Maritess De Ocampo

Article (news)

The Women are Weaving 

<p><em>KWEN2RA</em> combines <em>kwento </em>and <em>pintura</em>, reflecting the concept of shifting from telling stories through media to visual art expression. <em></em><em>KWEN2RA: Painting a Better World </em>is the second group exhibit featuring ABS-CBN artists who bring their storytelling into visual art. Their works are inspired by the advocacies of ABS-CBN Foundation, highlighting causes such as environmental protection, children’s welfare, education, as well as livelihood and disaster resilience.</p><p>Gathering six artists reflecting on the conditions of living, imagining, and rebuilding, while working across painting, abstraction, surrealism, and narrative image-making, <em>KWEN2RA: Painting a Better World </em>imagines the idea of a better world is not singular or fixed, but rather shaped through various ways of feeling and seeing.</p><div><strong>Robert Labayen</strong></div><p>Robert Labayen is an artist going and growing in different directions. He paints, writes songs, plays musical instruments, and writes literature. He is also a magician and mentalist. Known for writing the viral songs “Star ng Pasko” and “Piliin Mo Ang Pilipinas,” his creative practice and multidisciplinary spirit reflects his personal mantra: “Everything I do is magical.”</p><p>With fauvism and naïf influences, Labayen’s paintings are characterized by many as “nakaka-happy.” His work frequently features flowers and everyday workers, featuring the joy of nature while honoring the dignity of labor. </p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:815px;display:block" width="815"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775464854612Robert Labayen_MORNING IN THE MANGROVES.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="815" style="width:815px"/><span class="fr-inner">&quot;Morning in the Mangroves&quot; Acrylic on canvas 20 x 30 in (50.8 x 76.2 cm) 2026</span></span></span></div><p>Inspired by the advocacies of the ABS-CBN Foundation, his works envision a hunger-free world where the rewards of progress are enjoyed by those who work the hardest.</p><p>For <em>KWEN2RA: Painting A Better World</em>, Labayen points out, “My pieces depict the advocacies of our beneficiary (ABS-CBN Foundation). These are child welfare, education, environment, livelihood and disaster resilience. I wish to show an ideal world where no one gets hungry and harmed, when the benefits go to the people who work the hardest.”</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Anna Maniego</strong></div><p>Anna Maniego is a self-taught Manila-based artist and poet whose work begins with language. Her creative process often starts with poetry, inspired by pain, longing, healing, and hope. These written pieces serve as the foundation of her visual work, where color, texture, and movement transform feeling into form. </p><p>Maniego’s style is abstract, intuitive, and multidisciplinary, blending poetry, painting, and voice into a layered, immersive experience. QR codes accompany her pieces, where viewers are invited to listen to the poems that inspired each work. Her process is a personal yin and yang, where the poems carry the weight of darker emotions, and the paintings respond with light, color, and movement. </p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:959px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775465060447Anna Maniego_FALLEN.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner">&quot;Fallen&quot; Acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 in (60.96 x 60.96 cm) 2026</span></span></span></div><p>Maniego shares, “My works for <em>KWEN2RA: Painting A Better World </em>explore how inner transformation can shape a better world. Many pieces begin with deeply personal poetry, which then evolves into abstract paintings that translate vulnerability into resilience, grounding, and hope.”</p><p>Inspired by the advocacies of the ABS-CBN Foundation—her pieces reflect inner transformation as a pathway to collective healing. Her series features a range of emotional states, from turbulence to stillness, vulnerability to strength. These are seen and felt through the expansive Horizon and expressive Air, to the layered Covers and elemental Sky/Sea and Earth. </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Angelo Valmoria Roxas</strong></div><p>Angelo Valmoria Roxas sees himself first as a storyteller through paint. As a Filipino artist, his cultural grounding subtly influences his work, often emerging through symbols and allegories rather than direct representation. The recurring crown motif he calls <em>Anastasis</em>, is a symbol of rebirth, endurance, and the quiet dignity that comes with overcoming life’s trials.</p><p>Roxas describes his style as philosophical surrealism with narrative symbolism. His paintings feature dreamlike spaces where figurative elements coexist with symbolic objects, creating compositions that feel both familiar and enigmatic. Rather than depicting literal scenes, he constructs visual metaphors such as crowns, solitary figures, and ambiguous landscapes that invite contemplation. His works are layered, interpretive, and open-ended, encouraging viewers to ask questions.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:765px;display:block" width="765"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775465209889Angelo Valmoria Roxas_SA ANINO NG ISANG BAGONG UMAGA.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="765" style="width:765px"/><span class="fr-inner">&quot;Sa Anino ng Isang Bagong Umaga&quot; Oil on canvas 24 x 24 in (60.96 x 60.96 cm) 2026</span></span></span></div><p>Aligned with the advocacies of the ABS-CBN Foundation, his pieces explore the inner journeys that accompany hardship and the movement toward healing, meaning, and transformation. His figures and symbols reflect personal struggle and a shared human desire to rebuild and rise again.</p><p>Roxas explains, “My paintings attempt to remind viewers that change begins with awareness, empathy, and imagination. In that sense, even surreal and introspective imagery can contribute to the idea of a better world—by encouraging reflection, compassion, and the belief that renewal is always possible.”