Mideo M Cruz

One Man Exhibition

Addendum Gravity Art Space Philippines 2025

Salvaged Statements Crucible Gallery Philippines 2024

Partial Documentation Of The Local Mainstream Art Market        Giant Dwarf Art Space, Angono, Rizal, Philippines 2024

Meme Generators Kaida Contemporary Philippines 2023

Power Source Your Mother Gallery, Singapore 2022

Paraisong Parisukat Kaida Contemporary Philippines 2020

Unfairy Tales NCCA Gallery Philippines 2019

Benevolent Mutations Crucible Gallery Philippine 2019

Alter Ego Secret Fresh Gallery Philippines 2018

Ziggurat Kaida Contemporary Philippines 2018

P I Paraiso Kanto Artists Run Space Philippine 2017

Contemporary Canon of Mainstream Misfortune Philippine 2017

Pop Cult Artery Gallery Bangkok Thailand 2016 

Cyborg Republic Blanc Gallery  Philippines 2015

Life Is Beautiful New York USA / Makati Philippines 2014

Geographical Sketches Kanto Artist Run Gallery Philippines 2014

I’m Watching You Now Gallery Philippines 2013

Spectacle of Excess Bliss on Bliss New York 2013 Kanto Artist Run Gallery Philippines 2012

Primetime Artery Post Modern Gallery  Thailand 2012

Post Modern Pleasure And Other Parodies of Contemporary Decor Now Gallery  Philippines 2012

Journals Krem Contemporary Art  Philippines 2011

Phases Of Ra Galleria Duemila Pasay City Philippines 2011

Nimbus Now Gallery Makati Philippines 2011

Divinities Mondejar Gallery Zurich Switzerland 2011

Homage To The End Of The Equinox Gallery Anna Philippines 2010

Into The Wild Utterly Art Gallery Singapore 2010

Deities Galleria Duemila Pasay City Philippines 2010

The Great American Experience Series New York USA/Quezon City Philippines 2009

Everything Must Go Edge Zones Miami USA 2009

de/generated boundaries 2 Alab Art Space Philippines 2007

de/generated boundaries 1 Shangrila Plaza Philippines 2006

Banquet Cultural Center of the Philippines 2006

Santong Pinagpasasaan Kulay Diwa Art Galleries Philippines 2005

Pilipinas Kong Mahal Tumbang Preso Café Philippines 1998

Group Exhibition

Dambana  Altro Mundo Philippines 2024

Bisa, The Maleta Project Giant Dwarf Art Space, Philippines 2024

Rondo VI  Altro Mundo Philippines 2022

Dystopia  New Frontier Gallery Philippines 2022 

A Case Of Realism The Lab Museum  Philippines 2022

Transmitting: Thoughts and Prayers  Modeka Gallery Philippines 2021

Polyphony South East Asia AMNUA Nanjing China 2019

The Mirror Cuts Both Ways Espacio / Artphile Gallery Philippines 2019

Apropriacion J Studio Philippines 2019

Portraiture Artists Village Singapore / Thailand / New Zealand 2018/19

Asia Art Link Yilan Art Museum Taiwan 2018

Tounge In A _____! District Gallery Philippines 2018

Tension Gallery Anton Philippines 2018

Banta Sining Kamalig Philippines 2017

Kalasag Kaida Contemporary Philippines 2017

Beyond Normal Kanto Artist Run Gallery Philippines 2017

Inhabit District Gallery Philippines 2017

Secret Archipelago Palais De Tokyo Paris France  2015

The Last Dog Show Finale Art File Makati  Philippines  2015

Manufacturer’s Advice: Content May Vary Tin-aw Makati  Philippines  2015

Triump Of Philippine Art Los Angeles California USA, Ayala Museum  Philippines  2014, George  Seagal Gallery New Jersey USA 2013

