Grounds Without Measure
5 September - 4 October 2026 Jonas Eslao, Poeleen Alvarez, Rolf Campos
'Grounds Without Measure' is an inquiry into the expanding approaches to abstraction of Jonas Eslao, Poeleen Alvarez, and Rolf Campos. Together, they share the practice of producing works drawn from familiar forms and conditions: materiality, popular imagery, and botanical reference. United by their ardent attention to the 'ground', their works become sites that interrogate histories, systems, and material conditions embedded within transformed images. These similar yet distinct perspectives on pushing the boundaries of the pictorial form result in intuitive, unforced articulations of entrenched narratives. As such, the exhibition highlights the practice of abstraction beyond the obligation of representation.
Jonas Eslao (b. 1984 in Manila; lives and works in Manila) has exhibited extensively since 2007. In his works, Eslao engages in an activity where the thrust shown in each painting no longer rests in the images and subjects produced but, rather, how the inner stimulus of the artist controls every loose brushstroke and every spontaneous motion that happens within. He received his BFA in Painting from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Apart from Manila, his works were featured in exhibitions in Cebu and Singapore.
Poeleen Alvarez’s (b. 1998 in Manila; lives and works in Bulacan, Philippines) collages and intermedia works draw from the visual culture and rhetoric of popular media. An artist-researcher, Alvarez teaches Art History at the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines Diliman where she also earned her BFA degrees in Painting (2018) and Art History (2020).
Rolf Campos’ (b. 1987 in Manila; lives and works in Manila, Philippines) practice of illustrating and painting plants and flowers started he encountered 18th century botanical illustrations commissioned by the Spanish naturalist, Juan De Cuellar. Facsimilies portraying botanical discoveries were produced by Filipino illustrators and later led to the publication of the historical "Flora de Filipinas". In his body of works, Campos extends himself as part of nature in his reimagining of these representations into simplified, modest, and yet symbolic permutations.
Selected Works
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Jonas Eslao Room for Hope, 2026
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Poeleen Alvarez Rejoice! And Fall to Your Knees 2026
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Jonas Eslao Into Something New, 2026
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Rolf Campos Incomplete Flowers Waiting for Pollinators in the Night 7, 2026
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Poeleen Alvarez My Heart is A Stallion, 2026
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Rolf Campos Incomplete Flowers Waiting for Pollinators in the Night 8, 2026