Taniguchi, Maria

Born in the coastal university city of Dumaguete in 1981, Maria Taniguchi built a formidable, internationally decorated practice early in life. She formalized her early artistic foundations at the elite Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) on Mount Makiling before pursuing a major in sculpture at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where she won consecutive grand prizes at national student art tournaments. Seeking a broader engagement with global conceptual strategies, she relocated to the United Kingdom, earning a Master of Fine Arts in Art Practice from Goldsmiths, London, in 2009.

Taniguchi’s professional career is marked by a meteoric, historic rise on the global art stage. In 2015, she became the grand prize recipient of the prestigious Hugo Boss Asia Art Award for Emerging Asian Artists at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, a distinction that permanently locked down her global market footprint.

Her works are highly preserved within the permanent collections of the world's most elite art spaces, including the Tate Modern (London), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the M+ Museum (Hong Kong), and the National Gallery Singapore. Having represented the Philippines on premier global museum platforms—culminating in a highly acclaimed showcase at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024)—Taniguchi continues to live and work in Manila, widely revered as one of the most intellectually uncompromising vanguards of her generation.

Education & Transnational Residencies
2009: Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Art Practice – Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom (Influenced heavily by contemporary installation and media masters).

2007: Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Major in Sculpture – University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts, Diliman, Quezon City.

Strategic Global Residencies: Completed elite research tenures at Darat Al Funun (Amman, Jordan, 2013), ARTSPACE (Auckland, New Zealand, 2012), and Plastique Kinetic Worms (Singapore, 2003).

Major Institutional Awards & Citations
2015: Grand Winner – Hugo Boss Asia Art Award, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China (Recognized for her singular, humble, yet extremely focused mastery over painting and video systems).

2012: Conferred – Ateneo Art Award, Manila, Philippines (For her video masterpiece Untitled (Celestial Motors) at Silverlens Galleries).

2011: Conferred – Ateneo Art Award (For her breakthrough individual museum exposition Echo Studies at the UP Vargas Museum).

2001: Double Grand Prize Laureate – Secured the Top Spot at both the Shell National Students Art Competition and the Metrobank National Painting Competition simultaneously.
Exhibition History
Selected Individual & Survey Exhibitions
2024–2025: maria taniguchi: body of work – Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Manila, Philippines (A historic milestone staging her very first comprehensive institutional survey show, gathering her largest canvases and site-specific installations).

2023: Figure Study – Silverlens Galleries, New York City, USA.

2023: soft doubles – ROH Projects, Jakarta, Indonesia.

2021: room of phases – Silverlens Galleries, Makati City, Metro Manila.

2019: Maria Taniguchi – Carlier | Gebauer, Berlin, Germany.

2017: Maria Taniguchi – Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.

2016: Maria Taniguchi: Hong Kong Debut – Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong.

2011: Echo Studies – Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, UP Diliman, Quezon City (Her breakthrough solo institutional showcase).

Selected Major Biennales & International Collections
2026: Spectrosynthesis Seoul – Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea.

2024: 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia: Foreigners Everywhere – Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Venice, Italy (A major achievement placing her brick architectures within the core global pavilion lexicon).

2020: OUTBOUND: Season 1 Site-Specific Commission – National Gallery Singapore, Singapore.

2019: 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art – Ekaterinburg, Russia.

2018: 12th Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders – Gwangju, South Korea.

2018: 21st Biennale of Sydney: SUPERPOSITION – Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, Australia.

2016: Global: New Sensorium – ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany.

2015: 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) – Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia.

2014: Don't You Know Who I Am? Art After Identity Politics – Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), Antwerp, Belgium.