ILIGAN CITY- This City of Majestic Waterfalls sparkled with two of the finest exhibits we were a most fortunate witness to during the 84th Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) last week.
In the morning, the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) unveiled the Brig. Gen. Guy O. Fort Collection at its University Library featuring ethnographic materials and artifacts from over a century ago, and the Sidlak Iligan Art Exhibit followed suit at Espasyo Gallery, Ramiro St., Ylaya, Poblacion, later in the afternoon.
According to Hulma Iligan Executive Director Anita T. Sescon, Sidlak Iligan (literally Shine On Iligan) is a curated exhibition featuring selected works of Iliganon visual artists, highlighting their unique artistic expressions and contributions to the city’s cultural landscape.
Hulma Iligan is a collective for painters, graphic artists, sculptors, animators, filmmakers, videographers, theater artists, dramaturgs, playwrights, literary artists, musicians, song composers/writers, choreographers, dancers, singers, instrumentalists, fashion artists, culinary artists, tattoo artists, art enthusiasts, art patrons, event organizers, handicraft artists, production designers, heritage keepers, patrons and all those engaged in creative disciplines.
“We aim to build Iligan City’s creative industry to be recognized as a cultural hub of the south,” Sescon explained.
Prof. Ricardo Jorge S. Caluen, who emceed the program, shared how the earliest art group in the city was similarly named Sidlak Iligan Artists Group.
“Our home base was the Galeria de Iligan Café founded in 1985 by writer Bayani Santos, Jr. Steven P.C. Fernandez was our curator with myself as impresario,” Caluen recalls. “Romy Cocos and Audie Estrellada were among our pioneer artists and the gallery was inaugurated by National Artist Jose T. Joya.”
The opening program gathered artists, cultural advocates, and members of the community in a celebration of creativity and local identity. Sidlak Iligan was supposed to be the main event of the Iligan Arts Month celebration last February but had to be postponed due to Typhoon Basyang.
Prior to the exhibit’s opening, the audience was treated to a unique Performance Art Ang Bulan sa Walog (The Moon in the Valley), by Bjork Aphrodite Colao, a prayer, an offering, moving to Ana Roxanne’s “Nocturne,” that reads:
And through the night
A light shines
And clouds fill the sky
And though the world sleeps
My eyes are wide
And for your name
My heart cries
May the light embrace those that dwell below.
Bjork Aphrodite Colao is a Filipina multidisciplinary artist, cultural worker, and performance maker whose practice spans traditional dance, film, writing, community documentation, and art activation. Her work draws on heritage, language, ecology, and peacebuilding, rooted in archipelagic wisdom.
She was a fellow of the Where to Next? Residency of the Performing Arts Festival: Autumn Meteorite 2025 in Tokyo, Japan; and also a fellow of this year’s Southeast Asian Choreolab at the Rimbun Dahan Arboretum and Arts Centre in Selangor, Malaysia.
Devoted to exploring nature–human relations, her practice engages the body’s psychospiritual and somatic experiences in relation to ecological and cultural contexts.
Her recent works, The Pangalay of Sulu and Sayaw sa Kinaiyahan, were developed through the Performance Ecologies program, supported by the Goethe-Institut Philippinen and various local and international institutions. Sayaw sa Kinaiyahan is her performance art project, personally developed to explore the body’s linkage to the broader tapestry of nature. For her, this work is a perpetual act of arrival, a way of knowing, a way of showing, and a way of being.
She currently serves as Cultural Director of TAYO House of Culture and Creativity, an archipelagic design and experience studio in the Philippines, while pursuing a Master’s degree in Culture and Arts Studies at MSU-IIT.
The symbolic opening of the exhibit followed with Iligan LGU Cultural Affairs Officer Prince Salazar (on behalf of Iligan Mayor Frederick Siao) sounding the Agong, with the assistance of Hulma Iligan Chair Zayda Macarambon, and the featured artists Anna Leah Sanson, Romy Cocos, Chris Gomez and Audie Estrellada.
Also on hand to represent Dindo Manulat from the City Mayor’s Office who chaired the Iligan Art Month celebration last February was Najimah P. Salimbo-Gandamra.
Artists Portraits
ROMEO COCOS
Romeo “Romy” Cocos is a seasoned visual artist whose practice is deeply rooted in the cultural and everyday landscapes of Iligan City.
Cocos began his career as an illustrator and advertising artist, honing a strong command of composition, line, and visual storytelling. His transition into painting allowed him to expand this discipline into more expressive and introspective works. Over the years, he has developed a style that is both grounded and evocative—often portraying human figures, intimate relationships, and scenes that echo the quiet dignity of daily life.
