Marv Recinto

PhD Candidate

Thesis:ÌýPolitics of Excess: Art and Alterity in 21st-Century Manila

Supervisor: Wenny Teo; Advisor: Sarah Wilson

Funded by

My research examines the political aesthetics of “excess” in the Philippines from 1998 to 2022, a period bookended by the populist presidencies of Joseph Estrada and Rodrigo Duterte. Drawing on value theory and Neferti Tadiar’s remaindered life, I rethink excess as an epistemological framework historically shaped by Western capitalist and imperialist power structures, and reorient this notion through Global South discourses, with the Philippines as my focus. Working at the intersection of post-Marxist thought and decolonial scholarship, I challenge inherited conceptions of value and surplus by interrogating the conditions of (neo)colonialism and proposing an unteleological reframing. I consider visual discourses of excess across multiple registers, including radical politics and activism (UGATLahi and Concerned Artists of the Philippines), surplus population (Kiri Dalena), luxury (Yason Banal), and boredom (artist-run initiatives of the new millennium).

Later this year, my exhibition Territorium: Tell Us What Happened about land and postcolonialism in Southeast Asia will open in Kuala Lumpur. I co-founded the and organised the annual assembly, ‘Unlearning & Undoing’, which was held at Goldsmiths, University of London on 15 and 16 May 2026.

Previously, I acted as Managing Editor of , London and Managing Editor of the peer-reviewed journal . In New York, I worked in the publications team of Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art department where I worked on 50+ catalogues. I have published in , , Burlington Magazine,ÌýBurlington Contemporary and exhibition catalogues. I am the editor of Turner Prize-nominated Pio Abad’s monograph, , which was nominated for two National Book Awards. I have collaborated with institutions including London’s , , , , ; Manila’s and the ; New York’s ; and Berlin’s .

Marv Recinto
Email

Education

2024– : PhD History of Art – Â鶹TVÍøÕ¾ of Art, London

2017–18: MA History of Art (Distinction) – Â鶹TVÍøÕ¾ of Art, London (MA Special Option: ‘Global Conceptualism. The Last Avant-Garde or a New Beginning?’ with Sarah Wilson)

2012–16: BA Art History & Anthropology (3.75/4) – Fordham University, New York City

Research Interests

  • Modern & Contemporary Philippine Art
  • Decoloniality and the Global South
  • Radical Politics, Theory and Praxis
  • Artist-Run Initiatives and Collectives
  • Art Activism

Academic Work

Books

  • ed., Pio Abad: Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts (Hato Press & Ateneo Art Gallery, 2024).
      • Nominated for two national book awards (Best Art Book & Best Design)

Lectures

  • ‘ruangrupa’s documenta 15’, MA Global Conceptualism: Last Avant-Garde or a New Beginning?, Â鶹TVÍøÕ¾ of Art, London. 24 November 2025.
  • ‘Discursive Value: Art, Criticism and the Political Aesthetics of Excess’, University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, Manila. 5 November 2025.
  • ‘Contemporary Art & Art Criticism’, University Arts London. 22 April 2024.

Conferences

  • ‘Considering Changing Activist Tactics in the Concerned Artists of the Philippines’ Signos (Omens, 1983) and Magliliyab (Ignite, 2018)’, in ‘Practices of Resistance: Art, Activism, and Publics’, CHASE Summer Encounters, Â鶹TVÍøÕ¾ of Art, London, 5 June 2026, Conference.
  • ‘Cian Dayrit’s Militant Mappings: A Counter-Cartographies Workshop’, in ‘The Decolonial Network Annual Assembly: Unlearning & Undoing’, Goldsmiths – University of London, 15 May 2026, Conference.
  • ‘Hanging Out and Making Art:ÌýTambayÌýin Manila’s Artist-Run Spaces at the New Millenium’, in ‘Sites of Refuse’, Â鶹TVÍøÕ¾ of Art, London, 30 April 2026, Conference.
  • ‘SignosÌý(Omens, 1983) andÌýMagliliyabÌý(Ignite, 2018): Concerned Artists of the Philippines’ Art & Actvisim’, in ‘Video from the Margins’ panel, College Art Association Annual Conference, Chicago, 20 February 2026, Conference.
  • ‘’, in ‘Curating in Challenging Times’, The Photographers’ Gallery, London, 21 April 2023, Conference.
  • ’, School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS), London, 3 November 2022, Conference.
  • Moderator, ‘Intersections of Art, Activism, and Social Justice’, Transnational Coalition for the Arts x Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN), 16 August 2021, Conference.

