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CCAD proudly supports and celebrates the participation of its faculty and alumni in LATAG: The Unfolding of Visayan Abstraction<\/strong>, a major group exhibition opening on July 31, 2026 at 5:00 PM at the Qube Gallery<\/strong>. Curated by Professor Dennis E. Montera, PhD, the exhibition brings together prominent and emerging abstract artists from the Visayas and Manila, in a dialogue that explores the evolving landscape of contemporary Philippine abstraction.<\/span><\/p>\n Derived from the Cebuano and Tagalog word latag<\/em>, meaning “to lay out,” “unfold,” or “reveal,” the exhibition frames abstraction as an ongoing process of discovery rather than a search for fixed meanings. Through paintings and material explorations, the exhibition invites viewers to encounter ideas, memories, and lived experiences that gradually emerge through texture, gesture, rhythm, and form.<\/span><\/p>\n According to curator Montera, LATAG stems from recent research on the methodologies and contextual approaches of established abstract artists in the Visayas. Rather than treating the region as merely a geographic location, the exhibition positions the Visayas as an active condition that shapes artistic thinking, creative processes, and conceptual orientations. Within this framework, abstraction becomes a means of engaging with place through materiality and process instead of direct representation.<\/span><\/p>\n The exhibition highlights how abstraction extends beyond formal concerns of color and composition. The featured works embody traces of memory, migration, environmental precarity, labor, resilience, and cultural identity\u2014not through illustration, but through surfaces, textures, and artistic processes that allow lived experience to become inseparable from artistic form.<\/span><\/p>\n LATAG also underscores the richness of intergenerational exchange. Senior artists provide decades of sustained practice that continue to shape the discourse on abstraction in the Visayas, while younger practitioners embrace experimentation, revision, and material inquiry as forms of artistic research. The inclusion of invited artists from Manila further broadens this conversation, challenging conventional distinctions between center and periphery and presenting Philippine abstraction as a dynamic network of dialogue, mentorship, and shared artistic inquiry.<\/span><\/p>\n Running until 15 August 2026, Latag offers audiences an invitation to linger, reflect, and discover the many possibilities of abstraction. Rather than arriving at definitive conclusions, the exhibition proposes Visayan abstraction as a living and evolving field of inquiry\u2014one that continues to unfold through artistic practice, collaboration, and conversations across generations and places.<\/span><\/p>\n