Micaela Benedicto

My project “Concrete House by the Ocean” on the pages of a new book by @phaidonpress . So great to get this in the mail and leaf through it! Grateful to have done this project and see it in print among these beautiful summer houses from different parts of the world. The photos in the feature are by Miguel Nacianceno @mignac_ . From the introduction by Izabela Anna Moren: “The architects and studios featured here have created environments that meet both those needs. Every dwelling, no matter its specific characteristics, provides at its core a space for observation. The cultures we inhabit daily ask us to follow routines, and the spaces we normally occupy are structured accordingly; we condition them, and they condition us. The places we turn to in order to disrupt these routines are very different. They are more experimental, encourage a deeper connection with nature, and allow us to dream of another way of living. They are not symbols of luxury but necessary resets of who we are…”

Concrete House by the Ocean is one of Wallpaper’s top 12 houses of 2024 ✨ Woke up to this news on Christmas morning, courtesy of @mignac_ who took these photos. So much thought and work go into architecture design, especially houses, because they are so personal. There are seemingly endless studies and editing to make everything work, not to mention the determination needed to execute well, be conscientious of costs and resources, and still stay true to an idea. It means a lot for our efforts to be recognized. Wallpaper’s 2024 list includes both new work and rediscovered modernist architecture — I am stunned to see my project in the same category as a Geoffrey Bawa house and a Le Corbusier villa, and an (only recently built) Frank Lloyd Wright house 😮 I would like to share this with our structural engineer Edison Go who did an incredible job on this house, and to my small team of young architects who put a lot of care and thought into our projects. Thank you Ellie Stathaki and @wallpapermag for the recognition. * See the whole article in my link in bio. #wallpapermag #architecture #residential #2024

Earlier today, Mario and I went to Seongsan Shell Mound, one of the sites of the 2024 Sculpture Biennale in Changwon, South Korea to see my three mirror figures installed there. They are editions of the ones currently at UP Vargas Museum — first installed for @tessamaria.guazon ’s ‘Fever Dream’ curatorial and research project — cut and assembled here in Korea. We have been corresponding for months, and it’s so surreal to finally see them here, beautifully installed in this serene location — a historic site in the midst of some factories in the industrial city. It is literally a mound composed of layers of shells dating to prehistoric age, a hill of relics and ruins. The theme of this year’s biennale involves a “peeling away” at the city, “a newfound horizontality [that] moves freely between existing systems, offering a new mode of seeing the world around us”. These mirror figures—flat-cut and folded or stretched to 3D form—are set in accordion-like or peeling gestures, multiplying and reordering images of its natural surroundings, forming a constantly changing present reality. Many thanks @changwonbiennale @avpavilion for the incredible opportunity, for giving these a place in Korea. Thanks again @tessamaria.guazon for having me do this at @upvargasmuseum and for endorsing my work 🤍 The 7th Changwon Sculpture Biennale runs from Sept 27 - Nov 10. Can’t wait to see all the other pieces and installations!

A few 8x10 photograms from a favorite series, up at @tarzeerpictures at the Mabrewhay fair at Ayala Triangle this weekend May 8, Friday: 4pm to 1am May 9, Saturday: 12nn to 1am May 10, Sunday: 12nn to 10pm

Two silver-toned photograms that have acquired a patina, at the group show “Skins” curated by @patrickdeveyra , opening tomorrow May 9 at @drawingroommanila . The pieces reverse the ordinary hierarchy of the photograph: the colloidal silver that normally sustains the image from below is drawn up onto the paper as its visible face, so that what had functioned as substrate now constitutes surface. From the curator’s notes: “We explore the notion and form of the skin not merely as a protective barrier, but as a sinuous topography—an undulating landscape of resistance and passage. We view the "skin" as a terminal interface: a membrane that is simultaneously permeable and impermeable, porous and non-porous. The invited artists investigate the surface as a door, mapping the resilient defenses we build against a world in a constant state of turbulence and flux, while zeroing in on the supple valleys and sensuous corporeal textures through which we allow the world to touch us. In this exhibition, skin transcends the biological to become notional and metaphorical. Artists present works that interrogate the skin as interface, as a repository of time, and as the ultimate witness to the friction between the self and the “other". “Skins” runs until June 6, 2026.

