The artist reception of the Material Explorations Exhibit was officially held at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Gallery last September 7, 2026. The solo exhibit features two-time featured artist Jandy A. Carvajal, a visual artist and educator.
The exhibit features a body of work that challenges conventional ideas of artistic materials through resourcefulness, sustainability, and creative transformation.
At the heart of Carvajal’s practice is his long-standing engagement with repoussé, a metalworking technique in which a malleable sheet of metal is shaped by pressing and hammering from the reverse side to create a relief on the front. His relationship with the technique began as early as grade school in 1991 and has since developed into a continuing investigation of materiality, value, and transformation.
Carvajal first explored repoussé extensively in his 2014 solo exhibition PLATA FLORA at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where he worked with salvaged aluminum to create floral forms. In 2022, his NCCA exhibition Ang Ating Mga Kayamanan sa Bakuran / Our Treasures in the Yard further expanded this inquiry, transforming vegetables through brass and gold-plated surfaces into objects that evoke ideas of preciousness and invaluableness.
With Material Explorations, Carvajal moves beyond repoussé and metalwork toward a broader examination of what materials can become when removed from their conventional contexts.
The exhibition brings together five subsets of works made from salvaged aluminum, biscuit tin can covers, flattened wooden matchboxes, egg cartons, and soil, complemented by acrylic and ink. By turning these humble and often discarded materials into works of art, Carvajal foregrounds resourcefulness, recycling, and sustainability—principles that have become integral to his practice as a teaching visual artist.
Rather than relying on the conventional prestige or perceived value of a medium, Carvajal invites audiences to consider the possibilities inherent in materials that are humble, discarded, or readily available.
A recurring subject throughout the exhibition is Mater Dei, or the Mother of God, whom Carvajal honors through repeated iterations of devotional imagery. The works are presented in September, the month traditionally attributed to the birth of the Virgin Mary, and drawn from the artist’s Catholic upbringing and familiarity with religious imagery.
Carvajal transposes familiar devotional images into unexpected material configurations, referencing estampitas, traditional icon paintings, and other sacramentals. Through these transformations, devotion becomes more than a subject—it becomes a method through which the artist examines materiality itself.
In Material Explorations, the ordinary is given renewed attention. Aluminum, tin, cardboard, wood, and soil are no longer simply functional, discarded, or commonplace materials; they become sites of experimentation, memory, devotion, and meaning.
The exhibition ultimately proposes that artistic value does not reside solely in the material itself, but in what an artist can reveal through its transformation.
Material Explorations runs until the 31st of September at the NCCA Gallery from 9 AM to 6 PM. Admission is free to the public.
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For details, contact Mr. Rene S. Napeñas, Head, Public Affairs and Information Office, through paio@ncca.gov.ph or 0945 788 5698. Visit www.ncca.gov.ph and the Facebook page @NCCAOfficial.
