The works of major Philippine artists and authors represented in the time capsule are a tribute to the heights reached by Philippine contemporary culture.
Alvarez, Ivy Hilario, Riel Peralta, Jesus
Antonio, Marcel Leigh, Eugenia Peralta, Rosario Bitanga
Arellano, Agnes Lualhati, Hari Peralta, Samuel
Cabrera, Benedicto Orlina, Ramon Santos, Malang
Cacnio, Michael Peralta, Francis Paul Semper, Gromyko
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Alvarez, Ivy
is a writer of Philippine heritage currently based in New Zealand. She has authored numerous poetry collections, as well the verse novel Disturbance. As a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Hawthornden Fellow, and a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry and once for fiction, both Literature Wales and the Australia Council for the Arts awarded her grants towards the writing of Disturbance. Her poems have been translated into Russian, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Adapted from Ivy Alvarez’s work, Disturbance the Musical premiered in 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. She is the editor for the New Zealand Poetry Society’s magazine, a fine line.
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""When I think of the Lunar Codex being unearthed (unmooned!) when I'm gone, I get goosebumps imagining future beings reading these poems, looking at this art. Luckily for us, poetry and art are timeless."
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Antonio, Marcel
is a Filipino painter once considered one of the most promising in Philippine contemporary art. A graduate of the University of the Philippines' College of Fine Arts, Antonio has produced a distinctive collection of narrative and pseudo-narrative figurative paintings influenced by modernism and 1980s postmodernism.
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As one of the Philippines' young painters most proficient in the expressionist genre, Antonio is currently considered a prize of collectors in the Manila art market, which following granted the painter mainstream gallery success. Since Antonio's career started, art dealers have indulged the painter an unending series of sold-out exhibitions.
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Philippine critics also regard Antonio as one among the most important contemporary Filipino painters, bestowing on the artist a number of critical acclaim for his magnetic narratives in oil and acrylic. In Manila he has exhibited at major galleries like Galleria Duemila, The Drawing Room, Gallery BIG, Galleria Quattrocento and Glorietta Art Center, where his following include both local and international buyers. He has also exhibited in Berlin, Australia and Singapore.
“Menacing Love” by Antonio, Marcel
Private Collection
Arellano, Agnes
The sacred and the mythical, the physical and the erotic, the magical and the mundane, the religious and the profane, and music and song all permeate the art of Filipina artist Agnes Arellano. Drawing from rich personal experience and an extraordinary range of influences, she makes some of the most dramatic art in Asia.
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Best known for surrealist and expressionist work in plaster (cast and directly modelled), bronze, and cold-cast marble, Arellano's work tends to stress the integration of individual elements into one totality or "inscape".
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She has participated in international group exhibitions in Berlin, Fukuoka, Havana, Johannesburg, New York, Brisbane and Singapore. Her works are in the permanent collection of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, the Singapore Art Museum, and the APEC Sculpture Park by the Naru River, Busan South Korea.
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“Flying Dakini” by Arellano, Agnes
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Cabrera, Ben
is widely hailed as a master of contemporary Philippine art. He was born in Manila on April 10, 1942. BenCab began carving a niche for himself in Manila’s art circles shortly after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in 1963.
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A painter and printmaker, he has exhibited widely in the Philippines and in Asia, Europe, and the United States. He has won several major art awards in a career spanning four decades. In 1992, he received the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining (Cultural Center of the Philippines Award for the Arts).
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In 2006, he was conferred the Order of National Artist for Visual Arts by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanan Palace.
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His works have been the subject of three books, Ben Cabrera: Etchings (1970-1980) by Cid Reyes; Bencab’s Rock Sessions by Eric Caruncho; and BENCAB by Alfred Yuson and Cid Reyes.
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The artist lives and works in Baguio City.
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“Madonna and Child” by Cabrera, Ben, 2015
Argo Collection
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Cacnio, Michael
Filipino artist and 2006 TOYM Awardee Michael Cacnio is a world-class brass sculptor of the social realist genre.