His works have reached audiences beyond Mindanao, finding their way into private collections across the Philippines and abroad. As a member of Iligan’s artist collectives, including SIDLAK, he remains actively engaged in community-based art initiatives, mentoring younger artists and participating in collaborative exhibitions.
Through decades of practice, Romeo Cocos continues to affirm the role of the artist as both observer and storyteller—capturing not only images, but the emotional textures of lived experience.
ANNA LEAH SANSON
In the works of Anna Leah Sanson, art becomes both an intimate gesture and a quiet assertion of presence. Her practice navigates the spaces between vulnerability and strength, drawing from personal experience while resonating with broader narratives of womanhood, identity, and resilience.
Sanson’s visual language is marked by a sensitivity to form and emotion. Whether through delicate gestures, symbolic imagery, or layered textures, her works evoke a sense of introspection—inviting viewers to engage not only with what is seen, but with what is felt. There is an honesty in her compositions, where the personal is neither concealed nor overstated, but offered with clarity and grace.
Her works often reflect the inner landscapes of her subjects—spaces shaped by memory, transformation, and quiet endurance. In this way, Sanson positions the feminine experience not as a singular story, but as a spectrum of voices and truths unfolding through time.
Sanson’s works were featured at the Philippine Art Center in New York City on Sept 25-Oct 6, 2017 in a curated exhibit dubbed Kuri-Kuri – NYC (Bisaya for active hands) which featured 30 of her art works that highlighted her proclivity to engage in kuri-kuri, as well as the diligence, industry, conscientiousness, dedication and assiduousness which are the hallmarks of legacy traditional craft – the subject of her paintings.
Within Sidlak Iligan, Sanson’s works contribute a deeply reflective dimension—one that foregrounds emotional depth and the power of self-expression. Her art reminds us that strength can be soft, that silence can speak, and that within stillness, there is profound movement.
CHRIS GOMEZ
The works of Chris Gomez articulate a visual energy that is both grounded and exploratory—an interplay of form, color, and movement that reflects an artist in constant dialogue with his medium. His practice reveals a willingness to experiment, to push beyond the familiar, and to engage with painting as a space of discovery.
Gomez’s compositions often carry a dynamic quality, where structure and spontaneity coexist. His use of color and gesture suggests an intuitive process, one that allows emotion and instinct to guide the unfolding of the image. Within this fluidity, forms emerge—sometimes suggestive, sometimes abstract—inviting viewers to interpret and find meaning within the layers.
Rather than offering fixed narratives, Gomez creates visual experiences that are open-ended. His works encourage a personal encounter, where perception becomes part of the artistic process. Each piece becomes a site of interaction, shaped as much by the viewer’s sensibility as by the artist’s hand.
In Sidlak Iligan, Chris Gomez’s works bring a sense of movement and immediacy—an expressive counterpoint that expands the exhibition’s visual and emotional range. His art underscores the vitality of contemporary practice, where uncertainty, experimentation, and intuition become essential tools in shaping meaning.
AUDIE ESTRELLADA
Audie Estrellada, a Filipino painter whose works capture the dignity of everyday life, has built his career on an early devotion to art that grew into a lifelong pursuit. From a young age, painting became more than a pastime for him; it was a way of interpreting his environment and affirming his sense of identity. Immersed in sketching, studying light, and observing the gestures of those around him, Estrellada laid a foundation of discipline and sensitivity that would shape his practice for decades. His creative vision has always been anchored in the rhythms of community, rural landscapes, and the rituals of family life, elements that deeply inform his imagery and storytelling.
Estrellada’s works belong to the tradition of Philippine genre painting, yet they extend it by highlighting not only cultural scenes but also the emotional resonance of human interaction. His canvases frequently depict communal gatherings, agrarian labor, domestic spaces, and moments of intimacy, portraying subjects that feel both familiar and elevated. He paints with controlled realism, but his approach never falls into rigidity; his brushwork allows light and movement to breathe across the surface. The play of shadow and atmosphere gives his figures depth, while his careful modulation of color captures mood with subtlety, from the vibrancy of market life to the quiet interiors of provincial homes. In this way, Estrellada offers not just images but immersive narratives, inviting viewers into a shared space of memory and experience. He is the President of the Portrait Artists Society of the Philippines.
Iligan City has produced numerous artists across generations, but many of them have remained unseen or underappreciated due to limited exhibition spaces, promotion, and public engagement. The artworks of Estrellada, Cocos, Gomez, and Sanson reflect powerful narratives—ranging from personal expression and social commentary to cultural memory and environmental reflection. Their works offer both aesthetic value and insight into the Iliganon experience.
Sidlak Iligan is a collaboration of Iligan LGU, Hulma Creative Collective, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines-Kaisa sa Sining. The Exhibition runs until 23 April 2026 at Espasyo Gallery, Ramiro St., Ylaya Poblacion, Iligan City.
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