Silverlens is opening two exhibitions this August 23, marking Japanese artist Yasue Maetake’s first solo show in the Philippines, with group show A Knowing featuring the talents of Emily Cheng, Geraldine Javier, and Citra Sasmita.
This month is set to be an exciting, jam-packed one for Silverlens, with two upcoming exhibitions happening in August through September: Mare Fecunditatis by Yasue Maetake, and the group show, A Knowing. This will be Maetake’s very first solo show in the country, while A Knowing will be the first time artists Emily Cheng, Geraldine Javier, and Citra Sasmita share the same space.
READ ALSO: Pepe Delfin Gives Shape To Pain’s Complexities
Mare Fecunditatis by Yasue Maetake
Maetake’s first solo exhibition in the Philippines takes its name from a lunar mare: a large, dark, basaltic plain in the eastern half of the moon. Mare Fecunditatis consists of six sculptures in Maetake’s distinct style. Like her past works, they feature what she refers to as “prima materia”—organic matter, her own special blend of calcium and other minerals, as well as polymers derived from marine organisms, animal bones, fossils, and various gemstones.
Maetake gives this material its unique finish using stone-polishing techniques; in this way, she not only serves as an assembler of found works but also a creator of the substances that constitute her art. Her creative autonomy is evident, not only in the making of these works, but also through the choices she makes—specifically what she chooses to omit or remove from these raw materials throughout her process.
Her works leave a stark impression. “Mare Fecunditatis – resurrection” (2025), for instance, is an imposing figure with its eight-foot and 160-pound presence. “A steel carriage, resembling the fossilized backbone of a prehistoric creature, lumbers horizontally and anchors the sculpture,” writes Yayoi Shionoiri in an exhibition note.
Other pieces are equally powerful in quieter ways. “Primordial Soup” (2023-2025) and “Neuro Estuary” (2025), stand proud, protective, and upright; others, like “Ceremonial Delta I,” “Ceremonial Delta II,” and “Mare Fecunditatis – fetus” (all 2025 works), span the walls they’re attached to, protruding like natural, living extensions.
“Maetake’s sculptural bodies are simultaneously familiar and ever-so-slightly menacing,” adds Shionoiri. “If not for the certainty of her creative volition, it might be difficult to determine whether Maetake’s work was excavated from the past or sent to us from the future.”
A Knowing: Featuring The Works Of Three Artists
A Knowing is an intergenerational exhibition featuring three distinct women artists hailing from different parts of the globe: Geraldine Javier (Batangas, Philippines), Emily Cheng (New York City, USA), and Citra Sasmita (Bali, Indonesia). Though unique in their practices, they are united by a deep connection to history and a belief in forces beyond the visible.
The title, A Knowing, is drawn from Emily Cheng’s book In the Weave of Worlds, where she speaks of the unseen threads that connect all things: “the energy, of whatever you want to call it, exists outside the realm of the senses, while perceived nevertheless. Sometimes it is called a knowing.”
Geraldine Javier, a farmer-artist who left Manila over a decade ago, presents work from her garden series, paying tribute to artists who cultivated gardens alongside their creative practices. Her installation Two Fridas (2021) reimagines the garden of Frida Kahlo, complete with motifs from Kahlo’s paintings such as flowers, fruit, plants, monkeys, and butterflies, though Kahlo herself is absent. Instead, the piece becomes a stage for the viewer, just as Kahlo used her garden as a personal stage.
Emily Cheng, a Chinese-American artist with ancestral ties to the Philippines, explores the intangible in her work: what she calls “the forms that feelings can take.” For this exhibition, she presents Cosmic Heads, a series created to accompany meditation, alongside landscape paintings titled After Shen Shichong.
Citra Sasmita, a Balinese artist, builds on the traditional Kamasan painting style through her long-term Timur Merah project. She reclaims this male-centered art form by focusing on women’s stories, using symbols such as fire (purification), water (knowledge), hair (female lineage), and blood (the cycle of life). Her protagonists reclaim space in visual and historical narratives, honoring a matriarchal knowledge that predates the region’s earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms.
This exhibition marks the first time these three artists are shown together, positioning them as symbolic guardians of “growing, tending, and guarding” as Isa Lorenzo writes in an exhibition note: Javier as the sower, Cheng as the observer, and Sasmita as the protector. Running through each of their practices is a shared thread of quiet strength and unwavering commitment that, as the exhibition’s title suggests, connects them on a level deeper than meets the eye.
A Knowing opens on August 23, 2025 and runs until September 27, 2025. Mare Fecunditatis by Yasue Maetake will be running concurrently. Silverlens Manila is located at 2263 Don Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City, and is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM.
Photos courtesy of Silverlens.
