ILCP Art Space presents three exhibitions at Orange Project’s 20th Anniversary

BACOLOD, PHILIPPINES – This September, ILCP Art Space marks a milestone moment for Bacolod’s Orange Project with the launch of three exhibitions in celebration of the gallery’s 20th anniversary. Spearheaded by Dumaguete-based artists and ILCP co-founders Irma Lacorte and Tin Palattao, the shows reflect the collective’s ethos of resourceful and collaborative artmaking where “space” is not just geographic, but a deliberate assertion of presence despite limitations of time, livelihood, and physical studio room.

The trio of exhibitions Echoing Messages, Blues Unabridged, and Pasalubong foregrounds ILCP’s commitment to dialogue, experimentation, and the intertwining of memory, material, and community.

An evolution of its earlier iteration at Mugna Gallery, Echoing Messages gathers artists who embrace printmaking as both medium and metaphor to confront the urgencies of contemporary life. Marz Aglipay and Hershey Malinis reframe food not as mere subject, but as a lens to examine economies of survival and politics of value. Marge Chavez, Tin Palattao,and Gabi Nazareno stretch the materiality of print toward growth, transformation, and legacy. Meanwhile, Fara Manuel, Irma Lacorte, and Kristen Cain employ the process as a language of memory and emotional distance.

Together, their works echo a collective desire for resonance, reminding us that messages of endurance are never immediate, but built layer upon layer.

In Blues Unabridged, a long-standing connection between teacher and student transforms into an artistic collaboration. Angela Silva revisits passport portraits from her research into the American colonial period, while Tin Palattao turns to cyanotypes drawn from her garden practice. The stark interplay of white and Prussian blue – hallmarks of the alternative photographic process – conjures both fragility and permanence.

This meeting of minds and memories underscores how relationships evolve beyond mentorship into enduring friendship and shared creation, proving that in art, as in life, connections leave indelible marks.

The Filipino custom of pasalubong – gifts brought home from travels anchors the third exhibition. Here, artists Ched De Gala, Dennis Andrew S. Aguinaldo, Irma Lacorte, Mary Ann Jimenez-Salvador, Mia Angela, and Tin Palattaoexamine the gesture as both ritual and metaphor.

Through their works, pasalubong becomes more than an object of exchange: it is a carrier of memory, affection, and transformation. It marks not only the return of the traveler but also the deepened bonds between giver and receiver, absence and reunion.

The three exhibitions open on September 13 and run until October 29, 2025, at Orange Project in Bacolod’s Art District, Lopue’s Annex Building, Lacson Street, Negros Occidental. Gallery hours are Monday to Saturday, 1–7 PM, and Sunday, 1–5 PM.