After Taking Filipino Art Abroad, Kambal Gallery Returns Home
After nearly a decade of championing Filipino artists through Hong Kong’s international art circuit, Anna Bernarte-Pendry and Irene Bernarte-Haagen’s Kambal Gallery returns home with its first permanent space and a gallery of their own.
Words Elle Andrea
Photos courtesy of Kambal Gallery
July 21, 2026
For nearly a decade, Kambal Gallery built its reputation far from home and without much of a home base at all.
Founded in Hong Kong back in 2017 by twin sisters Anna Bernarte-Pendry and Irene Bernarte-Haagen, who pioneered in exporting and amplifying Filipino arts and talents. Their main vision is to provide a space for Filipino artists to showcase their work on the international stage, through major art fairs such as: Affordable Art Fair, The Asia Contemporary Art Show and the list goes on.
Their first permanent gallery opens not in Hong Kong, but in the Philippines, the very country whose artists have always been at the heart of its mission and vision. The gallery itself is situated inside the Park Triangle Mall in Bonifacio Global City.
Their first show, The Launch, gathers Philippine masters like Renato Habulan and Pandy Aviado along with prominent names and an international roster of artists from South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Pieces like Habulan’s Impasto series #4.25 is built from thick, intricate textures that aims to evoke grief and endurance as a distinctly Filipino theme, the kind of piece that reads as an argument for staying true and rooted.
Aviado’s Filipino interior, pairs a human figure with a machine to ask the observer a question about authenticity in the age of AI and deepfakes. Together, the selections reflect Kambal’s own journey in remaining deeply rooted in their Filipino identity while engaging in conversations that extend far beyond its shores.
Founders Anna Bernarte-Pendry and Irene Bernarte-Haagen
The gallery’s ribbon cutting ceremony was also attended by Taguig City Mayor, Lani Cayetano, Atty. Roberto B. Mabalot Jr. of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center-Hong Kong (PTIC-HK), along with esteemed art collectors, and key figures from the local creative scene.
A Homecoming in the Contemporary Scene
Kambal's choice of location is no accident, while Makati still remains as Metro Manila's center gallery hub.
The global city has quietly established itself as a growing cultural district. The Metropolitan Museum of Manila relocated there in 2022, with spaces like MO-space and Pablo Gallery amongst them in hopes of expanding the area’s contemporary art footprint.
Rather than just a regular gallery strip, the Taguig Art scene includes museums, malls, and design spaces. It is a mirror to the district's evolving identity.
For Kambal, the setting is fitting in a way that it seemed more like a homecoming, a gallery that was shaped by years on the international stage finally putting down their roots where its story has always belonged.
