Ateneo Art Awards 2025 shortlist released

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THE SHORTLIST of artists and writers for the 2025 Ateneo Art Awards has been released by the Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG).

Since the program became biennial due to the pandemic, it covers exhibits shown during the two-year period between May 2023 and May 2025.

The AAG received 158 nominations from museums, galleries, artists, and art educators for the Fernando Zóbel Prizes for Visual Art (FZA) category, which recognizes young and upcoming Filipino visual artists under the age of 36 whose works were exhibited within the two-year period.

“We saw new venues among the shortlisted exhibitions this year, like Tarzeer Pictures and Kalawakan Spacetime,” said Ateneo Art Gallery director and chief curator Boots Herrera at the announcement at Shangri-La Plaza on Aug. 19. “Then we have West Gallery which hosted three of the shortlisted exhibitions.”

She noted that 10 out of 12 of the artists on the list are women. “What’s interesting is we didn’t see that while selecting. It just came out like that, showing that a lot of women artists are active,” Ms. Herrera said.

Twelve artists and exhibitions made the FZA shortlist. They are: Lesley-Anne Cao for the exhibit If time is an arrow, what is its target (held during December 2023 at Underground); Uri de Ger for Beauty is in the Eye of the Colonizer (Oct. to Nov. 2024, Kalawakan Spacetime); Lui Gonzales for A Tree Is A Seed As It Falls (March 2025, Kaida Contemporary); Silke Lapina for Bakit Pa (March 2025, Edoweird); Celline Marge Mercado for Between the Lines (June 2024, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology School of Art, Melbourne, Australia); Hannah Reyes Morales for Home Holds Still (November 2025 to January 2025, Tarzeer Pictures); Veronica Peralejo for A Tiny Ball of Mud (March 2024, West Gallery); Issay Rodriguez for gathering, collecting, ongoingness (April to May 2023, MO_Space); Eunice Sanchez for Sa Ilog Nagtatagpo (September to October 2023, West Gallery); Jel Suarez for As I Lift One Stone (November 2024, Blanc Gallery); Vien Valencia for Totems (July to August 2024, West Gallery); and Jezzel Wee for to weigh seeds, pulling through (July 2023, Gravity Art Space).

A jury will choose four artists from the shortlist to receive the FZA. The winners will be eligible for local and foreign residency grants funded by the AAG, in partnership with artist communities and residency partners.

One shortlisted artist will also be the recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards-Embassy of Italy Purchase Prize. The award is a partnership between AAG and the Embassy of Italy which seeks to help the Embassy compile a collection of Philippine contemporary art.

Meanwhile, 10 writers were identified for the shortlist of the other half of the Ateneo Art Awards, the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prizes in Art Criticism (PKL). These were chosen from entries accepted under the theme “flight.”

In the English Category the writers are: Bea Belen-Ferrer for the essay “In Between Flight and Fallout: What Would Postwar Modernists Do?”; Abigail Buendia for “When the City Catches Fire: In Defense of Carla Gamalinda’s Open City”; Pie Tiausas for “The internet is a space for the lonely”; Tyra Maria Trono for “Wings for 99 Pesos: On the Sentimental Weight of Dollar-Store Objects and the Imagination of Flight”; and Denzel Yorong for “Martino Abellana and the myth of legacy.”

The shortlisted writers in the Filipino Category are: Mavs Alviar for “Through the Fire: Kung masasaksihan mo lang ang mundo at ang ningning ng mga alipato mula sa ilalim ng mga basket at banig”; Emersan Baldemor for “Hindi Lahat ng Umaangat ay Naaalala: Si Tandang Ano at ang Politikang Estetiko ng Paglimot”; Eric Jhon Bituin for “Mga Paang Namumugto: Sining, Pandemya, at ang Lumalakad sa Gilid ng Daan”; Josh Paradeza for “Ang Tuloy-tuloy na Pagpapalagay sa Winala, Nawawala, Nawalan ni Ides Macapanpan”; and MJ Rafal for “Ang Lipad at Liyab sa A Sea on Fire II ni Joar Songcuya.” 

Two winners will be selected from the English category by The Philippine Star and ArtAsiaPacific. One winner will be selected from the Filipino category by Katipunan Journal.

Winning writers will be contributing to the publications’ respective platforms and will be eligible for month-long residencies with Orange Project Naranja Residency in Bacolod, Negros Occidental; The White House in San Antonio, Zambales; and new residency partner Indeks in Bandung, Indonesia.

The winners of the 2025 Ateneo Art Awards will be announced on Oct. 5, 2 p.m., at the AAG. A preview of the exhibition of shortlisted artists runs until Aug. 25 at the Grand Atrium of Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong. The full exhibition will be on view at the third floor galleries of the AAG in Quezon City from Sept. 5 to Dec. 7.

Visitors may cast a vote for their favorite exhibition through the People’s Choice Poll through the entire run of the exhibition, with the top pick artist to be announced after the show closes. — Brontë H. Lacsamana