Thy Art Flows in Surfaces

Get a glimpse of a flowy and vivid artistic journey inside Peter Zimmerman’s upcoming solo exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.

Words Rica Mae Labbao
Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Manila
January 11, 2026

In Peter Zimmerman’s world, art is not confined. It is loosely broad, free-flowing, and vividly perceptive. With his first institutional solo exhibit in the Philippines, ‘Painting Rules,’ Zimmerman sets out a genuine presentation of creativity and imagination in surfaces beyond the ordinary. 

In collaboration with Taipei and New York-based Nunu Fine Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, or The M, will open its doors to the dimensions of Zimmerman’s ‘Painting Rules’ exhibition on February 3, 2026, with a lineup of works across his journey as an unconventional artist, including one of his recent works, Palladium (2022), that is donated by the artist himself to be part of the museum’s permanent collection. 

Before the exhibit starts, an interactive student workshop will be facilitated by Zimmerman inside The M, which will enable young students to experience making art while also contributing to the artist’s art—a great approach to nurture a comfortable and cooperative environment for young creative aspirants.

Zimmerman was known to be an artist that offers great depth and boundless reflections in his pieces. Among his works, the collection he coiled as ‘Book Cover Paintings’ hit the audiences’ interest for its iconic transformative approach in which covers of dictionaries, atlases, and books were turned into epoxy on canvases. 

An evolution also took place within his artistic path, where he also worked his epoxy material style with distorted photos, film stills, and diagrams. It was in 2014 when he began defining these conceptual techniques of “digital image generation” into oil painting. 

“This is the guiding idea behind my epoxy resin paintings, which are based on digital templates such as photos, film stills, or diagrams. I deconstruct and alienate these templates using graphic algorithms before transferring them, layer by layer, onto canvas ​in​ numerous ​transparent​ coatings.”

With his newfound realization of using oil and epoxy materials on his pieces, Zimmerman continued to create amorphous images that are keen in stealing the interest of viewers with his large-scale, shifting art.

Born in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1956, Zimmerman began his creative path in Germany during the 1980s. Today, the list of his artistic portfolio boasts various exhibitions, installations, and collections around the world, including the Philippines. 

Zimmerman’s ‘Painting Rules’ exhibition will run from February 03, 2026, until April 30, 2026, at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.