SIO MONTERA

21/04/2026

Sky Fragment, Grounded

Mixed-media on Canvas
61cm x 45cm (24in. x 18in)
2026
SIO MONTERA: THE AFTERLIVES OF RUIN
Curated by Jose Santos P. Ardivilla, PhD
“Resilience” is often praised as the Filipino capacity to endure, yet it can obscure the systems that produce suffering, demanding silence and acceptance. In Sio Montera’s works, resilience is redefined as refusal— refusal to disappear, become diminished, or to be forgotten. Using debris from disasters in Cebu, Montera transforms damaged fragments into charged forms where cracks and fissures remain visible as records of rupture. Embracing “spatial discontinuity,” the works foreground fragmentation and unresolved histories. Here, resilience is not closure but an ongoing engagement. Salvaging becomes preservation, holding both the remnants of destruction and the conditions that produced them.
For inquiries, please contact [email protected]

20/04/2026

It was a full and meaningful day last 18 April 2026 at Qube Gallery.

My deepest thanks to the students, collectors, and guests who took the time to be present for the public program of the exhibit. The attention and engagement you gave provided the conversations real weight.

During the Artist Talk, I shared an overview of how medium, technique, form, and context came together as a unified whole in this body of work. The talk articulated how material decisions, process, and lived experience would eventually find coherence when you stay with the work long enough.

Dr. Jose Ardivilla, in his curatorial talk, offered a grounded and timely reminder on the importance of research in studio practice. This was especially crucial for our students at the UP Cebu Fine Arts program who are currently navigating their studio arts thesis. His insights helped bridge what many still see as separate worlds: making and thinking.

The day culminated in the official opening of the exhibition, marked by a simple ribbon cutting and shared conversations over cocktails. The atmosphere reminded me why these gatherings matter. Not just to present finished works, but to create space for exchange, reflection, and learning.

It was, in many ways, an inspiring day not only for the artist and curator, but for the gallery and everyone who came with curiosity and openness.

To the Cebu art community: keep showing up, keep asking difficult questions, and keep building work that refuses to stay on the surface. The future of our practice depends on how seriously we take both making and meaning.

Photo credits: Qube Gallery

18/04/2026

Gratitude.

My sincere thanks to everyone who came to the vernissage of The Afterlives of Ruin last 17 April 2026 at Qube Gallery. Seeing friends, colleagues, former students, and fellow artists gather in one space to engage with the work was something I do not take lightly. Your presence gave the exhibition its first real life beyond the studio.

I would like to extend special thanks to of Qube Gallery and her team for her unwavering support through the decades, long before things began to take shape, and even when I was still finding my way in the art scene. That kind of faith is rare, and I carry it with deep gratitude. Shoutout also goes to my former thesis advisee and now faculty colleague and gallerist, Marie Nelle Valmoria for seeing the exhibit through.

My appreciation as well to couturier and fellow educator for the customized guerrilla barong, which became part of the evening’s quiet statement.

And to Dr. Chong Ardivilla, who flew in from Manila to lead the curatorial direction of this exhibition, thank you for the rigor, insight, and commitment you brought into framing the work in ways I could not have done alone.

To everyone who came, listened, looked closely, and stayed, salamat for sharing this moment. Cheers!🥂

18/04/2026

17/04/2026

From that to this. The salvaged architectural fragments in this exhibition operate both as remnants of a specific disaster event and as elements within a broader language of contemporary assemblage.

Through this process, materials once associated with destruction are repositioned within new aesthetic relationships. The fragments do not attempt to erase their prior identities; rust, cracks, and weathered textures remain visible within the compositions. Instead, the works acknowledge rupture as an intrinsic part of form.

Ultimately, this exhibition reflects an attempt to transform the physical consequences of environmental catastrophe into a visual language of persistence.

To see more of this new collection, catch my latest exhibition, The Afterlives of Ruin, at Qube Gallery, Crossroads Mall, Cebu City, from April 18 to May 14, 2026.

14/04/2026

THE AFTERLIVES OF RUIN
A Solo Exhibition by SIO MONTERA

We invite you to the Artist's latest solo exhibition, The Afterlives of Ruin, at Qube Gallery, Crossroads Mall, Cebu City, from April 18 to May 14, 2026.

