Artists-in-Residence (Fall 2026): Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan - Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts

Artists-in-Residence Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan Charleston, SC | Fall 2026 We are pleased to welcome the artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan to FSA’s fall residency in Charleston (September 28–November 8). Over the past twenty years, the Aquilizans have cultivated a distinctive practice building large-scale installations utilizing diverse materials, often with the collaboration of various local communities. Their collective process of art-making, as well as their aesthetics, are informed by their personal experiences as diasporic Phillippine artists. Their artworks respond to global narratives of migration, seeking to both reveal and to fulfill universal human desires for homes, families, identities, and communities of belonging. Spirituality runs quietly but powerfully through the Aquilizans’ work as they shape spaces of care, sharing, memory, reverence, and hope. The Aquilizans orient their installations to the people, histories, and circumstances of those areas in which they find themselves working. In addition to engaging “families” of collaborators, the Aquilizans create meaning through their choice of materials. One they frequently employ is cardboard which, being widely available, is also democratic. Carboard references the Philippine balikbayan (return home/country) box by which many living overseas send goods home. As many of the Aquilizans’ installations—such as their Belonging, The House, or Project Another Country series—take the forms of boats, shelters, or imagined cities, the cardboard material invariably recalls the precarious nature of migratory existence. In other ongoing sculptural iterations, the Aquilizans have fashioned sacred objects, mementos, and even blankets, into structures that affirm the spiritual lives, personal stories, and dreams of their individual donors. In recent years they have turned their attention to various loci of Philippine craftsmanship, creating artworks from materials such as hand-forged agricultural blades or pineapple fiber. These works, which highlight the transformations of raw material into meaningful forms, offer meditations on labor, globalization, and the spiritual dimensions of craftsmanship. The Aquilizans’ practice bridges their personal histories with broader historical narratives as well as individual stories of resilience, hope, and empowerment. Their residency in Charleston, which represents their first extended stay in the South, presents a new platform for their explorations. About the Artists Alfredo Juan Aquilizan (b. 1962, Cagayan, Philippines) and Isabel Aquilizan y Gaudinez (b. 1965, Manila, Philippines in 1965) evolved their collaborative practices within the spheres of their family and communities of friends and artists. They moved with their five children to Australia in 2006 and now divide their time between Brisbane and Los Baños, Philippines. About the Artists Alfredo Juan Aquilizan (b. 1962, Cagayan, Philippines) and Isabel Aquilizan y Gaudinez (b. 1965, Manila, Philippines in 1965) evolved their collaborative practices within the spheres of their family and communities of friends and artists. They moved with their five children to Australia in 2006 and now divide their time between Brisbane and Los Baños, Philippines. In June 2023, the Aquilizans presented a major survey exhibition, Somewhere, Elsewhere, Nowhere at Museum MACAN (Jakarta, Indonesia) which encompasses two decades of their work. They have exhibited in galleries and institutions worldwide, including Japanischen Palais, Germany (2024); Groninger Museum, Netherlands (2024); Rockhampton Museum of Art (2024); Asia Culture Center (2024); the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2023); National Gallery Singapore (2022); Podo Museum, South Korea (2022); Madre Museum, Italy (2022); Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021); Museum of Brisbane (2021); Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand (2019); Mao Jihong Arts Foundation and Centre Pompidou, China (2018). The artists have participated in several art fairs and biennials including the National 4: Australian Art Now, Campbelltown Art Centre (2023); Busan Biennale, South Korea (2019); Gangwon International Biennale, South Korea (2018); Sharjah Biennale, UAE (2013); Asia Pacific Triennale, Australia (2009); Singapore Biennale (2008); Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2006); Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2004); and Venice Biennale, Italy (2003). Their works are included in collections of the Museum MACAN (Indonesia); Singapore Art Museum; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan); National Museum of Australia (Canberra); Queensland Art Gallery (Australia); MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Thailand); ILHAM Museum (Malaysia); MSK Museum of Fine Art (Ghent, Belgium); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (Australia); and Lopez Museum Foundation (Philippines), among others. READ MORE READ LESS Select Images and Media Isabel and Alberto Aquilizan, "Future City," 2018. Isabel and Alberto Aquilizan, "Belok Kiri Jalan Terus (Left Wing Project)," 2017–2018. Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "Reflections/Habitations," 2025. Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "Project Another Country: That Space in Between," 2022. Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "Dream Blanket Project," 2006. Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "Wings Banaan Series, No. 8," 2021. Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "Migrations," 2023. Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "Water Fields," 2017. Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, "In-Habit, No. 1," 2023. Read Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan: Forging Community Ties | Ocula Magazine, 2023 Isabel & Alfredo Aquilizan | Project Another Country: That Space in Between, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla e León Piña: Weaving Filipino fibre into the world | Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Garland Magazine, 2021 Isabel & Alfredo Aquilizan | Curriculum Vitae View From this place, 2022, Art Gallery of New South Wales Home/Land: Project Another Country | Alberto and Isabel Aquilizan – December 14 – March 8, 2020 Arrivals and Departures | Alberto and Isabel Aquilizan Alfredo and