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Preview of my Select Publications 2015-2025, Czar Kristoff J.P. Edition of 10 only. Laserprinted on acid-free paper, handmade, numbered and signed. Inquire here.

More than a decade on, Czar Kristoff J.P. reflected on his work with independent publications largely beyond the gallery context. Central to this is the role of locality in shaping his practice, seen in forms such as the looming threat of erasure amid the typhoon-prone conditions of Camarines Sur, and the necessity of cultivating trust and sustaining relationships with suppliers and collaborators within one’s immediate community. Together, these coalesce into what he describes as a “constellation of memories and relationships” that continuously guides his navigation of the world.

Word for Word: Artist talk and conversation with Czar Kristoff J.P. April 25, 2026. Read the transcription here.

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https://artbooks.ph/blogs/news/artist-interview-czar-kristoff-j-p

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Installation view of my new work Haróng Haróng, a tent made of digital print on translucent organza fabric secured with concrete blocks, featuring photographs of informal architecture in Camarines Sur, Laguna, Zambales and Bohol, Philippines, taken in 2016 and 2026.

Kumusta Na Kayo? Curated by Álvaro Talavera, features the work of Lesley de Chavez, Kiri Dalena, Ben Brix, MM Yu, Czar Kristoff J.P. and Chia Amisola.

La Casa Encendida, Ronda de Valencia, 2. 28012, Madrid 16 May — 26 July 2026 Learn more about the exhibition here.

Photos courtesy of La Casa Encendida.

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Launch of my recent book "Select Publications 2015-2025" at Cartellino in Manila.

Big thanks to James Tana, Geri Gonzales, the rest of Cartellino team and also Artbooks.PH for promoting the book during Dia del Libro 2026. Photos courtesy of Geri Gonzales / Cartellino. ********************************************* Select Publications 2015-2025 34 x 24.5 cm, 80 pages laserprint on acid-free paper handmade, numbered and signed unstitched accordion bind 10 copies only 

*Every copy is sequenced differently. The book is enclosed in plastic envelope with fabric lining.  *********************************************

For inquiries, contact @cartellino.art.

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Launching my book Select Publications 2015-2025 this Saturday, April 25 at Cartellino (3PM) and Día del Libro via Artbooks.ph (6PM).

These events are free and open to the public.

The two-part event will begin with an open discussion on publication as a form of art production. In conversation with curator James Luigi Tana, it will draw from Kristoff J.P.’s personal practice to foreground the significance of locality in publication, with particular attention to the material implications of site within the production process.

The program will conclude with the formal launch of an anthology of the artist’s previous publications, released in limited editions and available exclusively at Cartellino.

Copies of the anthology will also be available under Artbooks.ph at Día del Libro 2026, happening at Ayala Triangle Gardens on April 25.

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GINTONG SILAHIS (FORMERLY GRINDR SUNSETS), 2019 - 2025 Inkjet on sticker vinyl, video and reader

On the street windows of TENT, Czar Kristoff J.P. presents images of sunsets collected from the gay dating app Grindr. Back in 2019, he noticed that some men in the Philippines were using sunsets as their profile pictures. Out of curiosity, he began speaking with them, asking whether the photographs were their own and why they had chosen them. Most replied that the image was indeed theirs, explaining that the sunset somehow represented them. From these conversations emerged Grindr Sunsets, a growing archive that unfolds through print, video, and text. What began as an act of quiet observation has become a reflection on self-image, desire, and belonging.

Here, the sunset becomes witness to digital intimacies and our longing for connection. It reveals how desire, shame, and care circulate through networks of visibility and control, through the soft glow of dating apps. In a country where being openly gay remains fraught, the work offers a romantic and poetic reversal of what can be shown and said. It reminds us that queer love has always found its own language of beauty and resistance.

As part of “Sun, Don’t Rush to be Red. Son, Don’t Rush to be Read.” Curated by Rawad Baaklini, TENT, Rotterdam. On view until 15 February 2026.

Documentation by Aad Hoogendoorn.

