MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Liv Vinluan, a recent recipient of the 2024 Thirteen Artists Awards (TAA) from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) didn’t see art as a viable career path. However Vinluan now joins an elite circle of visionaries – contemporary visual artists who reshape and redefine the very essence of Filipino artmaking. But her path to this recognition was far from a linear ascent.
“I saw how difficult it was for him [as a full-time artist and an educator], being a sole breadwinner with three children,” Vinluan shares.
Mounting show after show, Vinluan embraced her fondness for historical narratives. She then fed her fascination through art. Eventually, she realized she might have been onto something all along and heeded the universe’s proverbial call for artmaking. “As a child, I created to pass the time, escape, and conjure other worlds. I just simultaneously feel all these sentiments toward history – bewilderment, shame, and pride,” the 37-year-old artist continues.
At 37, Vinluan is deeply entrenched in a mixed media practice characterized by meticulous research, poetic ambiguity, and historical hauntings. Her works, which have earned accolades including the Karen H. Montinola Selection grant for Art Fair Philippines 2019 and a shortlisting for the 2016 Ateneo Art Awards, reflect a mind in constant conversation with the past.
Contemplating her presentation at the TAA exhibit at the National Museum of the Philippines Fine Arts this October 2025, Vinluan recounted seeing botanist Fr. Manuel Blanco’s Flora de Filipinas at the Lopéz Museum & Library archives in 2016 as part of her preparation. The seminal 19th-century book on Philippine botany has been a landmark, describing over 1,000 Philippine plant species with plates or laminas illustrated by Filipino and Spanish artists.
Upon learning that the exhibit would be inside a historical landmark that witnessed the restoration of the Filipino identity, Vinluan couldn’t contain her excitement. “You don’t get to exhibit at the National Museum everyday. It is a concrete testament to survival and constant change,” she elaborates.
The CCP, through the TAA, honors visual artists under the age of 40 who seek to “restructure, restrengthen, and renew artmaking and art thinking that lend viability to Philippine art.” In its 54th year, Liv Vinluan joins fellow TAA recipients Catalina Africa, Denver Garza, Russ Ligtas, Ella Mendoza, Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan, Issay Rodriguez, Luis Antonio Santos, Joshua Serafin, Jel Suarez, Tekla Tamoria, Derek Tumala, and Vien Valencia.
The CCP Visual Arts and Museum Division (CCP VAMD) received 82 submissions from art groups, museum and gallery directors and curators, art critics, art educators, and former TAA recipients from all over the country. Through a meticulous deliberation process, the thirteen awardees were selected out of a total of 108 nominations.
