Maria Taniguchi

Repetition can be a way of measuring time rather than merely reproducing an image. Since 2008, Filipino artist Maria Taniguchi has explored this idea through her ongoing series of “brick paintings”, large canvases filled with painstakingly drawn rectangles in graphite and acrylic. The process is slow and methodical, turning hours of manual labour into works that invite viewers to consider patience, scale and the accumulation of time.

Educated at the University of the Philippines Diliman and Goldsmiths in London, Taniguchi works across painting, sculpture and video. Her practice resists easy categorisation, moving beyond familiar expectations of Southeast Asian art to explore form and material through a distinctly conceptual approach. In 2015, she received the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award, and her work has entered the collections of institutions including Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou and M+.

Recent exhibitions have brought renewed attention to the breadth of her practice. Her 2024–2025 survey, maria taniguchi: body of work, at Manila’s Museum of Contemporary Art and Design traced nearly two decades of artistic development. In 2026, Afterimage at the Singapore Art Museum brought her paintings into conversation with video and wood sculpture, demonstrating how a sustained artistic inquiry can keep opening new directions.