</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Tyron Santos</strong></div><p>Tyron Santos creates from a space free from constraints of fixed meaning where a giraffe can become a gun, kidneys can have human faces, and shrimp can fly like angels. This childlike perspective is influenced by growing up alongside the internet, where images, ideas, and references as well as humor, absurdity, and emotion exist all at once. </p><p>Santos’ style draws from comics, video games, films, surrealism, absurdism, and the ever-evolving internet culture. He works with acrylic markers, oil sticks, and spray paint, while building layers of texture and gesture, giving his artworks a tactile, dynamic quality. His earlier works leaned toward black-and-white imagery, but his recent exploration of color opens up new emotional and narrative dimensions.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:959px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775465332590Tyron Santos_CUT ME UP AND SEE WHAT&#x27;S INSIDE.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner">&quot;cut me up and see what&#x27;s inside&quot; Mixed media on canvas Quadriptych: 12 x 12 in (30.48 x 30.48 cm) each 2026</span></span></span></div><p>For this exhibit, Santos’ works feature surreal collages of sea creatures in playful and thought-provoking scenarios, inspired by the environmental advocacies of the ABS-CBN Foundation, specifically the protection of the Verde Island Passage, the “epicenter of marine biodiversity.”</p><p>Santos reflects, “Through humor, surreal imagery, and layered symbolism, the paintings aim to encourage viewers to reflect on our relationship with the natural world and the role we play in shaping a better future for it.”</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Gerlie Mae Urbano</strong></div><p>Gerlie Mae Urbano is a multidisciplinary visual artist and multimedia designer who lives at the intersection of emotion, design, and the unseen. With her foundation in multimedia arts, she views herself primarily as a visual storyteller and a creator of atmospheres. </p><p>Through fluid integration of Modern Realism, Surrealism, and Social Surrealism across traditional and digital mediums, from oil and acrylic to digital imagery, her works feature a balance between stillness and movement, precision and emotion. She aims for technical precision, but prioritizes deep emotional resonance. Her style, ultimately, is designed to be an invitation to feel rather than merely observe. </p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:413.994px;display:block" width="413.994"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775465485454Gerlie Mae Urbano_A PAGE FROM A DREAM.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:413.994px;height:auto" width="413.994"/><span class="fr-inner">&quot;A Page from a Dream&quot; Acrylic on canvas 24 x 16 in (60.96 x 40.64 cm) 2026</span></span></span></div><p>In <em>KWEN2RA: Painting a Better World</em>, Urbano uses Social Surrealism to tap into the subconscious, exploring the deep emotional ties we have to our possessions, and the liberating, positive impact we can have on our environment when we learn to let go. </p><p>She elaborates, “My work is fundamentally about bridging our inner and outer worlds, and these pieces celebrate the clarity that comes from clearing our physical and emotional clutter. By turning this complex human experience into an uplifting, hopeful visual narrative, I want to inspire viewers to heal their connection to the world around them and make space for what truly matters.”</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Lloreen Nicole V. Roxas</strong></div><p>Lloreen Nicole V. Roxas is a young artist open to learning and aiming to inspire other fellow artists on their passion and dreams. She sees her paintings as a place to get away from reality, to be free from distress and worry. These are the thoughts she ensures are passed on to the audience to make them feel relief. </p><p>Her style is dreamy naturalism and a bit of etherealism or abstract realism, a philosophical and artistic viewpoint that only natural laws and forces operate in the universe. It removes the idea of the supernatural but still has the elements of fantasy like nature in it. The pieces depict scenes from alternative universes, lonely yet peaceful places that are possible to exist in our reality.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:959px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775465589774Lloreen Nicole Roxas_ATARAXIA.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner">&quot;Ataraxia&quot; Acrylic on canvas 24 x 24 in (60.96 x 60.96 cm) 2026</span></span></span></div><p>For this exhibition, Roxas envisions a world where we let nature do its thing, a place we left behind. She emphasizes, “My artworks embody the theme by encouraging reflection on our role in preserving and nurturing the planet. These portrayals inspire viewers to appreciate and protect the natural world, promoting the idea of creating a better world through environmental stewardship and respect for nature’s beauty. The painting’s vibrant yet calming colors further emphasize hope and renewal, key elements in envisioning and working toward a better future.”</p><p>The exhibit opened on March 28 at Altro Mondo Creative Space, attended by Berta Lopez and Ernie Lopez among others, and runs until April 25 at 1159 Chino Roces Ave., Barangay San Antonio, Makati. Part of the proceeds will go to ABS-CBN Foundation.</p>

<p>KWEN2RA: Painting a Better World brings together ABS-CBN artists who turn storytelling into visual art, inspired by Abs-CBN Foundation’s advocacies.</p>

KWEN2RA: Painting a Better World brings together ABS-CBN artists who turn storytelling into visual art, inspired by Abs-CBN Foundation’s advocacies.

KWEN2RA: How six artists are painting a better world

News

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Sports

Metro.Style

More

Sudoku

Word of the Day

Lotto

Horoscope

People, Culture, and Events

KWEN2RA: How six artists are painting a better world

Mawi Fojas De Ocampo

Published April 06, 2026 05:51 PM PHT

|

Updated April 06, 2026 05:54 PM PHT

Read More:

KWEN2RA

Painting A Better World

ABSCBN Foundation

Filipino Artists

Art And Advocacy

Philippine Art

Support Local Art

Visual Storytelling

ABS-CBN is the leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, offering quality content across TV, radio, digital, and film. Committed to public service and promoting Filipino values, ABS-CBN continues to inspire and connect audiences worldwide.

Corporate

Investors

Governance

International Distribution

Corporate

Governance

Investors

International Distribution

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

AI Policy

Terms of Service

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.