Quisumbing, Christina

Born in Manila in 1961, Christina "Ling" Quisumbing Ramilo began her creative path as a figurative painter before completely reorienting her visual language toward assemblage and objects. She formalized her studio training in Manila during the mid-1980s before traveling to the United States to pursue advanced postgraduate degrees. Her subsequent years navigating the built architecture and art communities of New York City profoundly layered her understanding of form, structure, and spatial arrangement.

Upon her return to the Philippines, Ramilo established herself as an indispensable pillar, mentor, and curator within the contemporary visual landscape, teaching studio arts and leading independent critique circles. Her transnational output stretches across major Southeast Asian and global hubs through competitive residencies in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Malaysia. In 2026, her legendary four-decade practice was honored as the central spotlight of the prestigious multi-city LAKBAY survey, which analyzed her enduring contribution to materials, memory, and the global Filipino diasporic experience.

Education & Academic Underpinnings
1988: Master of Arts (MA) in Studio Arts and Art Education – New York University (NYU), New York City, USA.

1985: Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Major in Painting – University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts, Diliman, Quezon City.

Institutional Projects & Public Land Art
2026 Project Space (Still We Hope): Commissioned by ALT Philippines, creating a mathematically precise but unclimbable scaffolding staircase out of structural tools, serving as a poetic, bittersweet monument to human desire and structural unfulfillment.

MATA (2017): A major site-specific land-art monument commissioned for the Taiwan East Coast Land Festival in Taitung County. Using an outward spiral inspired by conch shells and typhoons, the work serves as a cross-cultural tribute to indigenous Amis matriarchal resilience.
Exhibition History
Selected Individual Exhibitions
2026: LAKBAY: Through Visual Poetries with Christina “Ling” Quisumbing Ramilo – Curated by Marika Constantino, presented by Art House at Discovery Primea, Makati (A comprehensive 40-year survey tracking her journey from New York to Manila).

2019: Dead Horse Bay – Silverlens Galleries, Manila, Philippines.

2019: Everywhere, There You Are – Areté, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City.

2019: Forest for the Trees – Special Project, Art Fair Philippines and Museo Sansó, Manila.

2018: Ordo Ab Chao – Silverlens Galleries, Manila.

2018: Verses Reverse – Artinformal Gallery, Makati City.

2017: Muscle Memory – Artinformal Gallery, Makati City.

2009: Pencilworks – Manila Contemporary, Makati City.

2008: Domestic Bliss – Green Papaya Art Projects, Quezon City.

2008: Madre – Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Pasay City.

Selected Group Surveys & Transnational Shows
2025: Conditions of Equilibrium – The Drawing Room, Makati City.

2025: Collectors Plus – Silverlens Galleries, Manila.

2024: Eclipse: The Strange & Familiar – Artinformal Gallery, Makati City.

2016: TAKSU Yogyakarta Residency Exhibition – Langgeng Art Foundation, Yogyakarta, Indonesia / TAKSU Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

2014: What does it all matter, as long as the wounds fit the arrows? (A Tribute to Roberto Chabet) – CCP, Pasay City.

2002: Small Works: 25th Annual Exhibition – 80 Washington Square East Galleries, NYU, New York.

2001: Underground/Boston-New York Artists Exchange – The Revolving Museum, Boston, USA.