Gallery C presents an immersive group exhibit that challenges perceptions and celebrates the intersection of art, architecture, and innovation.
MANILA, Philippines, January 2025 – Conrad Manila welcomes the new year with the unveiling of its latest art exhibit, “Machine of Thoughts”, as part of the 33rd edition of the hotel’s acclaimed Of Art and Wine series. Featuring 53 dynamic works by five prominent artist-architects from The Authenticity Zero Collective (TAZC): Cocoi Base, Gab Brioso, Almi Domingo, Walther Ocampo, and Robin Ravago, the exhibit invites viewers into a thought-provoking exploration of form, space, and human interaction.
“Conrad Manila is committed to championing local artists and fostering creative diversity through our Of Art and Wine series of exhibits at Gallery C. In the new year, we are particularly excited to introduce a dynamic line-up of six exhibits, starting with “Machine of Thoughts’, which will offer our guests a fresh perspective through immersive and unconventional art, and ignite conversations about the evolving relationship between humanity and the material world,” says Fabio Berto, general manager of Conrad Manila.
Front [L-R]_ Nestor Jardin (Art Curator_ Guest of Honor), Peggy Angeles (SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation, Executive Vice President), Elizabeth Sy (SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation, President), Fabio Berto (Conrad Manila)
Displayed at Gallery C from January 7 to March 8, “Machine of Thoughts” breaks conventional artistic boundaries through non-representational expressions. Each artwork stands as an autonomous creation while contributing to a larger evolving dialogue—a metaphorical “machine” generating new concepts and ideas. The exhibit challenges viewers to reassess preconceived frameworks, biases, and attachments to historical or cultural narratives.
Of Art and Wine Machine of Thoughts
The official opening was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony graced by distinguished guests, including Elizabeth Sy, President of SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation, Peggy Angeles, Executive Vice President of SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation, Guest of Honor and art curator Nestor Jardin, and the featured artists of TAZC.
Conrad Manila’s General Manager – Fabio Berto
Art enthusiasts and guests are invited to experience “Machine of Thoughts” at Conrad Manila’s Gallery C, where all artworks are available for purchase.
One of the featured artists – Walther Ocampo
About The Artists
Cocoi Base
Cocoi Base is an architect and visual artist based in Bicol. When architectural concepts cannot be manifested into a physical form due to limitations of materiality and physics, he draws these ideas on paper and canvases. His works are visual concepts of structures, machinery, spaces, events, and projections of how things can be, should have been or as it is, condensing each subject to its barest and most basic form until only the essential geometries, composition and color emerge.
His works were exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, Gateway Gallery, Gateway Art Fair, The Manila Bang Show, Art Camp, The Grey Space, Arte Bettina, Gallerie Anna, Art Fair Philippines, M Gallery, Savage Mind, and in Art in the Park. His first solo exhibition Structures and Experience was launched at Gateway Gallery in 2023. He holds an architecture degree from Adamson University.
Gab Brioso
Gab Brioso is a designer, artist and an architect who thinks about design holistically. Trained and educated in the discipline of architecture, he understands the technical and creative implications of a product; be it a website, an object, an art piece or even to the scale of a space. He takes interest in the intersection of digital and analog processes. His passion to enhance people’s experience of a design product, both digitally and physically, is what fuels his work. He holds an architecture degree from the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde and a master’s degree in fine arts from the Philippine Women’s University. He is currently teaching in De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, Asia Pacific College, and in Ateneo de Manila University. He also attended The Brown Bauhaus’ MetaArch Advanced Course in Modern Aesthetics. His works were exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, Gateway Gallery, The Manila Bang Show, Art Camp, The Grey Space, Art in the Park, and Art Fair Philippines. He was a grantee of the Anakbanwa Creative Residency Program. His first solo exhibition was held at Backroom Gallery in 2022. He is one of the founding members of The Authenticity Zero Collective.
Almi Domingo
Almi Domingo is an architect and visual artist. He is a graduate of Technological Institute of the Philippines-Manila and a product of the MetaArch Program 2016 of The Brown Bauhau Alternative School of Architecture + Design. His exploration uses etching technique of acrylic sheets resulting to a dynamic interplay of bold geometric elements. His works were showcased at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, Raffles Design Institute, Gateway Gallery, Art Camp, Art Fair Philippines and at the Art in the Park. He is a founding member of The Authenticity Zero Collective.
Walther Ocampo
Walther Ocampo is an architect, visual artist, and a pedagogue. For him architecture and art should act together in an alchemic platform so as to produce a more poetic and authentic environment. He has a deep interest in the language of geometry, nature, and complex relationship of things and phenomena. He uses different inquiry tools (dialectics, metaphysics, phenomenology, deconstruction) in navigating the said complexities. In both architecture and art, he explores new aesthetic and theoretical directions through speculations, oppositions, diagramming, and re-constructions. This system manifests in his drawings, paintings, sculptures, and installations. He has exhibited-curated at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design-Manila, Art Fair Philippines, MoCAF, School of Design and Arts – DLS-CSBenilde, Raffles Design Institute, Eagle Eye Art Gallery, Artablado, 29 Kapitolyo Art Space, 22nd&5th Gallery, Luinette Gallery, R Gallery, Galerie Roberto, Art Camp, Gateway Gallery, Art in the Park. In 2018, he launched his first solo show about the type of architecture that cannot be built and must not be built. His sculpture entry received an Honorable Mention award in the GSIS 2022 National Art Competition. He was the founding director of The Brown Bauhaus Alternative School of Architecture + Design, the first of its kind in the Philippines; and he’s the founding director of The Authenticity Zero Collective.
He is currently an assistant professor in the architecture program of the De La salle-College of St. Benilde. He holds an architecture degree from the Technological University of the Philippines and a graduate degree in architecture education from Mapua Institute of Technology. He joined and trained in the Visiting School SE Asia Program of the Architectural Association School of Architecture London, URBEX (Urban Exploration): Seizing the Emptiness Masterclass by the University of Novi Sad Serbia, and the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale Philippine Pavilion.
Robin Ravago
Robin Ravago is an architect and artist based in Manila. His works revolve around the formal qualities of objects and its potential relationships – explored through drawings, photographs, installations, and objects. He already participated in numerous exhibitions at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, Escolta Collective, MoCAF, Art in the Park, Art Fair Philippines, The Grey Space, Tagaytay Art Fair, The Manila Bang Show, Art Camp, Backroom Gallery, Gateway Gallery, and at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
He attended The Brown Bauhaus’ MetaArch Advanced Course in Modern Aesthetics. He holds a degree in architecture from the De La Salle College of St. Benilde. He is currently teaching architectural theory and design in the architecture programs of Asia Pacific College and De La Salle College of St. Benilde.
To learn more about Conrad Manila’s art collection, along with the exclusive privileges and personalized experiences for a luxury stay, visit www.conradmanila.com or call +632 8833 9999.
