P A G B U K L A D  U n f o l d i n g
M i d p o i n t  P r o g r e s s  E x h i b i t i o n

‘Pagbuklad Unfolding’ marks the midpoint of Anna-Marie Gallares’ Artist Future Fund Fellowship at the University of Sunderland. Meaning “to unfold” in Bisaya (Cebuano), the double title reflects both process and identity, an ongoing becoming shaped between her Visayan heritage and her upbringing in the United Kingdom.

The exhibition centres on painting as a way of working through memory, return, and belonging. Large-scale acrylic paintings on loose canvas respond to landscapes encountered during a recent visit to the Philippines. Smaller A3 studies and A5 sketches capture everyday encounters: gestures, food, routes, and passing scenes. Grounding the work in observation while allowing memory to reshape what is seen.

One series, ‘Wait… I Don’t Think I Remember This One’ 2026, departs from paint entirely. Created through digital reworkings of childhood photographs, these pieces examine how memory is mediated, fragmented, and reconstructed over time. Shown alongside the paintings, they open a dialogue between lived experience and the artist archival past.

A large-scale painted scroll, developed live within the gallery, extends Gallares’ socially-engaged practice. Remaining unfinished until the final day, it embodies the exhibition’s central idea: that identity, memory, and practice are formed through continual unfolding rather than fixed outcomes.

Pagbuklad is not a conclusion but a moment of unfolding, where home, memory, and making remain in motion.

Solo Exhibition at the Priestman Gallery, 26th February to 6th March 2026​