Selected Art Criticism & Writing

Books & Exhibition Catalogues

  • Jim Jasper Lumbera & Joey Alexis Singh: Gallbladder TimeÌý(Manila: 125 Projects, February 2026), exhibition catalogue and didactics.
  • Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan: Ellipses (London: Ames Yavuz, April 2025), exhibition catalogue.
  • Goldie Poblador: The Rise of Medusa (Manila: Mono8 for Art Fair Philippines, 21– 23 February 2025), exhibition catalogue and didactics.
  • Potential Histories (Manila: Mono8 for Art Fair Philippines, 21–23 February 2025), exhibition catalogue and didactics.
  • ‘Jumpcut: An Ongoing Archive of Community, Artist-Led Initiatives, and New Media in the Philippines since 1999’, (Berlin: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst [DAAD], August–September 2024), exhibition catalogue.
  • ‘Editor’s Note’, in Pio Abad: Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts, ed. Marv Recinto (Manila and London: Ateneo Art Gallery and Hato Press, 2024), 6–7.
  • ‘Waxing Lyrical: Abundance, Bees, and Collaboration in Issay Rodriguez’s Song of Increase’, in Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth, ed., Sam Marcelo (Manila: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, 28 March–23 July 2023), exhibition catalogue.
  • ‘Woman at the Threshold: Decolonising the Wild in Wawi Navarroza’s As Wild As We Come (2022)’, As Wild As We Come (London: Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, 19 August–17 September 2022), exhibition catalogue.

Features, Opinons & Reviews

  • ,ÌýBurlington ContemporaryÌý(21 October 2025).
  • , Opinion, ArtReview.com (18 July 2023).
  • , ArtReview (May 2023): 105 (print).
  • , ArtReview (May 2023): 88 (print).
  • , ArtReview Asia (Autumn 2022): 95-6 (print).
  • ‘’, Opinion, ArtReview.com (27 May 2022).
  • ‘’, ArtReview (April 2022): 56-59 (print).
  • ‘’, ArtReview Asia (Winter 2021): 46–51 (print).
  • , Burlington Magazine (October 2021): 973–74 (print).
  • ‘’, ArtReview Asia (Winter 2020): 66–75 (print).
  • ‘’, ArtReview Asia (Autumn 2020): Cover, 44–51 (print).
  • ‘â¶Ä˜â€™, ArtReview Asia (Summer 2020): Cover, 78–83 (print).
  • , ArtReview Asia (Autumn 2019): 110 (print).

Talks

  • Moderator, ‘Cian Dayrit: A Country, A Body – with Cla Ruzol and John Kenneth Paranada’, Copperfield Gallery, London. 28 February 2026.
  • Panelist, ‘UK Premiere:ÌýCome la notte, dir. Lyric dela Cruz’, London Migration Film Festival, ICA London. 29 November 2025. https://www.ica.art/films/where-the-night-stands-still-q-a.
  • Moderator, ‘Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan: Elipses‘, Ames Yavuz, London. 1 May 2025.
  • ‘AICA-UK: Labour of Love Roundtable’, Whitechapel Gallery, London. 28 March 2025.
  • ‘Laugh of the Medusa: A Conversation on Monstrous Women and Ecology’, Art Fair Philippines, Manila. 23 February 2025.
  • Moderator, ‘From the Underground: Conversations on New Media and Collectives in the Philippines with Big Sky Mind, Furball, Lost Frames, and the Curators’, featuring Mads Adrias, Bea Camacho, Cocoy Lumbao Jr, Erwin Romulo and Jun Sabayton, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Berlin, 26 August 2024.
  • ’, Gasworks, London, 21 June 2024.
  • ‘Contemporary Art & Art Criticism’, University Arts London, 22 April 2024.
  • , Serpentine Gallery x ‘Thanks for Nothing’ x ArtReview, London, 23 October 2020.

Curatorial

  • Territorium: Tell Us What Happened, A+ Works of Art, Kuala Lumpur, September 2026, Exhibition (curator).
  • Jumpcut 5: Videoke Philippinen, Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, Berlin, 23 – 28 August 2024, Exhibition (co-curator).
  • But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 11 April – 17 June 2016, Exhibition (curatorial intern).

Other Revelant Information

Awards

  • CHASE Doctoral Training Partnership (2024–27)
  • Fordham Dean’s List (2014–16)
  • Loyola Scholarship Fordham Tuition Award (2012–16)
  • Youth Envoy to the United Nations, Philippines (2011)
  • Migrant Heritage Commission’s Award for Most Outstanding Migrant in Performing Arts, Culture, and Sports (2011)
  • Philippine National Champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics (2007–12)

Memberships

  • CHASE Decolonial Network (co-founder)
  • (AICA)
  • (ICOM)
  • Concerned Artists of the Philippines
  • Anakbayan-UK

Langauges

  • Filipino
  • Spanish

Citations