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Hailing from the town of Malabon in the Philippines, Cacnio is a product of the prestigious College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He professionally debuted as a painter, but later found his true calling in the art of sculpting brass.
His body of work features tableaux of characters taken from traditional Filipino archetypes delivered in his distinct signature style, revealing enduring truths about human nature, about the family and the community.
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After more than 50 well-received solo exhibits, his art has achieved critical and commercial success in Asia, Europe and the United States, his works frequently featured in broadcast media and in several reputable publications. In 2007, he became the first Filipino artist to be featured in a solo exhibit in the European Commission’s headquarters in Berlaymont, Brussels.
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“Calesa” by Cacnio, Michael, 2011
Private Collection
Hilario, Riel
Hilario’s sculptural oeuvre appropriates forms from traditional santo-making and transforming them into the contemporary by imbibing them both with first, the intent of making them into objects of aesthetic consideration and second, context appropriated from narratives of interest to him. The last carver from a family of traditional santo-carvers from Ilocos Sur, Hilario’s early education was with Makiling High School for the Arts followed by formal tertiary education at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. His early works enabled him to garner several important grants and scholarships which include the Elizabeth McCormack and Jerome Aaron Fellow (Asian Cultural Council, New York, 2013), the Swingspace Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant (New York, 2013), the Philippine Artist Residency in Paris (Alliance Francaise de Manille, 2012) and the Cite des Artes Internationale (Paris, 2012). Since 1996, Hilario has cultivated a practice in sculpture, painting, curating, and art writing, making him a well-rounded artist and curator whose contributions to Philippine contemporary art are noteworthy.
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"I'm ecstatic... I was born in 1969. I'm a moon baby
As a fan of Galileo, the Apollo missions and being born in 1969 I am ecstatic to be one of the 13 Filipino artists whose work is part of the Lunar Codex. Thanks to Dr Samuel Peralta I can finally tell my children that their father is a real lunatic besides being an artist. The work that goes up to the lunar surface is "The Stars Awaken", a tribute I made for Voyager 2 the space probe that has made it past the Heliosphere despite it being powered only by a battery that has the capacity to power a mobile phone. And the fact that the Voyager probes bear the disc Carl Sagan inscribed with directions where to find the planet earth for an alien invasion. (Stephen Hawking said that) I celebrate the mythic dimensions of spaceflight and its possible future representations. I make artworks in wonder of the sky, the stars and the constellations: The Mysterious Universe."
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“The Stars Awaken A Certain Reverence” by Riel Hilario
Eugenia Leigh
is a writer of Philippine heritage working in the U.S. She is the author of a full-length collection of poetry, Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows, which was a finalist for both the National Poetry Series and the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including PANK Magazine, North American Review, The Collagist, and the Best New Poets 2010 anthology. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from Poets & Writers Magazine, Kundiman, Rattle, and elsewhere, and she previously served as the Poetry Editor for Kartika Review and for Hyphen, a news/culture magazine that celebrates the Asian American diaspora.
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Hari Lualhati
is a painter, Illustrator, graphic artist, and designer born in Philippines with a Degree in Fine Arts in University of the Philippines, Diliman. Lualhati has worked in Manila, Hong Kong, Shenzhen China, and South Africa and she is now based in South Africa. She has received numerous awards from international competitions such as the ARC Staff Award 2016, the Arte Dinamica Grifio Art Prize 2016, the American Art Award 2014, to name a few. She has also been featured in numerous international magazines and newspapers and been on the cover of international art magazines such as Art Manager, INSIGHT Magazine, and Close to Art Magazine.
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“I was really surprised when I receive a personal message from Dr. Peralta, inviting me to be part of the project. I’m really honoured to be personally hand-picked by the main person who created “THE LUNAR CODEX / ARTISTS ON THE MOON PROJECT”. Thank you so much to Dr. Peralta for his generosity and vision. I wish him, the project and everyone involved in this project all the success!”
