Now Now Canteen’s reNOWn debuts multidisciplinary visual artist Celine Lee, presenting a uniquely participatory art-meets-dining experience where rice becomes both medium and message.

Words Piolo Cudal
Photo courtesy of JL Javier, Joshua Misalucha, Bryan Kong, and Patrick de Veyra
October 20, 2025

At the intersection of fine art and fine dining, Now Now Canteen’s new cultural initiative, reNOWn, presents a multisensory experience that fuses contemporary visual art with gastronomy.

Its second installment features acclaimed Filipino artist Celine Lee, whose latest work, ‘A Mass,’ transforms uncooked rice into a sublime meditation on matter, memory, and meaning.

Beyond consuming

Conceived as a cultural incubation program, reNOWn serves as a platform for showcasing art and inviting audiences to reimagine how we engage with it.

By situating contemporary art within the intimate space of the dining experience, reNOWn opens up new possibilities for how artwork is created, perceived, and remembered.

For its second edition, the program spotlights multidisciplinary artist Celine Lee, known for her process-driven practice that spans painting, sculpture, installation, and multimedia work.

Drawing inspiration from the natural sciences, Celine Lee often explores the unseen forces and frameworks that shape human experience. Her work poses quiet yet urgent questions: What remains after consumption? What lies beneath?

Created for reNOWn, Lee’s two-part artwork, ‘A Mass,’ embodies this inquiry in both concept and construction.

The first component features a landscape composed entirely of uncooked rice, elevated into a terrain of symbolic and structural complexity. Using photogrammetry, Lee digitally reconstructed this ephemeral form, producing intricate 3D renderings that merge organic texture with digital geometry.

*A Mass by Celine Lee on view at Now Now Canteen.*
*Photo by Patrick de Veyra*

The first part is a mosaic of lenticular prints, each revealing alternating views such as wireframe and shaded of the rice landscape. These images offer a dynamic, shifting visual field that echoes the layered nature of taste and perception.

*A Mass by Celine Lee*
*Photo by Patrick de Veyra*

The second part consists of a single photographic print of the original rice construction, presented as a standalone fine art piece and available for purchase.

More than a static artwork, A Mass serves as a participatory ritual. In a Vogue interview, Lee likens this experience to consuming art.

“I’m an image-maker. When we consume images, in the same way we consume food, it’s not just about taking. We expend that energy. In the same way, when we see an image, we respond to it, and then hopefully we do something about it in a good way,” she explained.

As part of the experience, diners are invited to select and take home a fragment of the lenticular mosaic, gradually dispersing and revealing the larger image as the program progresses.

Now Now Canteen’s reNOWn program featuring multidisciplinary artist Celine Lee.
Photo by Bryan Kong

Transformative art

The program is a collaboration of minds from the worlds of art, design, and culture. Through the fusion of creative and culinary collaborators, it creates an environment where art and food don’t just coexist—they converse.

Each course, each image, and every decision made by the diner form part of a carefully choreographed experience that challenges the boundaries of both disciplines.

Lee is no stranger to pushing such boundaries. A graduate of the University of Santo Tomas with a BFA in Painting, she has exhibited widely in the Philippines and internationally. Her solo shows, The Brightest Part (2023) and The Length and Breadth of Depth (2021), were both shortlisted for the Ateneo Art Awards Fernando Zóbel Prizes for Visual Art. She also received an Award of Merit at the 2020 Philippine Art Awards and participated in S.E.A. Focus 2023 in Singapore.

With ‘A Mass,’ Lee continues to deepen her inquiry into how physical materials can illuminate the intangible aspects of human life, reinforcing the transformative potential and meaning-making power of her artworks.

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