Philippine Pavilion 2026: Sea of Love / Dagat ng Pag-ibig

Jon Cuyson and Mara Gladstone will represent the Philippines at the 61st International Venice Biennale with the exhibition Sea of Love / Dagat ng Pag-ibig, open to the public from May 9 to November 22, 2026.

The Philippine Pavilion is commissioned by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda. Sea of Love / Dagat ng Pag-ibig features work by the Manila-based artist and filmmaker Jon Cuyson. Essential forms from his 30-year practice, including paintings, videos and sculptures, pay homage to the Filipinos who populate our global waterways. The exhibition channels notions of the seafarer, his family, ships and mollusks to centralize the Filipino labor that fuels the monumental movement of global commerce. The exhibition is curated by Mara Gladstone, a California-based scholar and educator. “I am honored to represent the Philippines on the world’s most prestigious stage for contemporary art,” says Cuyson. “My projects have been shaped through modules of memory – a practice of interconnected works that act as partial archives for submerged histories, maritime labor and fragments of belonging. Our exhibition continues this inquiry by exploring mussels as a motif and metaphor for understanding kinship across land and sea.” “We are grateful to the PAVB and NCCA for the opportunity to share Jon’s work with international audiences,” says Gladstone. “Developing this project with our Filipino collaborators, from mussel farmers to aquaculture experts, affirms our understanding of waterways as more than pathways to other lands. Water is also a place to find a sense of home. The Filipino story has always been based within the context of travel. Our proposal posits humanizing forces of love within the ebb and flow of globalization in sync with our undulating oceans.” The exhibition was selected from an open call for proposals on October 5, 2025. The jury comprised Mayumi Hirano (Director of the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Center, faculty of the University of the Philippines Diliman), Manny Montelibano (media artist, director, and professor at the University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City), and Hon. Victorino Mapa Manalo (Chair of the NCCA and Commissioner of the Philippine Pavilion). Sea of Love / Dagat ng Pag-ibig will be the sixth participation of the Philippines at the Biennale Arte since it returned in 2015 with Senator Loren Legarda’s advocacy to affirm the presence of Filipino art and culture internationally.

What to expect:
Installation