Curatorial Notes

Often working with salvaged materials, Max Balatbat resists refinement in both process and form. Objects are allowed to retain the marks of their previous lives, carrying their own histories forward. “Walang mali,” (translation needed) Max explains, drawing a parallel between his philosophy and his practice—there are no mistakes, only ways of understanding and becoming.

By foregrounding penitensya and folk gambling alongside Catholic iconography, the exhibition reveals how faith, for many Filipinos, is lived at the edges—mostly outside of doctrine. Refusing to correct or sanitize these practices, Balatbat insists on validating popular religiosity as a form of historical consciousness rather than dismissing it as superstition or deviation. His work suggests that these gestures of faith, however bizarre or excessive, are attempts to reckon with unequal social realities.

–Carla Gamalinda

About the Artist

Maximino Balatbat II was born in 1978 in Caloocan City. Being a son to an architect explains his natural affinity to the world of art which adamantly has not been hidden at all. His early creative formation and works took inspiration from the “International Cabaret”, a brothel in Caloocan’s red light district where he spent an unusual younger years in the company of prostitutes and rug rats like him.

Earlier, he studied Architecture at the Far Eastern University in Manila 1995 but in 1997, after circumspecting the creative path, he decided to take Fine Arts instead at the University of the East Caloocan. In 2002, he completed his degree in Fine Arts with a major in Advertising and was awarded as one of UE’s Exemplary Performance in Visual Arts. Balatbat is also from his own unique generation of artists with piercing grit and passion. Before becoming a fulltime painter, he landed a string of jobs in graphic designs where his creative skills were put into good use.

Maxbal gave pride to the country in 2009 when he won the Il Lorenzo Magnifico Award – (Painting category) Silver Medal in the Florence Biennale in Italy. Among the other feathers in his cap are 2009 ECCA Grand Prize in the Abstract Category and also the 2009 GSIS Art Competition’s grand prize in the Non-Representational Category.

In 2010, his work was among the Juror Choice Award in Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards, the same winning piece is now part of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ collection. Also in the later part of 2010, he participated in the Malaysia Art Expo and the Philippine Arttrek in Singapore his works are also exhibited at Korea, Hong Kong, Beijing, Thailand, Italy, London, Germany, Austria, Netherlands.