A Bird, A Cage, A God of Flowers

MONO8 is pleased to announce the opening of A Bird, A Cage, A God of Flowers, a compelling new exhibition featuring the works of Pepe Delfin, on view until 27 September.

In A Bird, A Cage, A God of Flowers, Pepe Delfin confronts the complexities of trauma through her mastery of geometric abstraction.

The exhibition title borrows from Mary Oliver’s The Kookaburras, referencing three potent metaphors that encapsulate the tension between containment and liberation.

Delfin embraces this symbolic framework to explore how trauma alters one’s capacity to communicate, using abstraction as a tool for emotional navigation.

Drawing on the principles of trauma-informed care, Delfin’s visual language relies on circumlocution in expressing such ordeals.

Through the deconstruction of line, color, and form, she anatomizes psychological and physical distress without resorting to literal representation.

Her compositions function as abstract narratives, encoding emotional content into structured visual elements.

In doing so, Delfin transforms mathematical precision into emotional resonance, inviting viewers to engage with trauma not as spectacle, but as a lived experience shaped by nuance and resistance.

Each piece offers a new approach to articulating the inarticulable, creating space for reflection, empathy and healing.

This exhibition becomes more than a showcase of form, it is an intimate offering, where visual structure speaks in place of language and abstraction becomes a conduit for release.

Public program for the exhibition is co-presented with Lunas Collective.

Exploring abstract forms through geometric shapes and lines, Delfin’s careful placement of elements produces visual narratives of experiences, observations, and relationships with people and contemporary life.

Her paintings, illustrations and video installations include scenarios that depict solitude and the multitude of expressions through bright colors and structures as a form of expression, unbounded by traditional forms of image-making.

Delfin is influenced by Josef and Anni Albers' studies and theories on color, where color is never singular and always presents itself in continuous fluxes, constantly linked to the changes in environment and conditions.

Delfin's approach to geometrical abstraction broadens the perspective one can take in portraying reality according to the artist's observation and perception.

The non-illusionistic settings found in her works prompt a realm filled with cues that engage the viewers to form their understanding of images, meanings and realities.