Jon Cuyson Turns to Filipino Seafarers and Maritime Memory for the Venice Biennale 2026

Jon Cuyson draws on the Philippines’ maritime heritage and its seafarers in Sea of Love, an installation for the Philippine Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, on view from May 9 to November 22.

Paying homage to Filipino seafarers and the Philippines’ maritime heritage, Jon Cuyson represents the country at the 2026 Venice Biennale through his installation Sea of Love. 

The Venice Biennale is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious cultural exhibitions, often called the “Olympics of the art world.” Founded in 1895, it takes place in Venice, Italy, alternating each year between contemporary art and architecture presentations from participating countries.

For this year’s edition, the Philippines is represented by Cuyson’s Sea of Love, marking the country’s sixth participation since 2015. The work continues his long-term artistic exploration of maritime life and his sustained reflection on Filipino seafarers, whose labor supports global trade yet often remains unseen within cultural narratives.

“My projects have been shaped through modules of memory, a practice of interconnected works that act as partial archives for submerged histories, maritime labor, and fragments of belonging. Our exhibition for the Venice Biennale continues this inquiry by exploring mussels as a motif and metaphor for understanding kinship across land and sea,” Jon Cuyson said in a press statement.

Presented at the Arsenale, one of the Venice Biennale’s main venues, Sea of Love unfolds as an immersive oceanic environment. Paintings, videos, and sculptures come together to trace a story of love and longing across distance, told through four perspectives: a sailor, his mother, his lover, and a shifting “sea of echoes.” Through light, sound, and reflection, the work turns toward the emotional landscape of Filipino seafarers and their families, while also evoking the ships, journeys, and marine ecologies that shape their world.

“Developing this project with our Filipino collaborators, from mussel farmers to aquaculture experts, affirms our understanding of waterways as more than pathways to other lands. Water is also a place to find a sense of home. I am a child of diaspora, and the Filipino story has always been rooted in travel. Our project illuminates the humanizing force of love within the ebb and flow of globalization, in sync with our undulating oceans,” said Mara Gladstone, the first Filipino American curator to represent the Philippines at the Biennale.

Moreover, Sea of Love also draws from queer and postcolonial ecologies, where memory is fluid, layered, and in motion. Its “memory modules” function as vessels linking submerged histories, maritime labor, and fragile forms of belonging. The exhibition is accompanied by public programs and a catalogue featuring essays by Filipino and international scholars, designed by Jessica Fleischmann of Still Room, extending its exploration of seafaring cultures and Southeast Asian contemporary art.

Commissioned by the Philippine Arts in Venice Biennale (PAVB), in partnership with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the Philippine Pavilion runs from May 9 to November 22.