Matt Manalo
Matt Manalo was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. He now works and lives in Houston, Texas. He received
his Bachelors in Fine Arts in Painting and minor in Art History at the University of Houston.
Matt Manalo creates work which involves elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and
printmaking. He uses raw materials, found objects sometimes collected and often times donated. By doing
this, he is making his practice environmentally conscious as well as understanding the idea of scarcity and
abundance. He uses the grid as a foundation for most of his work to tackle geography, cartography, borders,
and the idea of displacement while having a constant conversation of how “home” should be defined. Being a
first generation immigrant, Manalo discusses his experiences navigating around the physical and social
structures of society through his work. As he explores this, home becomes a two-part environment where the
artist is split between the Philippines and Texas. The latter sits on the southern border of the US. It is
also important to mention that colonization of the Philippines by Spain, Japan and the United States
resulted in erasure, colorism and colonial mentality; a frequent topic in Manalo’s work.