Philippine Galleries at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026
Two leading galleries bring Southeast Asian perspectives to a global audience through bold, material-driven practices.
Words Art+ Magazine Team
Photos courtesy of Silverlens and The Drawing Room
March 27, 2026
For its 2026 edition, Art Basel Hong Kong returns with an expanded program that brings together new sector developments, fresh perspectives, and citywide collaborations—reinforcing its role as a leading platform for artistic exchange in Asia and beyond. The fair will feature 240 galleries from 41 countries and territories, with more than half operating across the Asia-Pacific region.
BERNARDO PACQUING, Blossom #18, 2026, house paint, oil, lead pencil, paint roller and used parquet on canvas | Photo from Silverlens
Art Basel Hong Kong will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from March 27–29, 2026, with Preview Days on March 25 and 26, alongside programs unfolding across multiple sites throughout the city. Continuing to connect artistic practices from the region with international audiences, the fair further strengthens Hong Kong’s position as a vital global art hub.
Participating galleries from the Philippines include Silverlens and The Drawing Room.
PACITA ABAD, Gareng Dalam Dua Gaya II, 1997, Oil, batik, tie-dyed cloth, sequins, plastic buttons, and embroidered mirrors on stitched and padded canvas, | Photo from Silverlens
Silverlens returns with a presentation that brings together artists whose practices have shaped contemporary art in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. At its Main Booth (1B12), works by Pacita Abad, Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Patricia Perez Eustaquio, Geraldine Javier, Bernardo Pacquing, and Yee I-Lann reflect a shared commitment to expanding the possibilities of abstraction and figuration.
PATRICIA PEREZ EUSTAQUIO, Silver Moon (Kintsugi), 2026, graphite on Hahnemühle paper | Photo from Silverlens
Within the booth, Silverlens dedicates its Kabinett—a space designed for focused presentations—to three works by Leo Valledor. A pioneer of the Filipino-American avant-garde and a founding member of New York’s Park Place Gallery, Valledor fused his West Coast sensibility and the syncopation of jazz with the intellectual rigor of 1960s abstraction.
LEO VALLEDOR, Cubibop, 1980, acrylic on shaped canvas | Photo from Silverlens
For Encounters (EN10), Silverlens presents Witness, an immersive environment by Geraldine Javier, recently featured at the Helsinki Biennial 2025 on Vallisaari Island. The installation comprises eco-printed textile columns resembling trees, created through a sustainable process in which plant matter is steamed to imprint material and memory onto cloth. By transforming natural pigments into a monumental sculptural form, Javier reimagines the dialogue between architecture and ecology.
GERALDINE JAVIER, Listen, 2026, hand embroidery on eco-printed fabric, natural dye from the artist’s garden, upcycled fabrics, wood | Photo from Silverlens
The Drawing Room presents a four-artist booth featuring Gerardo Tan, Soler Santos, Ged Unson Merino, and Cian Dayrit. Bringing together artists from different generations of contemporary Philippine practice, the presentation explores how materials—objects, textiles, images, and information—accumulate meaning over time, shaping how histories are remembered, contested, and transformed.
Ged Unson Merino, Impending Bloom 260101 #7, 2025, Print on textile, hand stitch and embroidery, acrylic and silkscreen, 248 × 137 cm | Photo from The Drawing Room
Textile emerges as a key medium within the presentation. Ged Unson Merino’s fabric works draw on a practice shaped by movement between Manila, Bogotá, and New York. Through printing, stitching, and embroidery, Merino treats textile as a living archive of migration and collaboration. Similarly, Cian Dayrit reworks the visual language of traditional tapestries—once associated with territorial power and aristocratic display—into banners of critique.
Soler Santos, House Painting 2 (After Chabet), 2026, Oil and photograph on canvas, 183 × 152.4 cm | Photo from The Drawing Room
Material accumulation also unfolds through the lenses of environment and urban life. Soler Santos creates layered compositions that merge painting, photography, and natural materials, while Gerardo Tan’s conceptual practice addresses the proliferation of images and information in contemporary culture.
Gerardo Tan, Code Talk 1, 2026, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 203 × 152.4 cm | Photo from The Drawing Room
Across painting, assemblage, textile, and installation, the artists explore how material practices can serve as forms of reflection and resistance. The presentation ultimately frames accumulation not merely as a physical gathering of materials, but as a cultural condition—one that layers memory, labor, environment, and political history within contemporary life in the Philippines and beyond.