Art Subversives New York 2013

Hoax Crusader Fountain Art Fair New York 2013

The President’s Office UP Vargas Museum Philippines 2013

Survey Kanto Artist Run Gallery Philippines 2012

Decipcoding Singapore Art Museum 2012

Cityzening Vargas Art Museum Philippines 2012

Habit Forming ArtInformal Gallery Philippines 2012

Glocal Tinaw Art Gallery Philippines 2012

AllMighty Now Gallery Philippines  2012

Kulo Cultural Center of the Philippines 2011

Enemy Megamall Art Center Philippines 2010

Youtubia Finale Art File Makati Philippines 2010

Eastern Exposure Pinto Art Gallery Antipolo Philippines 2009

Drawing As Form Singapore 2009

Kargado Ateneo de Manila Gallery Philippines 2008

A New Generation of Philippine Artists Zurich Switzerland 2008

NEXUS Ateneo de Manila University Philippines 2007

Cropped Sydney Australia 2007

Identities versus Globalization Changmai/Bangkok Thailand, Berlin Germany 2004-2005

The Future of Performance Art Project Multimedial Art Studio & MAS Gallery, Odzaci, Serbia 2004

Densities Cultural Center of the Philippines 2003

Peace Show Kentler Gallery New York USA 2002

Hardware1&2 UP Vargas Museum Philippines 2002

International Art Events Participated

The Margin Of Excess (Igkas Project) Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan 2026

Papillon Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam 2025

Gunita: Memories And Distance Bangan Project Space Philippines 2022

Monumented Osaka Japan 2019

Jiaosi International Workshop Jioasi Township Taiwan 2018

Manila Biennale: Open City Philippines 2018

No Exit Rebel 1st Rebel Live Action Thailand 2017

ASIATOPIA Performance Conference S.E.Asia Thailand 2016

Beyond the Boundary Tainan and Kaoshioung Taiwan 2016

Guyu Action Shenzen China 2016

Rencontre Internationale d’Art Performance  Quebec Canada 2014

Perform Chinatown Los Angeles California 2013

Southeast Asia Art Exchange Program Yangon Myanmar 2012

Guangzhou Live Guangzhou China 2011

RITES (rooted in the Ephemeral Speak) Singapore 2010

10th Open Art Festival Beijing China 2009

Art Tuilage  Burgundy/Paris France 2008

The Sudden Change Sichuan Province China 2008

LIVE Art Biennale Vancouver Canada 2007

Open Art Festival Beijing China 2007

InterAzioni XX Festival Sardinia Italy 2007

Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Restaurant 1&2 Tokyo – Toyama Japan 2006

Future of Imagination 3 Singapore 2006

Satu Kali Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 2006

Hong Kong on the Move Hong Kong 2005

Southeast Asian Performance Art Conference Bangkok Thailand 2005

Philippine International Performance Art Festival   Philippines 2005

Taiwan International Performance Art Live Taipei, Taiwan 2005

Asiatopia 6 Bangkok/Changmai Thailand 2004

7a*11d International Festival Toronto Canada 2004

Laokoon International Festival Kampnagel Hamburg Germany 2004

Wed Action #4 Jogyakarta Indonesia 2004

Asiatopia 5 Bangkok/Changmai Thailand 2003

One-Day Performance Art Festival  Pucheon Korea 2002

Guimcheon International Performance Art Festival Korea 2002

Nippon International Performance Art Festival Japan 2002

Grants, Awards and Residency

No Exit Grant for Unpaid Labor Para-Site Hong Kong 2022

Travel Grant NCCA for Attending Rebel Action Thailand 2017

Dawang Artists Residency Shenzen China 2012

Visiting Fellow  Asian Cultural Council New York USA 2008/2009

Artist in Residence Headlands Center for the Arts San Francisco CA USA 2008

Travel Grant NCCA for attending Art Tuilage  Burgundy/Paris France 2007

Artists Residency Gallery Gachet Vancouver Canada 2007

Visiting Foreign Artists Fund Canada Council for the Arts 2007

Travel Grant NCCA for attending InterAzioni XX Festival Sardinia Italy 2007

2006 Ateneo Art Awards Ateneo de Manila University Philippines 2006

Travel Grant 7a*11d International Festival Toronto Canada 2004

Artist Residency Modern Fuel Artist Run Centre Ontario Canada 2004

2003 Thirteen Artists Awards Cultural Center of the Philippines 2003

Sungduan selected artist for National touring ExhibitionNational commission for the Arts Philippines 2003

