All this is out of my hands now
Opening July 1, 2026
Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Center, Makati City
It started with her thesis. For us, the team in Kalaw-Ledesma Foundation, we started conceptualizing this exhibit with an object from our collection: Purita Kalaw-Ledesma’s master’s thesis “A Critical Analysis of Modern Painting in the Philippines Today”, with today situated around 1955 when she submitted the document. Arising from the various roles within the team – an office administrative assistant, a coordinator, a director, and an intern – our engagement with the text surfaced similar themes from layered interpretations.
From these topics that materialized from our reading – knowledge, time, legacy, hands – we all contributed to the selection of the artworks and objects to be included in the exhibit. Similar to examining the thesis, our different levels of familiarity with the PKL Collection brought ease and freshness to the selection, including artworks by Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, Pura Villanueva-Kalaw, Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi, Lyd Arguilla, Victorio Edades, and Romeo Tabuena.
Traces of Purita’s hands – physically and metaphorically – also punctuate the space. There are ceramic pieces she created in the 1970s, around the time she stepped back from organizing and focused on writing. Speaking of organizing, we can also hear her in a restored interview with art critic Cid Reyes at her home, where she spoke about how the Art Association of the Philippines started, as well as her thoughts on the artists at the time, which is a companion to her texts included in the exhibit. A scrapbook volume is also present — a manifestation of her quiet but steadfast dedication to reading, selecting, cutting, and pasting articles she has maintained for five decades.
Another marker of Purita’s spirit is the building where the foundation was and is housed, with the letters corresponding to her last name. Found in the vitrine nearest to the entrance is her black-and-white photo, with the old KL Tower in the background, where the Asean Institute of Art was located, the institution where she got her second master’s degree when she was “already pushing 70,” as she has put it in her memoir.
It now ends with her memoir. On the glass windows of the research center are the last paragraphs written by Purita in her 1994 memoir, “And Life Goes On,” with the last sentence being the title of the exhibit, “All this is out of my hands now.” Indeed it was — but we do not end; we continue.
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The exhibit is free and open to the public. To visit, please register first through this link: https://bit.ly/klfi-hands-reg
For questions, please email contact@klfi.ph.
Exhibit curation by KLFI Team: Clavel Sagao, Mayumi Hirano, Lk Rigor, Alyssa Chloe Ricaflanca, and Sarrah Ann Alejaga
Artwork in the poster: Study for Portraiture (Detail) by Victorio Edades, 1977.
