Arts & Culture

How Activism Proliferated in the Art Scene: BluPrint Year-End 2025

Six examples of artists this year who have pushed the envelope for the rights of people in society through their art.

December 30, 2025

Elle Yap

‘Gloss With A Purpose’ and LGBTQ+ Activism

Combining the works of Philippine photographer Lee Morale and American artist Kia LaBeija, this exhibition at Kalawakan Spacetime epitomizes the queer experience in both countries. LaBeija, a queer artist who was born HIV-positive, uses her artwork to depict her experiences as a woman of color dealing with HIV; Morale, a transgender woman from Mindanao, finds glamor in the mundanity of everyday Filipino life through her photographs.

Both women fight against their marginalization by crafting their own narratives on who they are. In a year where LGBTQ+ rights have been embattled across the board in Western countries, the ability to be able to tell one’s story in their own words and images becomes more necessary to combat lies and misinformation proliferating online against their own community.

‘To Gather, Together’ and Resistance in Institutional Settings

Not many art exhibitions this year spoke of the tragedy of the Gaza bombings and genocide as explicitly as last year, partially because of increasing economic unrest around the world, and partially because Western institutions like the British government has openly attacked activism against Israel’s treatment of Palestine as ‘terrorism.’

Thus, an exhibition like To Gather, Together remains a shocking reminder of the atrocities being done abroad—and their links to the atrocities being done in our country.

Four artworks shown in "To Gather, Together" at Gravity Art Space. — Four artworks shown in “To Gather, Together” at Gravity Art Space.

One of the exhibitions shown at Gravity Art Space in July, it was a group exhibition organized by Buen Abrigo that centered around the concept of community: finding the similarities and common ground between groups without removing the differences in each culture and person.

The exhibition laid stark the necessity of community, of having groups of people with shared values together, in launching resistance against the unjust practices and laws of imperialist powers here and abroad.

Its explicit protest against the killings of Palestinian children and families is just one of the many points of injustice it references, among those the Duterte’s drug war that killed many innocent lives and labor rights across the country.

“It brings together artists whose works explore knowledge-making, survival, and resistance through forms rooted in local realities—whether in urban loops or rural rhythms,” the exhibit write-up said. “These are not grand gestures, but lived articulations of being with others: works shaped by collaboration, kinship, ecology, and struggle.”

‘Stakeholding’ and the Hardship of Depicting Society Accurately

Artist Lyra Garcellano pushes forward a broader, but no less important, piece of societal commentary and activism with her in-progress board game Stakeholding. The game is rooted in society’s inequality, with players receiving different amounts of ‘capital’ based on identities they randomly draw from a bag. There, they try to navigate achieving their goals despite, or because of, the status they are born into.

It is a game that also functions as commentary on how art can’t fully depict society in all its complexity. Our roles can be interconnected, yet a single artwork can’t bring them together. Which is what Stakeholding provides: a more comprehensive and complicated look at the multiple factors that make life easier or harder for every individual out there.

‘To Find Gold In A World That Needs Silver’ and Simulating Reality

Jose Olarte’s exhibition at Gravity Art Space puts viewers in a hyper-small space of screens, fluorescent lights, and cubicles, pushing for a discussion about consumerism, and how devalued work and reality are, to the point that they become separate from how we see society as a whole.

A dolphin with "The Communist Manifesto" for Jose Olarte's exhibit in Gravity Art Space. It is featured in our year-end roundup of art exhibitions. — A dolphin with “The Communist Manifesto” for Jose Olarte’s exhibit in Gravity Art Space.

Karl Marx has this theory where he discusses how workers lose meaning to their life and happiness when they become cogs of the machine, separated from their labor. Olarte’s exhibit puts viewers inside a tiny room where the only way to see through society is a screen.

The screen and dolphin in Jose Olarte's exhibit at Gravity Art Space. — The screen and dolphin in Jose Olarte’s exhibit at Gravity Art Space.

It seems to mock our simulated world, engrossed in computers and smartphones, prompting us to wonder how separated we are from society, never truly seeing how our work benefits the world, and never getting rewarded for it. The exhibit touches upon our society of inequality as the rich hoard more and more resources for the benefit of no one, asking pertinent questions about what we end up getting from it in the long run.

Jose Olarte's exhibit at Gravity Art Space. It is one of the art exhibitions featured in our year-end list. — Jose Olarte’s exhibit at Gravity Art Space.

