Isang Dipang Langit: Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now proposes a new encounter with contemporary Filipino art through the conceptual lens of dipang langit-a ‘sliver of sky.’ Drawn from a celebrated poem by Amado V. Hernandez, the phrase is reimagined here not only as a poetic metaphor but as a curatorial framework. It evokes a fleeting opening where fragments of history, personal experience, and collective imagination momentarily converge, illuminating the present while gesturing toward possibility.
Anchored in this notion of fragmentation and convergence, the exhibition brings together installation, sculpture, painting, film, and performance-based works that articulate distinct voices and material sensibilities in Filipino contemporary art. Rather than advancing a single, unified narrative, the exhibition unfolds as a constellation of practices-each offering a partial view, a fragment, a moment of clarity beneath an open sky.
Large-scale installations and sculptural works by Oca Villamiel, Pete Jimenez, Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, and Leeroy New give physical form to memory through material accumulation, spatial tension, and the transformation of found and reclaimed objects. These works activate the exhibition space as a field where labor, displacement, consumption, and survival are registered through tactile and immersive encounters.
Works by Eisa Jocson and Russ Ligtas foreground movement, duration, and embodied action as crucial modes of remembering. Through performance and film, history is not recalled from a distance but enacted in the present-carried by the body, gesture, and the rhythms of everyday life.
Paintings by Elaine Navas, Manuel Ocampo, and Dominic Mangila offer another register of reflection, where memory and history surface through layered imagery, symbolism, and painterly gesture. These works operate as visual fragments-condensed sites where personal, mythic, and historical temporalities intersect.
Installed within the expansive industrial architecture of Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the exhibition transforms the warehouse into an open field of encounter. The vastness of the space functions as a metaphorical sky-a dipang langit-under which works are dispersed rather than sequentially ordered, inviting viewers to move intuitively and assemble their own pathways through memory and meaning.
Ultimately, Isang Dipang Langit presents Filipino contemporary art not as a singular story, but as an accumulation of fragments-material, bodily, and temporal. Within these fragments lies the possibility of seeing the present with greater clarity, and of imagining what may yet emerge.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Isang Dipang Langit - Fragments of Memory, Fields of Now, The Columns Gallery, Singapore (20 January–5 February 2026). Courtesy The Columns Gallery.
Originally established in New York, The Columns Gallery came to bear its current name in 2005 after its operations moved to Seoul. Over the last 26 years, The Columns has cemented its reputation as one of the most powerful contemporary art galleries in Asia. Its overarching vision lies in bridging connections between emerging and established Korean artists and the global market by increasing their presence on the international art fair and biennial circuit. Since the addition of a new space in Singapore in 2019, The Columns has expanded its mission to include the promotion of Southeast Asian artists to a broader public. With far-reaching roots in Korea and Singapore, The Columns Gallery is perfectly positioned to seamlessly navigate the global market, as well as to tap the limitless potential for cross-cultural exchange between East and Southeast Asia.