This body of work emerged from the remains of his home studio following the devastation of Typhoon Kalmaegi (Tino) in late 2025. What began as fragments of damaged architecture: cement boards, wood panels, and rusted metal, slowly revealed themselves as something more than debris. They became surfaces that carried memory: of weather, of time, and of a space shaped by repeated cycles of disruption and repair.

Through assemblage, these materials are reconfigured into works that hold together fracture and continuity. Rather than concealing rupture, the works allow cracks, seams, and discontinuities to remain visible, suggesting that breakage itself can become a structure for meaning.

Curated by Dr. Jose Santos P. Ardivilla, the exhibition frames these works within a critical reflection on 'resilience', not as passive endurance, but as a form of refusal and presence. As he writes, the works do not attempt to repair in order to forget, but to reconfigure in order to remember.

Alongside the exhibition, a Public Program will be held featuring:
• Practice-led Research in Studio Arts and Curatorial Talk (Dr. Ardivilla)
• Artist Talk: Fractured Grounds – Assemblage, Disaster Memory, and Spatial Discontinuity
📍 Qube Gallery, Crossroads, Gov. M. Cuenco Ave., Cebu City
📅 April 18 – May 14, 2026

12/02/2026

Vencí los Obstáculos (I Overcame the Obstacles)

Mixed-media on Canvas
183 cm x 183 cm (6x6ft)
2026

10/02/2026

Milestone exhibit unveils today at UP Cebu Fine Arts - Studio Arts - Jose T. Joya Gallery ❤️

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝟱𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀, 𝗨𝗣 𝗖𝗲𝗯𝘂 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻—𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲’𝘀 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲.

𝘈 𝘚𝘌𝘕𝘚𝘌 𝘖𝘍 𝘊𝘖𝘕𝘝𝘐𝘊𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕: 𝘓𝘐𝘎-𝘖𝘕 𝘕𝘎𝘈 𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘎𝘜𝘏𝘈, 𝘏𝘜𝘎𝘖𝘛 𝘕𝘎𝘈 𝘗𝘈𝘎𝘛𝘜𝘖

An Alumni exhibition celebrating 50 years of the Fine Arts Program, bringing together generations of artists, designers, and makers in a collective reflection on where we’ve been and where we are going.

Exhibition Opening: Feb 11, 2026
5PM - UP Cebu Museum of Arts & Culture
6PM - Jose T. Joya Gallery

𝗠𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

- A SENSE OF CONVICTION: LIG-ON NGA TINGUHA, HUGOT NGA PAGTUO Directions in Cebu’s Contemporary Art - The Joya Gallery | The Joya Gallery

- GINAMÂ: Making Design Matter 20 Years of Design Education at UP Cebu | UP Cebu Fablab

- MINDWORKS 40: ANTOSANTOS
40th Annual Mindworks Festival | February 16-21
UP Cebu

𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄

Fifty years ago, the Fine Arts program of UP Cebu began with a small group of mentors who believed that art was more than a skill—it was a lifelong discipline shaped by rigor, inquiry, and passion. Among them was Martino Abellana, painter, teacher, and visionary, whose influence continues to resonate across generations. When asked what his teaching ultimately sought to give young artists, Abellana offered a simple but powerful answer: he wanted to instill “a sense of conviction, that you must not downgrade yourself. If others can do it, you can do it too.”
This spirit of confidence, courage, and self-belief has guided the Fine Arts program throughout its five decades.

A Sense of Conviction takes its title from this core teaching, honoring not only Abellana’s legacy but also the countless artists and designers who have passed through UP Cebu’s studios, classrooms, and corridors—individuals who found in this community not just instruction but affirmation: a place to believe in their work, their voices, and their capacity to shape Philippine culture.

Gathering works from across generations and creative trajectories, the exhibition celebrates the
restless experimentation, intellectual courage, and quiet dedication that have defined the program’s history. It is both a homecoming and a reflection—an acknowledgment of the paths that have brought us here and an invitation to imagine where the next fifty years might lead.





Poster by Diane Diana

09/02/2026

The Shape of Chronic Stress

Mixed-media on Canvas
61 cm x 61 cm (2x2ft)
2026

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Mixed-media on Canvas
61 cm x 61 cm (2x2ft)
2026

07/02/2026

Against the Noise

Mixed-media on Canvas
121.9cm x 121.9 (4x4ft)
2026

05/02/2026

The Wall is Not the Enemy

Mixed-media on Canvas
152.5cm x 121.9 (5x4ft)
2026