Travel Grant National Commission for the Arts for attending IAPAO Conference 2002

Biography

Q&A With Mideo Cruz    BLOUIN ARTINFO | AUGUST 16, 2011 

From Religion to Idol Worship    Rachel Mayo  |  Philippine Daily Inquirer  |  August 20th, 2011

Artist Mideo Cruz wants to provoke critical thought, gets death threats instead   Ina Alleco R.Silverio  |  Bulatlat.com  |  August 5, 2011 

Mideo Cruz talks post-‘Poleteismo’ and the concept of visual trauma Cristina DC Pastor  | The Fil Am | May 8th, 2013 

Interview with Mideo M. Cruz  Mayumi Hirano | 2050 Art & Writing |    November 22, 2013

Silent Fighter | Wondereur

How Art Radicals Transformed a Rice Silo in Nueva Ecija into a Nexus of Action and Community Ian Madrigal and Karin Van Orman   |  Esquire | Jan 27, 2020

Tuloy Po Kayo | Pasinaya | Cultural Center of the Philippines | March, 2021

Artist Mideo Cruz Looks Back at the Kulo Exhibit 10 Years Later  interview, digital capsule, Cultural Center of the Philippines | August 31, 2021 |  VIDEO

10 years after ‘Poleteismo’: Mideo Cruz on art, the Malate underworld and growing up ‘sagrado Katoliko’  |   Devi de Veyra  | ANCX  |  December 26, 2021

The Pinoy Parent |  Malu Maniquis  | January 14, 2023

Navigating Internet Culture and Memes Through Mideo Cruz' Latest Exhibit  |  Portia Placino |  spot.ph  | June 25, 2023

Art Excess |  S. C. Fojas |  Manila Bulletin | October 12, 2024

Mideo M. Cruz (Philippines, b. 1973) is a cross-disciplinary artist and cultural activist from Gapan City, Nueva Ecija. Working across installation, performance, and research-driven pedagogy, his practice navigates excess, spectacle, and the subtle violences embedded in everyday culture. His projects examine how capitalism produces surplus—not only in material goods but also in images, myths, and systems of belief.

Often drawing from pop culture rather than conventional activist rhetoric, Cruz investigates how power is normalized through familiarity, entertainment, and pleasure. His work challenges the mystification of art by asserting creativity as a fundamental human capacity rather than an elite specialization.

Cruz has been involved in cultural activism since his early years as an artist. In 1992, he co-founded Ugat Lahi, a cultural collective that promoted the role of culture and the arts in nation-building. He later initiated the international artists’ network New World Disorder, organizing art events and interventions that critically addressed capitalism and imperial globalization.

He received the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 2003 and the Ateneo Art Awards in 2006. In 2008, he was awarded a fellowship by the Asian Cultural Council, which enabled residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts in California and PointB Worklodge in New York.

In 2011, his installation Poleteismo became one of the most controversial works in recent Philippine art history, igniting a national debate on aesthetics, religion, and politics.

Currently, Cruz lives and works off-grid, away from the commercial mainstream art industry. He is a co-founder of Bangan Project Space, a grassroots creative community in Nueva Ecija that fosters imagination as a tool for critical thinking and media literacy, particularly among young people. Through this initiative, he advocates for creativity as a shared social resource—echoing the belief that art belongs not only to institutions, but to everyday life.

please follow Mideo M Cruz on  Facebook

please follow Mideo Cruz on  Instagram

“Burden”

“Reconstruction of Eden"  (series)

C-print  24″X 36″

A series of print based on the sculptures i’m doing since 2011 as featured in  WONDEREUR, a multi-award-winning platform offering privileged access into the lives of artists to watch, whose stories are told in visual essays reminiscent of the golden age of photojournalism.  The page run a photo story entitled the Silent Fighter based on the photography of Magnum Fellow  Xysa Cruz Bacani picked by curator’ Dayang Yraola text edited by Doreen Dawang.

Artists are selected by top curators from around the world and, at the end of each story, readers can access the artist's work directly from their iPad, iPhone or computer.

