Ilonggo visual artist Melvin Guirhem will open his 14th solo exhibition, “Aswang ng Loob,” on March 8, 2026, at 3:00 P.M. at Eskinita Art Farm in Janopol Occidental, Tanauan, Batangas.

The exhibition marks Guirhem’s valedictory presentation, concluding his residency at Eskinita Art Farm from January 18 until March 1, 2026.

In this latest body of work, Guirhem situates himself within a lineage of artists who critique prevailing social conditions through the symbolic language of folklore. Long regarded as a living repository of belief, fear, desire, and collective memory, folklore continues to function as a flexible system through which identity is reclaimed and social trauma confronted.

Revisit Melvin Guirhem’s 13th Solo Exhibition: AETERNUM DOLOREM

Central to the exhibition is the aswang, one of the most enduring figures in Philippine folklore. Historically depicted in comics and cinema as a monstrous entity embodying fear, gendered anxieties, and mechanisms of social control, the aswang is reimagined by Guirhem in a more direct and unsettling form.

In Aswang ng Loob, the creature is rendered unequivocally malevolent—a spirit lodged within humanity itself, dormant yet watchful, awaiting the precise trigger that will unleash its destructive appetite.

Melvin Guirhem Eskinita Art Farm residency photos

Known for a stitched and layered aesthetic in previous works, the artist now translates this visual language into paper collage. While the surfaces remain layered and aggregate, the medium shifts from cloth to printed play money, combined with colored inks and fragments of newspapers and publications depicting social unrest and contemporary ills.

By incorporating currency and headlines, Guirhem transforms both into medium and message, producing works that are deliberately confrontational and reflective of present-day realities.

Eskinita Art Farm is located at 353–355 Purok 5, Janopol Occidental, Tanauan, Batangas. The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except during holidays.

Credits:
– The text is from the exhibition statement of Prof. Martin Genodepa
– Photos and graphic materials from Eskinita Art Farm Facebook page