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“Wholehearted” by Hari Lualhati
Private Collection
Orlina, Ramon
is an artist par excellence. For the last four decades, Orlina has been transfiguring glass into art. He was the first to carve figures out of blocks of glass using the cold method, cutting, grinding, and polishing his work with improvised tools and instruments - a feat at that time yet unreplicated even in highly industrialized countries. That he was self-taught, with hardly any predecessor, mentor, or influence to emulate, makes his achievement all the more outstanding.
Orlina’s reputation extends to art circles and patrons in Asia, Europe and the United States. Among his art awards is a special prize he won called “Mr. F Prize” in the 1999 Toyamura International Sculpture Biennale, Japan. Subsequently in the year 2000, he won the First Prize in the Sculpture Category of the II International Biennale of Basketball in the Fine Arts, Madrid, Spain. His masterpieces place him, in international appraisals of the art, among the gurus Dale Chihuly of the United States and Bertil Vallien of Sweden.
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"I feel very honored and special that I have been selected for this project. It's a one of a kind project. I am reminded of one of my favorite songs by Frank Sinatra. "Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars." These lyrics are a good reflection for how I feel.
I take it as a sign to keep working hard. It also gives me a sense of upliftment as my work is literally going up to the sky.
I am remided of Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. So just like Armstrong, this is another step for the Philippine art community. I also applaud the scientific community in this milestone and would like to give special thanks to Dr. Samuel Peralta for including my work in the selection."
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“Love Encompasses” by Orlina, Ramon, 2015
ARGO Collection
Francis Paul B. Peralta
is a professional audio producer and multi-instrumentalist, developing, recording, engineering, mixing and mastering projects in the audiovisual industry. He is acclaimed for his Notes on the Audio Transcription of Mamayog: The Music of Samaon Sulaiman, which formalized and transcribed music from the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan and master kutyapi player, preserving the vanishing traditional music of the Philippine two-stringed plucked lute, a key cultural heritage of the Philippines. He was also awarded for his musical composition of the 400th Anniversary Hymn of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
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"Personally, I am "over the moon" that our composition commemorating the 400th anniversary of our high school Alma Mater is being immortalized and will be sitting on the moon for generations to come. Now, every time there is a full moon overhead, I will remember that particular song. I am so proud to be one of the many artists chosen to be part of the Lunar Codex."
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“Ode to Letran” music and lyrics by Samuel and Francis Peralta (2020)
Jesus T. Peralta
is an anthropologist, archaeologist, and essayist, but is celebrated as one of the most-awarded playwrights in the Philippines. He earned university degrees from the University of Santo Tomas, the University of the Philippines and earned his doctorate from the University of California, Davis. He was museum curator and director at the National Museum of the Philippines, a consultant for the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and a commissioner in the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines. Among his many awards, he is a ten-time winner in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature for playwriting, and from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the University of the Philippines, and the Rockefeller Foundation through the Arena Theatre, and others. In 1995 he was elevated to the Hall of Fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature.
"What my son, Samuel, does no longer amazes me. Encapsulating the images of the creative work of people in the lunar surface is bringing these closer to the stars where these creativity belong."
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Samuel Peralta
is best-known as the creator and series editor of the acclaimed Future Chronicles series of speculative fiction anthologies, with every title rising in turn to the top of the Amazon hot new release and bestseller lists. ​
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His literary work has been spotlighted in Best American Poetry, and recognized with numerous awards, including from the BBC, the UK Poetry Society, the Palanca Memorial Awards Foundation, Twitter, and in shortlists for the League of Canadian Poets, the Elgin Award, Goodreads Best Small Press Books, and the ARC Poem of the Year.
