The mid-career exhibition traces nearly two decades of the artist’s experimentation and growth, offering an in-depth look at the bold, genre-defying practice that has made him one of the Philippines’ most distinctive contemporary voices.
Opening this November 19 and running until March 1, 2026, The M presents Hail Holy Eyes: a major retrospective that traces the evolution of artist Jigger Cruz, who stands as among the most distinctive voices in Philippine contemporary art today.
READ ALSO: Artist MarPolo Cabrera Represents The Philippines At The XV Florence Biennale
On Haily Holy Eyes
With over 100 artworks spanning 2007 to the present, the exhibition is a compelling encounter with what’s often described as a charged, visceral practice. Known for his thick, textured surfaces and bold clashes of color and found imagery, Cruz’s works ask us to reconsider the delineation of abstraction and figuration.
In Hail Holy Eyes, pieces from his extensive oeuvre come together to unite into a comprehensive and cohesive environment, one brimming with an expanse of pigment, emotion, and wonder.
“‘Hail Holy Eyes’ are words, not a sentence. They are triggers aimed at the spectre of 100 or more Jigger Cruz paintings in your face, up close and personal. An avalanche of unanswered questions will descend upon the viewers—questions upon questions, sticks and stones on bare and wanting flesh,” explains curator Norman Crisologo. “To dissect and sanctify, to hail and to heil. To meander and twirl past unholy dialogues beneath a cacophony of angel hymns. To shout and feel, with your very own eyes.”
Through this powerful gathering of works, Cruz revisits his fascinations and recurring themes of sound, faith, and renewal. What the exhibition reveals is an artist unafraid of excess, one who details the coexistence of beauty and disorder in a way that transforms the act of seeing into devotion itself.
“Hail Holy Eyes” runs from November 19, 2025 to March 1, 2026 at Groundspace, 2/F North and South Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. The museum is located at the Mariano K. Tan Centre, 30th street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, and is open from 11 AM to 6 PM on Tuesday to Friday; 10 AM to 6 PM on Saturday to Sunday; and is closed on Mondays and public holidays.
Photos courtesy of The M.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hail Holy Eyes is a mid-career retrospective exhibition by Filipino contemporary artist Jigger Cruz, presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. It brings together over 100 works spanning 2007 to the present, tracing the evolution of his visceral, genre-defying practice across themes of sound, faith, and renewal.
Jigger Cruz is one of the Philippines’ most distinctive contemporary artists, known for his thickly textured surfaces, bold color, and the deliberate tension he creates between abstraction and figuration. His work is widely recognized for its charged visual language and its refusal to separate beauty from disorder.
Hail Holy Eyes runs from November 19, 2025 to March 1, 2026 at the Groundspace, 2/F North and South Galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, located at the Mariano K. Tan Centre, 30th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday and closed on Mondays and public holidays.
Cruz’s recurring preoccupations — sound, faith, renewal, excess, and the coexistence of beauty and disorder — anchor the exhibition. His works challenge the boundary between abstraction and figuration, treating the act of looking as an immersive, devotional experience rather than a passive one.
Hail Holy Eyes was curated by Norman Crisologo, who described the exhibition as an encounter with an avalanche of unanswered questions — an environment of pigment, emotion, and provocation designed to engage viewers through Cruz’s accumulated body of work at close range.
