(Tall Gallery) – Installation 

Oca Villamiel remembers the first rains of May, always falling at the summer’s end of his youth. The wet monsoon comes after a spell of scorching dry months, a welcome relief in the tropics. From the season’s early downpour sprout the most verdant plants of the year. In Villamiel’s towering installation, extending 20 feet in diameter, a mass of delicate, wispy forms resembles flowers reaching for the sun. Their feathery petals atop implausibly long, slender stalks, seemingly sway in an unseen wind, as if on the brink of taking flight. 

On the ground is a gathering of fallen leaves, a phenomenon as distinct to our Philippine summer as it is to autumn in other climes. As leaves decompose, organic matter nourishes the soil. The long-awaited rains awaken seeds beneath them and coax the lushest plants to grow and flourish. From this parched earth that had been yearning for water burgeons a resurgence of life. The installation evokes this graceful balance in nature, transforming the space into an immersive field, inviting viewers to contemplate their unique moment in time.

Placed in the high-ceilinged main gallery, the work plays with depth and perception, shifting as the viewer moves around it. Its soaring clusters seem suspended in a state of flux—emerging, unfurling, maturing. The artist’s choice of materials enhances the illusion of weightlessness, forms appearing both rooted and airborne. Interplay of light and shadow mirrors the volatile atmosphere of rainwater meeting dry land, capturing mutation from heat-worn stillness to vibrant rebirth. It reminds us that even after the harshest seasons, life finds a way to thrive.

Villamiel’s solo presentation occupies all three rooms of the gallery to honor water as the essence of life and creation. His works explore water’s power to shape landscapes, its inherent fluidity, and its deep connection to memory and time. They channel the rhythms of rivers, tides and rains, depicting water’s cyclical nature—its presence, absence and return. His process mirrors water’s behavior, converting materials as waves change the shore. For the artist, water is not a passive element but a force in creation:  a sustainer of life, a maker of stories.

 

(Upstairs Gallery) - Collage Paintings

These highly intricate collages, composed of individually handcut and meticulously glued pieces of Japanese usen paper, convey the movement and texture of oceans, rivers and rain. Each strip of paper, with its exquisite hues and prismatic patterns, creates a rhythmic undulation, much like a rippling ocean reflecting the sun’s golden rays, or like rain cascading over a woman’s silhouette on a sultry evening. 

The precision and patience required to assemble these works emulate the quiet persistence of nature itself. Villamiel segregates the tiny paper strips by color and then composes and attaches them in parallel direction onto canvas. Their organic patterns suggest an unpredictable flow where no two moments are alike, just as no two waves or raindrops behave in the same way. 

From a distance, the image comes into focus, as if the elements of water, wind and light have been woven together into a singular mesmerizing experience. Up close, the individual fragments reveal their origins—artfully made chiyogami slivers transformed into something vast and atmospheric. These depictions of a restless sea or a sky heavy with rain are meditations on nature in unceasing metamorphosis and enigmatic harmony.

 

(Video Room) – Materials

Villamiel shares with us the materials of his creative process. He visited a screenprinting factory in Kyoto to observe their technique, a craft that had been passed down several generations. Villamiel’s interest stems from his own background as a screenprinter; to this day, his family runs a screenprinting business. From the factory, he amassed a stunning array of paper with traditional Japanese patterns and motifs, in a medley of deep tones, soft pastels, vibrant florals, and graphic shapes. Some sheets are adorned with cherry blossoms, cloudlike formations, flying cranes—a visual richness that is also versatile, ideal for multiple creative applications.

Part of the display are used gloves, squeegees and aprons that Villamiel acquired as factory cast-offs. They are smattered in layers of dried paint, telling the story of countless prints pulled onto paper. The gloves, now stiffened, are smeared with color and sprinkled with remnants of gold paint, a record of the artisan’s handiwork. The squeegees’ rubber edges are worn, evidence of the repetitive motions used to press pigment through fine mesh. Aprons, heavy with splashes and drips, become accidental canvases. These tools, no longer just functional, embody the labor, artistry and imperfections of handmade craft.

The room unveils an artist who moves beyond the studio, doing fieldwork as observer, researcher and participant. This is an integral part of his work, the need to fully immerse in a place and its people, their environment and their daily rhythms. He engages them in conversation, understanding their stories, histories and traditions, all of which shape his art. Years and decades often pass until his preparations are complete. Imbued with this lived experience and human interaction, Villamiel’s work bears undeniable authenticity and deep resonance.