Two Filipino artists to Venice
Demi Padua and Pongbayog will return to the Venice Biennale with a two‑person show titled 'Pangarap: Two Visions, One Filipino Dream in Italia,' presenting their distinct practices side by side to an international audience. (peopleasia.ph).
Filipino artists Demi Padua and Pongbayog are returning to Venice in 2026 with a two-person exhibition at Palazzo Mora. (peopleasia.ph) The show is titled *Pangarap: Two Visions, One Filipino Dream in Italia* and will be presented by DF Art Agency as part of “Personal Structures — Confluences,” organized by the European Cultural Centre. PeopleAsia reported the exhibition will open to the public on May 9 and run through November 22, with a VIP preview on May 7 and 8. (peopleasia.ph) La Biennale di Venezia says the 61st International Art Exhibition, *In Minor Keys*, runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with previews on May 6, 7, and 8. The Biennale also said the 2026 edition includes 31 collateral events, the category that covers exhibitions staged alongside the main show. (labiennale.org) Padua and Pongbayog are not new to Venice. In 2024, both were part of DF Art Agency’s Filipino group presentation at Palazzo Mora during the European Cultural Centre’s “Personal Structures,” a parallel exhibition that ran alongside the 60th Venice Art Biennale. (lifestyle.inquirer.net) That 2024 roster included 12 Filipino artists, among them Alfredo Esquillo, Manny Garibay, Anna Bautista, Demi Padua, and Pongbayog. Exhibition notes quoted by *Lifestyle.INQ* said the show examined migration, identity, and shifts between local and global artistic tendencies. (lifestyle.inquirer.net) The new exhibition narrows that larger group format into a two-artist pairing. PeopleAsia said the project grew out of a curatorial idea by DF Art Agency founder Derek Flores after a short course at Chelsea College of Arts in London. (peopleasia.ph) The pairing is built around contrast. PeopleAsia described Pongbayog’s work as figurative realism focused on workers and everyday people, while it described Padua’s practice as hyper-detailed trompe l’oeil compositions that play with illusion and perception. (peopleasia.ph) Earlier reporting on Pongbayog’s 2024 Venice presentation described his paintings as black-and-white, hyperreal portraits shaped by light, shadow, and Baroque influences. *Lifestyle.INQ* also reported that Padua’s work in the 2024 group show stood out for forms “overflowing with colors and textures.” (lifestyle.inquirer.net 1) (lifestyle.inquirer.net 2) The return places two Filipino artists back in one of the art world’s biggest recurring international exhibitions, this time in a tighter format built around their differences. The venue is Salon No. 15 on the mezzanine floor of Palazzo Mora, the same Venetian site where their work appeared in 2024. (peopleasia.ph)
