Jose Conrado Benitez (JCB) Gallery

A Living Space for Critical and Cultural Expression

The JCB Gallery is a modern and contemporary art space of the Philippine Women's University. It creates exhibitions and collateral activities including workshops, artist talks, and experimental activities for the PWU community, its surrounding communities, and Philippine society. The gallery anchors its programming on research-based exhibitions by activating its space through the participation of its audience. It creates partnerships with artist communities, galleries and museums, artist initiatives, academic art spaces, and artist-run spaces to enrich the perspectives and experiences of the gallery community. The gallery fosters criticality, inclusivity, diversity, and decentralization in its programming to foster creative growth in the community and Philippine society.

Public Programs

Exhibitions and Cultural Events

Hosting exhibitions and cultural events to develop diverse artistic, research-based, regional, marginal, and indigenous works.

Workshops and Educational Programs

Organizing workshops and seminars on innovative artistic techniques and research methodologies.

Community Outreach Programs

Engaging the community through cultural outreach programs and events.

Fostering Artist Residencies and Collaborations

Developing the gallery as an artist hub for artists to produce, situated in, and collaborate with the PWU and extended communities.

Collaborative Partnerships and Connections

Creating partnerships and collaborative exhibitions and art projects with artist communities, galleries and museums, artist initiatives, academic art spaces, and artist-run spaces to expand the perspectives and resources of the gallery and its community.

Exhibitions

The JCB Gallery is dedicated to showcasing contemporary art and facilitating artistic expression. It supports exhibitions, curatorial projects, and public programs, providing a platform for both emerging and established artists to engage with the community

JCB Gallery is managed by Portia Placino, whose research focuses on art communities, regional art, and socially engaged art. Under her leadership, she activated the gallery space and community through diverse projects using various materials and research perspectives. Since coming on board, she led and curated exhibitions engaged in the community, social issues, and experimental art and materials.

Additionally, Portia Placino is an arts writer and critic. Her writings appeared in ArtAsiaPacific, ArtReview, ArtSG, Art+ Magazine, Spot.ph, Esquire Philippines, and several local and international academic publications. She won the Ateneo Art Awards-Purita Kalaw Ledesma Prize in 2021. Previous engagements include a writing fellowship for Kritika and a research fellowship at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Korea. Her writing projects examine the position of contemporary art in an embattled society, as well as the positionality of regional art in the Philippines.