Manila

James Gabito’s latest exhibition is a love letter to a lost Manila—one that gleamed under the glow of gas lamps and tranvías that glide through cobblestone streets. Where elegance was a quiet certainty rather than an affectation. This is a Manila that exists now only in the sepia tones of archival photographs, yet in Gabito’s hands, it surges back to life, luminous and immediate.

Gabito’s brushwork, loose yet evocative, transforms these images into something more than mere recollections. He paints the weight of history. Beneath the romance, a quiet reckoning. This was a Manila untouched by war, unmarred by destruction, a city unaware of the shadows looming on the horizon. Gabito does not merely present an idealized past; he invites the viewer to consider what has been lost. The soft glow of the streetlamps, the dignified posture of a carriage driver, the easy cadence of a world before glass towers and blaring horns—these are not just elements of a forgotten city but fragments of a sensibility, a way of life that once defined Manila’s soul.

Yet, there is no heavy sentimentality here—only reverence. Gabito does not mourn what is gone but honors it. His works remind us that Manila, in all its layered beauty, is not just a city of the past but a dreamscape that continues to shape our imagination. Gabito does not simply paint the city; he resurrects it, with all its grandeur, tenderness, and dignity.

James Gabito’s Manila is not merely an architectural memory but a sensorial experience: it is more than just a return to a bygone era—it is an invitation to linger in it, to hear the laughter spilling from an open window, to feel the pulse of a city that, though transformed, has never truly disappeared.

“Manila” by James Gabito will be on view from February 5 to 14, 2025 at Galleria Nicolas Greenbelt. Galleria Nicolas Greenbelt is located at 3/F Greenbelt 5, Makati City. For inquiries call +63 936 225 1226 or email gallerianicolasgreenbelt@gmail.com