Know who you are at every age 🎂🕰️ 📷 1: @tonignzlz 5: @bonnapart_ 6: @icehotel 7: @josephpascualphoto 8: @studio.ckjp P.S. Thank you everyone for the sweet greetings, appreciate you all ☺️

Three silver photos on metal plates. On view at the group exhibit Residue of Behavior at Faculty Projects from March 25-April 17 @facultyprojects The 3 images are from parts of a single projection of a photo of a stairwell in Hatagaya, Tokyo, viewed from an unusual angle — from the outside, while standing on an overpass. Stairwell (triptych) 8x10 Silver gelatin print on satin and direct positive papers, aluminum plates and angle 2026

"And I think that is what’s so interesting with any contemporary art; when you can see in an object the residue of behavior." –Sarah Sze Borrowing its title from an interview with visual artist Sarah Sze, Residue of Behavior considers home not as a site of habitation, but as an accumulation of actions and memories. Through repeated gestures and routines, space—both physical and internal—is continuously formed, carrying traces that persist even after the artist moves on. The works in this exhibition examine what remains: habits embedded in objects, memory inscribed in architecture, and behaviors that quietly shape a sense of belonging. Micaela Benedicto @micabene Miguel Lorenzo Uy @miguellorenzouy Renzo Navarro @_renzonavarro Lee Paje @leepaje Jason Montinola @jasonmontinola Rando Onia @p_r_o_m_e_t_h_e_u_s_ Bryan Kong @bryan_kong ESL Chen @e.s.l.chen Sarah de Veyra-Buyco @sarahdvbuyco Pat Frades @patfrades_ Janice Liuson-Young @jyoung.art Victoria Montinola @victoriamontinola Isaiah Cacnio @isaiahcacnio Simon Te @simon.te Julieanne Ng @julieanne1994 Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM To schedule a visit, please send a direct message on Instagram to @format.ph FORMAT (@format.ph ) is the 2026 program of Faculty Projects (@facultyprojects ), encompassing exhibitions, curatorial work, and mentorship within and beyond the four walls of the white cube. #FORMAT

Meanwhile, in a different book, one closer to home… and a journey through time and space to my 11-13 year old self, an age that I will always look back on with amusement: A non-meeting between a girl in a hat with a Yamaha Portasound and a boy in a school dance; a long lost childhood friend frozen in time on YouTube, a vaguely futuristic ‘80s house with curves and mirrors, a secret weight loss program and a tune that followed my adult self via mellow radio. “My story is funny and sad,” I told Mario. “I think that’s your tone”, he replied. I wanted to write it in the manner of young adult books or sitcoms of the time, or at least the way I remember them. I ended up making a self-portrait pieced together through select episodes, and the skipped parts — the blanks in between — are a big part of it too. In some ways, after everything that has happened, that’s still who I am. It’s almost impossible now to retell these tales accurately, but this is how they live in my memory. Some things are just too strange to not be real. Many thanks to @tindabs and Do Good Studio for making this happen. I love the cute illustrations of my childhood house and school 🥰 QC will always be home. 🩶

A photo I took in Tokyo in the fall of 2022, shortly after the lockdown lifted. This is the first roll of film I’ve ever learned to develop (years later, in 2025) and the first time to make prints from it just last week. I fixated on one image — the curved slit opening of a building at the end of an elevated walkway I would pass every morning on that trip. It looked, to me, like an eye. I was attracted to it and the internal architecture it revealed, and took a photo each time, one aperture meeting another. My story in Tokyo began in 2016, the year my former partner passed. I needed some time alone away from everything. A significant change in me took place there — a kind of rebirth and several shifts in perspective. I found myself returning a few times, alone, mostly. I think I keep returning for the person I was, to keep her alive. I made a few prints from parts of the projection, and silver-toned them in different degrees. In some, you can barely make out the image. I’m thinking about mirroring, exposure, fixation, and their other meanings. I’m surprised to see a date on the print, and it’s set wrong from the camera, but there it is — another layer of time I didn’t account for. One of these prints will be in a group show this month with a statement that “considers home not as a place, but as an accumulation of actions and memories… through repeated gestures, routines, and movements”. Residue of Behavior opens on Wed, March 25, at Faculty Projects. @facultyprojects

A house with split levels cascading down a hill in Laguna, appearing as two minimal intersecting cubes when viewed from the front. #wip #concrete #architecture

We wanted our tiny space to have room for our creative office, our small grazing selection of books, a focused learning lab, and dozens of ideas in between that crossed our minds—from pop-up DJ sets to sudden cocktail bars. But too many plans and too many dreams are never a thing when you’re working with a kindred spirit like Micaela Benedicto, who did not flinch one bit. We‘ll be ready to open our doors this February 28.