CHATI CORONEL
Chati Coronel (b. 1970, Manila; lives and works in Canada) treats painting as ritual, art as sacred ceremony. For over thirty years, she has wielded pigment like a tuning fork, using color and silhouette to awaken the power of symbols in figure and shape. She calls this process Figurative Spatialism: a practice where figure becomes space, a portal through which sacred truths are at once veiled and revealed.
Trained in architecture, led by spirit and informed by cosmology and mysticism, Coronel's work is a metaphysical excavation. Each painting is built from multiple translucent layers, each one a breath, a veil, a step further back toward the source. With a discipline rooted in daily spiritual practice, she uses light, space, and process to straddle the fine line between matter and spirit.
Coronel's work has been shown internationally, including Art Basel Hong Kong, Frieze Seoul, and The Armory Show New York, and lives in collections across Asia and North America. But its true home is the liminal, the spiritual, the unseen. Chati Coronel is represented by Silverlens Galleries
ARTIST’S CV:
Representation
Silverlens Galleries (Manila, New York)
Solo Exhibitions — Selected
2025 Notes for Exaltation, Silverlens, Manila, PH
2023 Degrees of Softness, Giant Dwarf Gallery, Angono, PH
2022 Inner Constellations, Silverlens, Manila, PH
2021 Celestial Data for Daydreaming, Silverlens, Manila, PH
2020 BE THE___, Silverlens (online), Manila, PH
2018 The Infinite Yes, Silverlens, Manila, PH
2016 The Way In / The Way Out, Silverlens, Manila, PH
2015 How to Open a Mountain, Silverlens, Manila, PH
2014 The First Kiss on Earth, Silverlens, Singapore
2010 An Hour in a Glass Balloon, Silverlens, Manila, PH
2007 Minus, Groundfloor@SanteeCourt, Los Angeles, USA
Art Fairs & Presentations — Selected
2025 Art Fair Philippines, Manila
2024 Art Fair Philippines, Manila
2023 The Armory Show, New York
2023 Frieze Seoul, Seoul
2019–2022 Art Basel Hong Kong (Silverlens booth)
Group Exhibitions — Selected
2023 Shrines and Spirits, Silverlens, New York
2022 Hitherto V, Project Space Pilipinas, Lucban, PH
2019 The Hybridity and Dynamism of the Contemporary Art of the Philippines, HansaeYes24 Foundation, Seoul
2018 Shared Coordinates, The Arts House, Singapore
Publications & Artist Books
2022 Unstruck Sound: Book of Imaginary Letters
2015 Word Paintings, Silverlens Publications
Press & Recognition — Selected
2015 Artnet, "10 Must‑See International Gallery Shows," 1 Oct
2014 Pinggot Zulueta, "Art Comes From a Feeling of Happiness," Manila Bulletin, 31 Mar
2013 Philippine Star, "Louis Vuitton Highlights Filipino Artists," 18 Dec
Residencies
2000 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT, USA
Education
1991 B.S. Architecture, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, PH
Full exhibition history available upon request.
CONNECT
A Note on Authenticity
Chati Coronel’s creative practice honors the tangible—the texture of canvas, the weight of paper, the presence that the works plus the materials possess together. Each piece exists as a singular expression, born from direct engagement with materials and meant to be encountered in physical form.
The artist does not create or authorize digital tokens or NFTs of this work. The authentic experience of these pieces lives solely in their original, physical manifestation.