Wondereur is an Official Honoree of the 2013 17th Webby Awards (alongside the New York Times, the Financial Times and Martha Stewart Living) and won the 2012 Gold Award for Best Tablet Edition at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.

“Full of Grace”

reconstructed from a broken religious icon added stones, wood, plastics, resin and oil paint 

“Big Mac”

Happy Meal Series

reconstructed from Religious Icon, stones, resin, oil paints, plastic, and happy meals toys.

“Ascendancy”

reconstructed from broken religious icon added plastic, found toys, nails, resin and oil paint

“Road To Eden”

Live Action Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France. May 9 2015

SECRET ARCHIPELAGO

Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France. March 27 to May 17 2015

Secret Archipelago exhibition introduces to the contemporary creation of South-East Asia, a region which is undergoing transformation and whose artists, still with firm roots in ancient traditions, are plunged into an ultra- contemporary world. Through over 40 works, most specially created for the occasion, the exhibition explores the ideas and practices of contemporary artists from South-East Asia, most of whom have never before exhibited outside their home country. Increasing numbers of artists from the region are now appearing at major international contemporary art events, but the aim of this exhibition is to present artists who have until now escaped the radars of the international art world. Their works represent a bridging of the gap between past and future and the creative tension between memory and tradition on the one hand and contemporary Western influences on the other, while bringing their own particular languages to modern art. Although most of the artists have gone through basic training in Western art, their sensibilities lie with an indigenous heritage and feed on a fusion of spiritual and cultural practices.

The exhibition reflects this osmosis between the cultures of the archipelago, the erasing of eras and the links between the spiritual influences. The exhibition is brought to you through various media, including installations, videos, sculptures, sound works and also performances which will pop up randomly in the heart of the exhibition space.

“Reconstruction Of Eden”

printed on cloth 4′ X 8′ each

a series of large scale prints based on  the sculptures i’m doing since 2011. 

SECRET ARCHIPELAGO

Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France. March 27 to May 17 2015

Secret Archipelago exhibition introduces to the contemporary creation of South-East Asia, a region which is undergoing transformation and whose artists, still with firm roots in ancient traditions, are plunged into an ultra- contemporary world. Through over 40 works, most specially created for the occasion, the exhibition explores the ideas and practices of contemporary artists from South-East Asia, most of whom have never before exhibited outside their home country. Increasing numbers of artists from the region are now appearing at major international contemporary art events, but the aim of this exhibition is to present artists who have until now escaped the radars of the international art world. Their works represent a bridging of the gap between past and future and the creative tension between memory and tradition on the one hand and contemporary Western influences on the other, while bringing their own particular languages to modern art. Although most of the artists have gone through basic training in Western art, their sensibilities lie with an indigenous heritage and feed on a fusion of spiritual and cultural practices.

The exhibition reflects this osmosis between the cultures of the archipelago, the erasing of eras and the links between the spiritual influences. The exhibition is brought to you through various media, including installations, videos, sculptures, sound works and also performances which will pop up randomly in the heart of the exhibition space.

“Mga Laro at Laruan sa Kapuluang Pinagpipistahan“

 (Games and Pawns in Islands Revelry)

1995 Thesis in University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines. Various Media / Interactive. Approximately 8 X 8 feet. Restored with minor alteration in November 2014 to February 16, 2015

Buy One Take All Series, Concrete Age / Panahon ng Bato

aluminum cans, concrete, plastic toy, plastic statue, epoxy glue and bronze nails. 2011

“USA Primer Coating. Made in the Philippines”

paper stickers, one liter tin can, industrial color tint, calcium powder and resin. edition number 18.  2014

“Bulls-Eye”

oil on canvas, 42″ diameter

Reconstructing Eden Series

reconstructed from broken toys and altar platform

photo 1

“Progress”   Made from inflated toy guns, plastic sheet , push pins, metal screw and abaca strings  2014

photo 2

“Baggage”

Made from inflated plastic mannequin, corrugated boxes, baggage stickers, duct tape , cellophane tape, glue, metal screw, push pins, abaca strings and metal hook.  2014

“Untitled”

“Poon (iii)”

reconstructed from a broken religious figurine, plaster of paris, industrial paint.

“Propaganda”

Collage and Spray Epoxy Paint