The sculptural masterpieces of National Artist Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera and contemporary artist Mark Justiniani take center stage in Iloilo City through “Rhapsodies and Recollections,” the latest exhibition at the Adoracion V. Valencia Gallery of the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA).

Crafted in bronze, BenCab’s “Reunion” and Justiniani’s “Ang Debate” (The Debate), invites viewers to explore themes of memory, identity, and legacy through three-dimensional form. Each sculpture underscores layered dialogues on personal and collective experience, functioning not merely as objects of contemplation but as spatial narratives.

Reunion

The Reunion extends a visual lineage that began in 1990 when BenCab first etched a scene of four figures locked in an intimate embrace. Rather than revealing their faces, he directed attention to the texture and movement of their garments—folds of fabric that swaddle the group like a protective shell.

Four years later, or in 1994, he painted a similar image: a family holding each other tightly against a backdrop of cool purples and greys, the tenderness of their gesture made all the more vivid by the contrast.

Now, 30 years after that initial sketch, BenCab brings Reunion into sculptural reality, solidifying both gesture and emotion. The embrace remains the focal point: limbs entwined, bodies leaning into each other, initially suggesting a moment of joy.

But as with much of BenCab’s work, deeper meaning lies just beneath the surface, inviting viewers to reflect how fleeting are moments of joy.

For many Filipinos, the act of reunion is fraught with longing. It reflects the lived experiences of families separated by necessity—particularly those shaped by labor migration. For decades, millions of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have left the country in search of work and financial stability, often at the cost of years spent apart from their loved ones. The promise of a better life comes with an emotional toll that lingers quietly in the hearts of those left behind.

The Reunion, then, is more than a celebration of familial love—it is a tribute to the unseen resilience of countless Filipino families. It captures both the beauty and the burden of reconnection: the joy of return and the pain of separation, the warmth of presence and the shadow of years lost.

In this sculpture, BenCab gives form not just to bodies in embrace, but to the layered emotions of a nation shaped by movement, sacrifice, and enduring hope.

The Debate

From his early days as a painter engaged with social issues to his more recent optical installations, Mark Justiniani has consistently explored the tension between dualities—class struggle, illusion and reality, surface and depth. In his iconic Infinity Series, he used mirrors to create endless visual spaces within confined forms, blurring the line between image and object.

His latest work, Ang Debate, created in collaboration with Yogya Art Lab (YAL), Justiniani brings this thematic pursuit into the realm of bronze sculpture for the first time. The piece presents two male figures locked in a silent yet intense intellectual battle—foreheads pressed together, backs bent under the weight of precariously stacked books.

Their struggle is not physical but philosophical. One figure, barefoot and grounded, gestures downward—symbolizing materialism. The other, wearing wingtip shoes, reaches skyward—representing idealism. Both grip torn pages with clenched fists, their strained bodies embodying the burden of thought and belief.

Ang Debate captures not just a moment of disagreement, but the enduring clash between two foundational worldviews that continue to shape human understanding.

A tidbit of Mark Justiniani’s talk about his art on reels here

Rhapsodies and Recollections

Unveiled July 11, 2025, Rhapsodies and Recollections also thoughtfully assembles an impressive collection of works by other National Artists, namely: Abdulmari Asia Imao, Ang Kiukok, Arturo Luz, Napoleon Abueva, Hernando R. Ocampo, Jose T. Joya, and Vicente Manansala, whose contributions have helped shape the trajectory of Philippine modernism and beyond.

Moreover, the conversation from the works of BenCab and Justiniani extends to significant contemporary voices such as Joy Mallari, Julie Lluch, Antipas Delotavo, and Charlie Co, alongside a selection of local artists whose practices root the exhibit within the cultural soil of Iloilo and the Visayas.

Together, these works form an intergenerational discourse—at once rhapsodic and grounded in recollection—bridging past and present, national and local, individual and collective—mapping the evolving consciousness of Filipino art.