“In an era where hard work doesn’t necessarily produce rewards, and where work anxiety is all but normalized, what does it really mean to be working class in the 21st century?” the exhibit write-up asked.

‘Creatures of Apathy’ and Political Satire

Paul Eric Roca, an illustrator best known for his satirical newspaper illustrations, created this exhibit at Altro Mondo Creative Space in February as a reflection on our society’s corruption. The imagery is loaded, actively highlighting the decay of society’s fixtures while pushing viewers to action.

“His fantastical and surrealist works serve as haunting allegories,” the exhibit write-up said. “[They are] grotesquely twisted visions that transform the familiar into the bizarre and the strange.”

‘Angat Sining’ and Advocating for Artist Rights

As a final, positive, and hopeful note on activism, here is a program aimed at teenagers and young adults that shapes artists’ futures today. The Angat Sining Fellowship, run by the non-profit organization Angat Buhay, seeks to support young, up-and-coming artists in nurturing their talent and providing opportunities for artistic expression.

A work by Diane Galos for the Angat Sining Fellowship.

More than a platform to show their art, as the young artists were exhibited in UP Parola Gallery in February, the Fellowship allowed for them to be mentored by established legends like Benedicto Cabrera, or more widely known as BenCab, and Mark Justiniani, and organizations like Ang llustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK).

The initiative pushes for a future where art has an active place in people’s homes, one where everyone can become an artist, not just for the chosen few. It is hopefully a future that one can look forward to, even with all the tumultuousness of our world.

Art Activism Actively Makes A Better Society

These six examples of activism show how art gives a voice to the marginalized, the angry, and the downtrodden, through images and actions that imprint themselves on our minds. In the end, artists get to choose how they use the voices and platforms given to them.

Photos by Elle Yap.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did “Gloss With A Purpose” use photography to combat LGBTQ+ marginalization?

In this exhibition at Kalawakan Spacetime, photographers Lee Morale (Philippines) and Kia LaBeija (USA) utilized personal narrative as a technical tool for resistance. LaBeija, born HIV-positive, and Morale, a transgender woman from Mindanao, used high-gloss, stylized imagery to reclaim their own stories from the misinformation and stigma surrounding the queer community. Technically, this “glamorizing of the mundane” functions as a counter-narrative to the dehumanizing lens often applied to marginalized groups in digital and political spaces.

What is the concept of “Stakeholding” and how does it gamify societal inequality?

Lyra Garcellano’s board game, Stakeholding, is a conceptual artwork that mirrors the randomness of systemic privilege. Players draw identities from a bag that dictate their starting “capital”—for example, men might receive two coins while women and queer people receive one or zero. Technically, the game’s mechanics—including scenarios that randomly add or remove privileges—demonstrate how socioeconomic status is often out of a person’s control, forcing players to navigate a “permission structure” that mimics the real-world patriarchy and class system.

How does the “To Gather, Together” exhibition link local and global atrocities?

Organized by Buen Abrigo at Gravity Art Space, this group exhibition used the concept of community to launch a unified resistance. Technically, the exhibit functioned as a platform for “lived articulations,” connecting the tragedy of the Gaza genocide to local Philippine struggles, such as the drug war and labor rights violations. By finding common ground between diverse cultures through collaborative art-making, the exhibition argued that community is the essential infrastructure for challenging imperialist and state-led violence.

What is the critique of consumerism in Jose Olarte’s “To Find Gold In A World That Needs Silver”?

Jose Olarte created a hyper-enclosed installation at Gravity Art Space featuring screens, fluorescent lights, and cubicles. This technical setup simulates the “alienation of labor” discussed in Marxist theory. By forcing viewers into a tiny room where reality is only accessible via a screen, Olarte critiques how modern society has devalued work and separated the individual from the fruits of their labor. The exhibit asks: in a world where hard work no longer guarantees rewards, what does it mean to be “working class” in a simulated digital landscape?

How does the “Angat Sining Fellowship” support artist rights and professional development?

Run by the non-profit Angat Buhay, the Angat Sining Fellowship is an activist program aimed at democratizing the arts for young people. Beyond exhibiting work at the UP Parola Gallery, the program provides technical mentorship from legends like BenCab and Mark Justiniani. This initiative addresses the systemic lack of access for students in the provinces, fostering a “design community of care” that empowers young artists to see their craft as a tool for advocacy and nation-building.

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