Tolentino, which show Western romantic influences likely developed during his studies in Italy. In contrast, the modernist works experiment with form and material, including the wood relief sculptures of Napoleon Abueva, whose use of Philippine hardwood highlights the natural beauty and texture of the material.
These works are presented alongside more contemplative and expressive figurative artworks. In the works of Benedicto Cabrera, themes of identity are explored through detailed studies of the human figure. Meanwhile, Ang Kiukok uses strong colors and distorted forms to express discomfort, vulnerability, and emotional tension.
Together, the artworks in the exhibition reflect changing artistic approaches to nature, both as a subject and as a medium, while showing shifts in perspective, movement, and artistic expression in Philippine contemporary art.
Artist
-
About
Featured artists:
Napoleon Abueva, Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, Ang Kiukok, Benedicto Cabrera, Jose Joya, Cesar Legaspi, Arturo Luz, Vicente Manansala, Guillermo Tolentino, Lee Aguinaldo, Raymundo Albano, Gus Albor, Constancio Bernardo, Roberto Chabet, Mariano del Rosario, Lao Lianben, Ileana Lee, Alfredo Liongoren, Ben Maramag, Flora Mauleon, Romulo Olazo, Rodolfo Samonte, Dani Sibayan, Gerry Tan, Phyllis Zaballero, Fernando Zobel
