ARTFAIRPH/TALKS

All events follow Philippine time zone (GMT+8)

Among the featured artists for #ArtFairPH 2025, Jezzel Wee, Ryan Rubio, and Goldie Poblador all work towards expanding the boundaries of art-making that is experimental, interactive, and even multi-sensory.

Moderated by Boots Herrera

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About the Speaker/s

JEZZEL WEE

Jezzel Wee finds inspiration in the complexities of organic forms and relates them to the changing landscapes we interact with. She is a ceramic artist based in Quezon City and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts major in Painting. She is the first Filipino to finish a 3-year apprenticeship from the Tsugaru Kanayama Pottery, Aomori, Japan in 2017. Through the years, she has worked and exhibited with various local & international ceramic artists.

She is currently teaching at the UP College of Fine Arts, serves as the Ceramics Studio Coordinator, and is taking her master’s degree at the UP School of Archaeology. Last April, she finished her field school in Dewil Valley, New Ibajay, El Nido Palawan, and reconnecting with her hometown. Her works have been exhibited in various art spaces and institutions across the Philippines as well as in Australia, Japan, and Thailand.

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RYAN RUBIO

A 2005 graduate of Fine Arts - Advertising at the Technological University of the Philippines, painter and sculptor Ryan Rubio is currently based in Camarines Norte, Bicol Region.

Known for his rock and stone sculptures that often resemble totem poles with expressive faces that alternate from the stoic to the surprised, Rubio’s works are either silent witnesses or tight-lipped guardians to all that is going on around them. His understanding of his chosen material can be seen in how each piece retains its unique qualities. Rubio hardly carves a rock to change its appearance or made to look like something else; he works with the natural shape and color of the stone or pebble and etches each figure’s face based on the stone’s form.

He reveals that his affinity to this type of material stems from his childhood. “I grew up in a village where the main source of livelihood was small and large-scale mining,” he shares. “I lived near the sea, and all around me were rocks. That was memorable to me, because each rock tells its own story.”

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GOLDIE POBLADOR

Goldie Poblador (b.1987) uses glass blowing, performance, video, installation, and scent when considering themes of feminism, the environment, and decolonization as it relates to the body. She received her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and her MFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Her work has been exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Museum Atelierhaus Mengerzeile, Lopez Memorial Museum and Library, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, The National Museum of the Philippines, and The Cultural Center of the Philippines. She received a grant from the New York-based Foundation of Contemporary Arts and a President's Scholarship from RISD. She completed residencies at the Corning Museum of Glass, Oakspring Garden Foundation, Wassaic Project, The Hambidge Center, MASS MoCA, La Fragua and the Cité International des Arts. Poblador was selected for the Immigrant Artist Mentorship Program awarded by the New York Foundation of the Arts, received a President's Scholarship from the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Philippine AIR Prize organized by the Alliance Française de Manille. In 2024, Poblador was featured in the 'Serial and Massively Parallel' exhibition for the 6th edition of S.E.A. Focus in Singapore and in the same year, her work 'Squalor' entered the permanent collection of the Corning Museum of Glass.