MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Material Instincts opened on 10 February 2026 at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, presenting a compelling exploration of post-painterly abstraction through tactile and process-driven practices. Curated by Bambina Olivares, the exhibition brings together Filipina artists Olivia d’Aboville, Marionne Contreras, Monica Delgado, and Michelle Pérez in dialogue with Peter Zimmermann’s Painting Rules, situating local practices within a broader international conversation on abstraction.
At the core of Material Instincts is an investigation into materiality and artistic process. Throughout the exhibition, textiles and paint are sliced, shaped, stretched, layered, tufted, pleated, and folded, allowing the intrinsic properties of each medium to guide the work’s form and visual language. Materials are not treated as passive carriers of imagery; instead, their plasticity and three-dimensional presence become central to meaning-making.
Textile serves as a site of experimentation in d’Aboville’s practice, where she explores the tension between organic and synthetic systems through what she describes as “textile paintings.” Known for integrating craft traditions with contemporary abstraction, her works blur distinctions between surface and structure, expanding painting into spatial experience.
Contreras engages yarn and felt as emotionally charged materials, examining memory, fragility, and the layered narratives of womanhood and girlhood. Employing eco-printing and botanical contact processes, she produces her own textiles, embedding traces of nature directly into the work and reinforcing themes of time, care, and transformation.
Working primarily with paint, Delgado and Pérez extend abstraction beyond the pictorial plane. Delgado approaches acrylic with a sculptural sensibility, building and shaping paint as a physical substance rather than a purely visual medium. Pérez similarly adopts a material-focused approach, emphasizing paint’s objecthood and tactile presence, allowing surface, density, and gesture to carry expressive weight.
Together, the four artists present a renewed perspective on post-painterly abstraction, one in which medium dictates structure and meaning, and where process remains visibly embedded in the finished work. The exhibition highlights how touch, labor, and material intelligence continue to reshape contemporary abstraction through distinctly personal and embodied practices.
Material Instincts runs until 30 April 2026 at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.
