Bjorn Calleja
Details
Born
1981
,
Manila
Based
Manila
,
Metro Manila
Medium
Painting
Sculpture
Installation
Digital
Drawing
Style
Figurative
Surrealism
Pop Art
Bio
Bjorn Calleja is a painter and interdisciplinary artist, born in 1981 and based in Manila. His paintings, sculptures, installations and animations draw on 1980s and 90s popular culture, kitsch, the internet, and Sampaloc, the Manila neighbourhood where he grew up. Since 2016 his canvases have filled with small recurring figures he calls Beings, set among shifts of scale and perspective that turn on identity, spirituality and everyday politics.
Notable
- BFA, Far Eastern University, Manila; later a part-time lecturer there
- Co-founded the design studio Other Things, 2012–2014
- Paints in oil, acrylic and aerosol on canvas; also works in ceramics, drawing and animation
- Featured artist, Art Fair Philippines, 2022
- Digital works in the TZ APAC exhibition at Art Basel Hong Kong, 2022
- Tutti Frutti, group exhibition, Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok, 2022
- Featured artist, Art in the Park, Makati, 2023, with Dirty Hands: charcoal and graphite portraits and ceramic sculpture
- Beyond Context, group exhibition, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, 2026
