Tanya Villanueva

Born 1983 in the Philippines.

Tanya Villanueva is a visual artist. She holds a BA in fine arts with a major in painting from The University of the Philippines in Quezon City/Philippines (2016), for which she received an award for outstanding degree exhibition. She currently works as an extracurricular art teacher for primary students at Beacon School in Manila/Philippines.

Over the years, her work has evolved from the investigation and production of art objects through a lens of painting, craft, and photography to an exploration of the performance and nature of this cultural labor through the use of photography, video installations and collaborations.

Her latest video installation, Invisible Work Performing, was recently exhibited at the Vargas Museum in Manila. She also participated in the photo-based exhibition Resetting the Clock, which was shown at The Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila and at 856G Gallery in Cebu City/Philippines (2018/2019). Her work has received international attention in the context of exhibitions at the Artspeak Gallery Vancouver/Canada as part of Load na Dito’s presentation of video installations from the Philippines, and a video screening of her work How We Exist Together as part of a series of Filipino-based video artists held at the artist-run space Yucca, in San Francisco/USA.

Maharlika is an ongoing collaboration with two other artists. The aim is to explore ways to decolonize artistic practice via proactive work to reclaim their cultural consciousness and Filipino roots.