CHATI CORONEL
Chati Coronel (b. 1970, Manila; lives and works in Toronto) makes paintings the way stars make light—layer by layer, from the void outward. Her work is not about the figure, but the force within it. For over thirty years, she has wielded pigment like a tuning fork, using color and silhouette not to represent the body, but to awaken what it remembers. She calls this process Figurative Spatialism: a practice where figure becomes space, and space becomes memory, and memory becomes a portal.
Trained in architecture but led by spirit, Coronel’s work is a metaphysical excavation. Each painting is built from many translucent layers—each one a breath, a veil, a step further back toward the source. Her canvases are not surfaces. They are thresholds. Cosmology and mysticism are not references in Coronel’s work—they are the air it breathes. With a discipline rooted in daily spiritual practice, she paints as if building a bridge between dimensions. The nervous system becomes a wand. The heart becomes the grail. The spine becomes the sword. Her paintings do not speak in image—they transmit in frequency.
Her work has been shown internationally—Art Basel Hong Kong, Frieze Seoul, 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 paints not to be understood, but to be felt—deeply, bodily, tectonically. Chati Coronel is represented by Silverlens Gallery.
ARTIST’S CV:
Education
1991 B.S. Architecture, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, PH
Residencies
2000 Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT, USA
Solo Exhibitions — selected
2023 Degrees of Softness, Giant Dwarf Gallery, Angono, PH
2022 Inner Constellations, Silverlens (online), 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
2024 Art Fair Philippines, Manila
2023 The Armory Show, New York • Frieze Seoul, Seoul
2019 – 2022 Art Basel Hong Kong (Silverlens booth)
Group Exhibitions — selected (since 2018)
2024 Art Fair Philippines (booth), Manila
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 & Catalogues
2022 Unstruck Sound: Book of Imaginary Letters (Blurb)
2015 Word Paintings (Silverlens Publications)
2014 Pinggot Zulueta, “Art Comes From a Feeling of Happiness,” Manila Bulletin, 31 Mar
Selected Press
2015 Artnet, “10 Must‑See International Gallery Shows,” 1 Oct
2013 Philippine Star, “Louis Vuitton Highlights Filipino Artists,” 18 Dec
Full exhibition history and bibliography 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 only original works possess. 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.