Artist Biography
Lyra Garcellano (1972, born and based in Manila, Philippines) draws from her personal experiences to examine themes such as identity, history, displacement, value and labour. Her works explore how these ideas are embedded within the art world, inviting viewers to consider art-making as part of broader cultural and economic systems.
Working across painting, installation, video, comics and text, Garcellano approaches the act of creation with vulnerability and openness. Figures in her Falling (2009) series are painted in ethereal states that suggest falling, sleeping and suspension all at once. Evoking the fraught space between paralysis and movement, dream and reality, the series prompts viewers to consider what version of the self might arise from the conditions of despair and restraint.
Garcellano obtained her BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Ateneo De Manila University, following which she obtained her BFA in Painting and her MA in Theory and Criticism from the University of the Philippines, Manila. Notable exhibitions include Chances of Contact (2024), Metropolitan Museum of Manila; Drawn to Scale (2014), U.P. Jorge Vargas Museum, Quezon City; and Dimensions Variable (2013), National Art Studio, Seoul.
Garcellano had her residency at the STPI Workshop in 2011, resulting in the group exhibition BMW Young Asian Artists Series III: Genevieve Chua, Lyra Garcellano, R.E. Hartanto (2011).