vMeme Contemporary @ Young Artists' Studio
3rd Floor, Estancia Mall East Wing, Capitol Commons, Pasig City
Jose Tence Ruiz - art talk
HAPPENING THIS SUNDAY: We invite you to join us on March 29, at 3:00 PM for an Artist's Talk with Jose Tence Ruiz at vMeme Estancia.
Be part of the conversation on AFTERGLOW: EDSA 40 Years After, a reflection on memory, history, and why it continues to resonate today. This is also the last weekend to view the works of DengCoy Miel, Noel Rosales, Jose Tence Ruiz, and Pinggot Zulueta at the gallery. The exhibition is on view until March 31.
Please register here:
https://forms.gle/DvBG4F1FDKNyiyZeA
📍 vMeme Contemporary @ Young Artists' Studio
3rd Floor, Estancia Mall East Wing, Capitol Commons, Pasig City
For inquiries, call 0917 579 8768.
#EDSAPeoplePower #EDSA40 #EDSArevolution
The AFTERGLOW: EDSA 40 Years After exhibition at vMeme Contemporary reframes collective memory through four distinct visual vocabularies—satirical ink, painterly elegy, archival collage, and civic reportage—offering a layered meditation that is at once elegiac and mischievously forensic; the show runs at vMeme Contemporary, Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons, Pasig, through March 21, 2026.
---
Comparative Table of Artists and Approaches
| Artist | Primary Medium | Tone | Historical Strategy | Notable Work(s) |
|---|---:|---|---|---|
| Jose Tence Ruiz | Oil, enamel, mixed media | Allegorical, barbed | Mythologizes memory; curator and participant | Early Summer Storm (2026) |
| DengCoy Miel | Pen and ink on book paper | Satirical, archival | Recycles press cartoons as testimony | Vintage political cartoons 1985–87. |
| Pinggot Zulueta | Pen and ink, illustration board | Reportorial, elegiac | Documentary-cartooning of civic struggle | Gising Bayan, Tomorrow We Will Fight (1985). |
| Noel Rosales Mixed media, recent works | Reflective, textured | Inserts contemporary patina into past events | Recent mixed media pieces in show. |
---
Critical Reading of the Show
The exhibition's strength is dialectical: archival cartoons sit beside painterly canvases, forcing the viewer to negotiate how memory is made rather than simply what is remembered. DengCoy Miel's press-era cartoons function as primary documents—they are not quaint relics but active rhetorical devices that expose the mechanics of satire and public pedagogy. Pinggot Zulueta's reportage-cartooning preserves affective immediacy; its line work is a civic ledger. Jose Tence Ruiz, both artist and curator, stages a self-reflexive mise-en-scène: his canvases convert political weather into painterly climate, insisting that feeling is a form of historiography. Noel Rosales supplies the connective tissue—textures and palimpsests that make the past feel porous and present.
Disconfirming the Alternative Premise
An alternative reading would insist the show merely sentimentalizes EDSA nostalgia. This fails on two counts: method and material. Methodologically, the curatorial juxtaposition refuses closure; it stages contradiction rather than consoling myth. Materially, the inclusion of contemporary press cartoons and documentary line-work resists nostalgia by foregrounding the media apparatus that produced the moment. Thus, the exhibition does not canonize a tidy triumphalism; it interrogates the infrastructures of memory.
---
Curatorial Narrative
Curating AFTERGLOW is an exercise in listening to aftershocks. The gallery becomes an archive of affect: inked outrage, enamelled sorrow, collage of headlines. The show maps how public feeling ossifies into civic ritual and how images—satire, reportage, allegory—mediate that ossification. By placing press cartoons beside contemporary canvases, the curator stages a conversation across time: the past speaks in the vernacular of the present, and the present answers with the grammar of memory. The result is a modest, rigorous pedagogy—an invitation to read images as civic instruments rather than mere commemorative tokens.
---
Summative Afterpoint
AFTERGLOW succeeds because it refuses nostalgia's lullaby; it makes memory a contested, aesthetic field where satire, testimony, and painterly mourning argue—sometimes tenderly, sometimes acerbically—about what it means to remember a revolution.
Exhibition Essentials
- Title: AFTERGLOW–Edsa: 40 years later.
- Venue: vMeme Contemporary Art Gallery, Estancia Mall, Capitol Commons, Pasig City.