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An iteration of BECOMING A MONUMENT, 05 December 2025, Friends of BACC Room, 6F, Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre. A workshop designed and facilitated by Filipino artist Czar Kristoff J.P. of pook aralan unrelearning that explores the shifting nature of monuments and our relationship to place and memory. Monuments are generally constructed to commemorate a significant event or person. Their presence is also used to navigate a city, a town, a place. Urban monuments reflect how our ancestors used trees, mountains, and rivers as landmarks to remember their way. What would happen if monuments suddenly moved? How do you think we would identify locations or arrive at destinations? How could we become navigators without monuments? Big thank you to Belle Phromchanya, Prang Sayasilpi, Kantida Busaba, all the workshop participants, and the rest of BKKABF Team. Photos courtesy of BKKABF and Prang Sayasilpi. {BECOMING A MONUMENT GENEALOGY} 2023 @bakbasecamp, NL; @shutterspacestudios, PH 2024 @northernluzonpride, PH @teatrolacontrada, ITA 2025 @ipo_ipo_projects, PH; @updoica, PH; @bookbookfestival (abridged version), KR

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Tarp Studies (2016–2018) is a series of topological photographs by Czar Kristoff J.P. that document impermanent and unfinished shelters found across the provinces of Laguna, Camarines Sur, and Bohol Island in the Luzon and Visayas regions of the Philippines. First exhibited through an Instagram archive titled Laguna Daily, the project captures the material improvisations of people living in informal settlements. Colloquially known by the derogatory term “squatters”.

Through this series, Kristoff J.P. draws a contemporary connection between the widespread use of tarpaulin in everyday shelter-making and the bahay kubo or nipa hut—a common pre-colonial housing form that remains in use today. Traditionally constructed with bamboo, rattan, and nipa palm leaves, the nipa hut is celebrated for its resilience against typhoons and its portability, often moved and rebuilt with the help of neighbours. These qualities reflect a form of collective adaptability that persists amid the pressures of displacement, rising tides, and global warming amplified in so-called developing regions like the Philippines.

In Tarp Studies, the artist documents shelters assembled from salvaged or repurposed tarpaulin. The abundance of tarpaulin as a cheap, durable, and mass-produced material makes it an accessible resource. Kristoff J.P. situates these images within the broader contexts of colonialism, capitalism, and environmental degradation. He critiques the privatisation of land and the erosion of public space in the Philippines, noting how contemporary third places—such as shopping malls—offer gathering spaces and access to essential amenities like air conditioning and Wi-Fi, but only in exchange for consumer participation. This capitalist approach to organising public space displaces traditional community life and places further strain on those excluded from access to stable housing and employment.

While tarpaulin structures can be associated with poverty and displacement, Kristoff J.P. reframes these shelters as contemporary acts of necessity and resilience. He writes, “In occupying public land, the squatter, as it were, pre-empts a share of the common patrimony that has been denied to them because of the government’s failure to respond to the people’s need.” He continues, “Tarp Studies refuse to glorify poverty and the by-products of it, but attempts to magnify how colonialism and corruption (a by-product of colonialism, really) forces people to use materials that will eventually pollute our oceans, lands, air, and bodies in exchange for protecting ourselves from the harms of nature.”

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Tarpaulin shelters in Camarines Sur, Laguna, Muntinlupa and Bohol, photographed from 2016 to 2017. Currently on display at Fugitive Archives group exhibition in @mada_fine_art, Naarm/Melbourne.

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Fugitive Archives is a curatorial project by @s_a_l_u_h_a_n collaborators @mjflamiano and @catherineortegasandow at MADA Gallery. Through two exhibitions and a series of public programs, the project examines artist-led, community-based, and independent archives as transformative tools for collective organising and knowledge production.

Foregrounding voices from historically underrepresented positions—particularly Filipino/x and BIPOC artists—Fugitive Archives reflects Saluhan Collective’s coalitional ethos and critically engages with Monash University’s library collections and MUMA archives. Positioned within the university, the project exposes gaps in institutional representation and cultural memory.

The first exhibition, Fugitive Archives: Otherwise or Elsewhere (30 July–16 August), presents a new site-specific iteration of the Pagbasa Archive Reading Room alongside works by contemporary artists @alfredmarasigan (PH), Czar Kristoff J.P. (PH), Gary Lee (AUS), @lesleyannecao (PH), @nice_buenaventura (PH), @pioabad (UK), Stephanie Misa (AU), and @ssyjuco (US).

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Documentation courtesy of Thomas McCammon.

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Opening next week: Fugitive Archives: Otherwise or Elsewhere at MADA Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne.

