Locating the ‘tropics’: "A World of Islands" opens at the Ateneo Art Gallery. A group exhibition examining ecological, and diasporic complexities through diverse artistic voices

A World of Islands: On Palms, Storms & Coconuts opens on the third floor galleries of the Ateneo Art Gallery this 1 February 2026, Sunday. Curated by Ligaya Salazar, A World of Islands brings together artistic perspectives and research on the Philippine archipelago, her climate, her people and their movement over seas and oceans. It locates the ‘tropics’ as both a mythological and real place with shared colonial and ecological trauma, and aims to unpick some of the clichés and relocate agency in the ‘tropical’ narrative.

First exhibited at The Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University London, the project began as an exploration of the movement of indigenous knowledge, practices, materials and people, along with historical and current fabrications of tropical utopia and dystopia. This second iteration expands these themes and features works by Nice Buenaventura, Kim Sacay Chin, Stephanie Comilang, Ronyel Compra, Carol Anne McChrystal, Alex Quicho, Joar Songcuya, and Derek Tumala. The exhibition runs until 24 May 2026, Sunday at the 3F galleries (Fredesvinda Almeda Consunji Gallery, Ambeth R Ocampo Gallery, Elizabeth Gokongwei Gallery, and Alicia P Lorenzo Gallery).

Filipinos have played a disproportionately high role in worldwide maritime trade, currently making up more than 20% of the international maritime workforce. The realities of labour on these merchant vessels, in the hull of the ship, are explored in Joar Songcuya’s work. In a place where water makes up five times more space than land, sovereignty and fishing rights are politically deeply intertwined. Alex Quicho’s speculative work imagines a future of an artificial island in the West Philippine Sea.

Nice Buenaventura and Derek Tumala explore the omnipresence and threat of the sea and water when increasingly stronger storms bring more and more floods and storm surges. The experience of contemporary Filipino practices of ‘making home’ in places made inhospitable by earthquakes and typhoons is highlighted by a new work by Ronyel Compra. Memories, rituals and practices of diasporic community-making are explored by Stephanie Comilang and Carol Anne McChrystal. Kim Sacay Chin unpicks the complexities of ‘coming home’ to an ancestral land that is both familiar and alien, revealing a recurring theme of the diasporic condition.

This exhibition assembles artistic voices from the Philippine archipelago and the global Filipino diaspora in an attempt to foreground the complexities of being simultaneously interconnected and isolated. They consider conflicting themes of privilege and labour, relations and the effects of climate change on all of us, reminding us that, as a world of islands, our futures are bound together.

A World of Islands was developed as part of the Stanley Picker Fellowship and commissioned by Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University London. Original poster design by Alex Stillwell. This exhibition is presented in celebration of National Arts Month (February 2026) and as part of Art Fair PH's #10DaysOfArtPH.

The Ateneo Art Gallery is open Mondays to Saturdays from 9:00am–5:00pm, and on every first and third Sunday of the month from 9:00am–4:00pm. Closed on regular and University holidays. For inquiries, email aag@ateneo.edu or call (2) 8426 6488.