- Dates: Runs until March 21, 2026.
Publications:
1.)
https://www.gmanetwork.com/lifestyle/news/131416/the-soaring-ecstasy-and-lingering-anguish-of-retrospect/story?utm_source=copilot.com
2. )
https://www.thediarist.ph/edsa-40-years-later-the-ecstacy-and-lingering-anguish-are-somehow-all-that-remain/?utm_source=copilot.com
---
If you like my any of my concept research, writing explorations, art works and/or simple writings please support me by sending me a coffee treat at my paypal amielgeraldroldan.paypal.me or GXI 09053027965. Much appreciate and thank you in advance.
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ ' s connection to the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) serves as a defining pillar of his professional journey, most recently celebrated through the launch of the ACC Global Alumni Network.
As a 2003 Starr Foundation Grantee, Roldan participated in a transformative ten-month fellowship in the United States. This opportunity allowed him to observe contemporary art movements, engage with an international community of artists and curators, and develop a new body of work that bridges local and global perspectives.
Featured Work: Bridges Beyond Borders His featured work, Bridges Beyond Borders: ACC's Global Cultural Collaboration, has been chosen as the visual identity for the newly launched ACC Global Alumni Network.
Symbol of Connection: The piece represents a private collaborative space designed to unite over 6,000 ACC alumni across various disciplines and regions.
Artistic Vision: The work embodies the ACC's core mission of advancing international dialogue and cultural exchange to foster a more harmonious world.
Legacy of Excellence: By serving as the face of this initiative, Roldan's art highlights the enduring impact of the ACC fellowship on his career and his role in the global artistic community.
Just featured at https://www.pressenza.com/2026/01/the-asian-cultural-council-global-alumni-network-amiel-gerald-a-roldan/
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ curatorial writing practice exemplifies this path: transforming grief into infrastructure, evidence into agency, and memory into resistance. As the Philippines enters a new economic decade, such work is not peripheral—it is foundational.
I'm trying to complement my writings with helpful inputs and prompts. Bear with me as I am treating this blog as repositories and drafts.
Please comment and tag if you like my compilations visit www.amielroldan.blogspot.com or www.amielroldan.wordpress.com
and comments at
amiel_roldan@outlook.com
amielgeraldroldan@gmail.com
A multidisciplinary Filipino artist, poet, researcher, and cultural worker whose practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, installation, and writing. He is deeply rooted in cultural memory, postcolonial critique, and in bridging creative practice with scholarly infrastructure—building counter-archives, annotating speculative poetry like Southeast Asian manuscripts, and fostering regional solidarity through ethical art collaboration.
Recent show at ILOMOCA
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16qUTDdEMD
https://www.linkedin.com/safety/go?messageThreadUrn=urn%3Ali%3AmessageThreadUrn%3A&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressenza.com%2F2025%2F05%2Fcultural-workers-not-creative-ilomoca-may-16-2025%2F&trk=flagship-messaging-android
Asian Cultural Council Alumni Global Network
https://alumni.asianculturalcouncil.org/?fbclid=IwdGRjcAPlR6NjbGNrA-VG_2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHoy6hXUptbaQi5LdFAHcNWqhwblxYv_wRDZyf06-O7Yjv73hEGOOlphX0cPZ_aem_sK6989WBcpBEFLsQqr0kdg
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ started Independent Curatorial Manila™ as a nonprofit philanthropy while working for institutions simultaneously early on.
The Independent Curatorial Manila™ or ICM™ is a curatorial services and guide for emerging artists in the Philippines. It is an independent/voluntary services entity and aims to remain so. Selection is through proposal and a prerogative temporarily. Contact above for inquiries.
Language
Login
Create connection,
Value conversation.
For you
Who we are
Meet the team
ICM culture
How to apply
Stories
Contact us
Language
Manage your cookie preferences
Privacy & Cookie Policies
Terms of use
Global code of conduct & ethics
All rights reserved Amiel Gerald Roldan® 2026
***
Disclaimer:
This work is my original writing unless otherwise cited; any errors or omissions are my responsibility. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of any organization or institution.
Furthermore, the commentary reflects my personal interpretation of publicly available data and is offered as fair comment on matters of public interest. It does not allege criminal liability or wrongdoing by any individual.
Comments