Samuel's passion in digital publishing parallels a drive in technological and business innovation. Among other things, he won a New Technology Award for a laser inspection system for detecting flaws in nuclear reactor cores, and his work in e-book software won an Innovative Technology Achievement Award from the Digital Literature Institute. A semiconductor firm he co-founded was named to the Toronto Stock Exchange's TSX Venture Top 50, and to Canadian Business Magazine's Top Tech 100.
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A Ph.D. in physics and a driven technology executive, having co-founded or had leadership roles in several private and public companies, he continues to serve on several Boards of Directors and as an adviser to start-ups and incubators.
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He has also supported and helped produce over a hundred independent films, including The Fencer, which earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, and Real Artists, which won an Emmy Award for Best Arts/Entertainment Program/Special.
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Samuel is the founder of The Lunar Codex a series of time capsules on Astrobotic's Peregrine Lander, and on Intuitive Machines' Nova-C Lander, launching to the Moon in with the creative works of 1500 humans and one A.I.
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Rosario Bitanga Peralta
is the Philippines' first and foremost woman abstract artist, with major works in painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Her works range from miniature expressionistic landscapes, still life works, to mural-sized abstracts depicting arrested motion in a form of Futurism. Her sculptures consist of metal and terracotta pieces. Her works are in museums and prominent public and private collections in the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, Vatican City, Italy, Canada and the United States. She has been Dean of the Institute of Fine Arts and Design of the Philippine Women's University, and Consultant in Sculpture at the School of Fine Arts, University of Santo Tomas. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Art Association of the Philippines, the Visual Arts Cooperative of the Philippines, and the Christian Art Society of the Philippines. She has been recognized with numerous awards including being nominated as a National Artist.
".... What he (Dr. Samuel Peralta) is doing now for the world of Art is preserving it for future generations. I am happy that my own paintings will be known not just today in our own world, but also out in the nearer universe for all the world to find pleasure in, in future generations when men find flight in space time. Looking at the moon will never be same again, when the lunar codex happens because my art be part of its illumination."
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“Moon Leaves” by Rosario Bitanga (1987)
The Windrift Collection.
Mauro Malang Santos
(1928-2017), known as Malang, was an award-winning illustrator and celebrated fine arts painter. At the start of his career, he pioneered the country's first English-language daily comic strip, Kosme, co-founded The Bughouse, a gallery specializing in cartoons, and was the driving force behind Art for the Masses, a project that brought printmaking to a large number of artwork enthusiasts at affordable prices. As his career evolved, he was celebrated as a cubist master of gouache and other fine arts media, with themes of women and landscapes. He won numerous awards, including from the Art Association of the Philippines, as the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines, and the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award.
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"We are so honored for tatay's work to have been chosen as part of the time capsule sent to the moon, especially approaching his death anniversary. We feel so proud for this to be a part of his legacy." - Carina Santos, granddaughter of Malang.
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“Coming Storm” by Mauro Malang Santos (1978)
The Windrift Collection
Gromyko Semper
is an artist based in Cabanatuan City, Philippines. Largely self-taught, his work has been exhibited in France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Austria, Mexico, the United States, Singapore, Denmark, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Semper’s drawings and paintings are executed to imitate woodcut prints, embody a personal, invented mythology. His works have been published in various books, magazines and compedium worldwide. He currently resides in his hometown Cabanatuan along with wife Mina and son Zyrus, surrounded in his studio by his collection of rare succulent species.
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"Creating art works while stuck in my homestudio has become the new normal for me, what with the pandemic ravaging the outside world. The very act of creation became an act of meditation for me, an temporal escape in a threatened world... Dr. Peralta, our gracious host, is a blessing in times of turmoil! His efforts to bring Artworks of note created by artists from all over the world should be greeted with exultation and respect! ..... When one looks at the sky on a dark evening and gaze upon the warm face of the moon, it will hold new meaning, knowing that my work along with others is there, etched in memory and history, a ray of light that should give men hope not just on earth but beyond, acknowledging the power of Art to lift humanity's spirit high, ad astra!"
