Jon Cuyson: Sea of Love / Dagat ng Pag-Ibig, Philippine Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale

Representing the Philippines at the 2026 Venice Biennale, this exhibition features the work of Manila-based visual artist and filmmaker Jon Cuyson. Cuyson’s long-term creative exploration of maritime life culminates in this homage to Filipino seafarers, who sustain global commerce yet often remain invisible in cultural narratives. Installed in a prominent location at the Venice Biennale, Sea of Love surrounds you by essential forms from the artist Jon Cuyson’s thirty-year practice. Large-scale minimalist paintings and lush videos create an immersive experience that tells a maritime story of diaspora that layers the lives of sailors and their families with the symbolism of ships and mussels as oracles of resilience.

Established in 1895, the Venice Biennale is one of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world, and the Art Exhibition is described as “the Olympics of contemporary art.” More than 800,000 visitors attended in 2022. Sea of Love is the sixth participation for the Philippines; it first participated in 1964.

With few exceptions, the presentations of national pavilions at the Venice Biennale are funded by multiple sources. Beyond the exhibition itself, there are several public-facing elements for which we seek your support to increase the visibility and quality of our messaging at home and abroad.

FUNDING ALLOWS US TO:

• Confidently complete essential components and pay our team on schedule;

• Increase our visibility by contracting a communications agency to represent the project; and

• Plan a deeply important and joyful calendar of public programming accessible to all:

• A five-color catalogue published June 2026, designed by Still Room

• Public conversations on-site and online

• Intensive docent training with Filipinos in Italy

• Free admission for Filipinos in Venice

• Community Weekend on the island of Sant’Angelo in the Venetian lagoon. Organized in collaboration with Microclima and the Filipino Community of Venice Mestre-Terraferma.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jon Cuyson (b. Manila, Philippines, 1969) is an interdisciplinary

artist whose practice exists across installation, painting, sculpture, books

and moving images. Rooted in queer and postcolonial ecologies, his

work explores the sea as a living archive, an unstable site where memory,

labor, migration, and desire continually shift and recombine. He earned

his MFA in Painting from Columbia and has held academic

positions at institutions in Manila. Jon lives and works in the Philippines.