Fugitive Archives is a curatorial project by @s_a_l_u_h_a_n collaborators @mjflamiano and @catherineortegasandow at MADA Gallery. Through two exhibitions and a series of public programs, the project examines artist-led, community-based, and independent archives as transformative tools for collective organising and knowledge production.

Foregrounding voices from historically underrepresented positions—particularly Filipino/x and BIPOC artists—Fugitive Archives reflects Saluhan Collective’s coalitional ethos and critically engages with Monash University’s library collections and MUMA archives. Positioned within the university, the project exposes gaps in institutional representation and cultural memory.

The first exhibition, Fugitive Archives: Otherwise or Elsewhere (30 July–16 August), presents a new site-specific iteration of the Pagbasa Archive Reading Room alongside works by contemporary artists: Alfred Marasigan (PH), Czar Kristoff J.P. (PH), Gary Lee (AUS), Lesley-Anne Cao (PH), Nice Buenaventura (PH), Pagbasa Archive (AUS), Pio Abad (UK), Stephanie Misa (AU), and Stephanie Syjuco (US)—many exhibiting in Melbourne for the first time.

Image: House covered in white tarp (Muntinlupa City), 2017, Czar Kristoff J.P.

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A page from my publication, Touch By Touch (2023).

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We traced the map of our favorite place as a child; we highlight the parts we carried with us as adults; we cut and yassified them, we placed them on our bodies as if they are blankets, as armors, as hugs.

Thank you to all of the participants of BECOMING A MONUMENT. I appreciate the openness and tenderness.

becoming a monument, June 15, Low Pressure Summer School.

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UPCOMING: be/com/ing a monument Guided by Czar Kristoff Hosted by Low Pressure Summer School

When: June 15, 2025, Sunday, 2-6PM

Where: Space 63, Comuna, 238 Pablo Ocampo Sr. Ext., Makati City

What: Monuments are generally constructed to commemorate a significant event or person. Their presence is also used to navigate a city, a town, a place. Urban monuments reflect how our ancestors used trees, mountains, and rivers as landmarks to remember their way. What would happen if monuments suddenly moved? How do you think we would identify locations or arrive at destinations? How could we become navigators without monuments?

In this fourth iteration, participants will reflect on the symbolic and material construction of monuments: how they are built, preserved, celebrated, neglected, or dismantled. Through conversations, mapping exercises, and collaborative activities, participants will look into publishing as a form of monument-making: a way to record, transmit, and navigate personal or collective histories beyond stone or steel. Register here: https://forms.gle/7gbDgpiWxz76gT4w5

*The first iteration of Be(com)ing A Monument was designed for Ultradependent Public School, held at BAK basis voor actuele kunst in Spring 2023. https://www.bakonline.org/program-item/ultradependent-public-school/.

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A Teardrop Falls In Every Marking: Sticker Landscapes 14.75 x 18.5 in / 20 pages  / Digital blueprint / Softbound / Self-published / Edition of 10 / Printed in Laguna, Philippines

A Teardrop Falls In Every Marking: Sticker Landscapes is Czar Kristoff J.P. latest large scale publication. It is an exploration of sticker leftovers sourced from local office and school supply stores. First introduced in Touch By Touch (2023)—a four chapter publication tracing themes of migration, memory and intimacy in the context of the Philippines—this re-issue invites the viewers to engage deeply with these discarded shapes, revealing new form of pictures. 

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Thank you Daria Tuminas for the opportunity to talk about the independent publishing practices here in PH in What Makes A Photobook Sustainable? (Published by @sppnetwork and @manual.editions, Edited by Tamsin Green). Along with Liang-Pin Tsao of @lightbox_lib, Taipei and Caron Toshiko and Andi Ari Setiadi of Gueari Galeri, Jakarta.

This book is a compendium of 40 case studies of sustainable approaches to photobooks along with roundtable discussions, quotes, provocations and essays on elements of sustainable design, production and distribution.

manualeditions.com

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Documentation of be/co/ming a monument, a presentation about my publishing journey at Fundacion Sansó, Manila, March 01, 2025.

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A preview of my contribution for Further Reading Print No. 4. Learning Within, Learning Without: Modes of Design Inquiry. Published by Further Reading + Each Other Company.

https://www.instagram.com/further.reading/