Good news from the periphery of Pinoy showbiz

A kin of filmmaker, Nuel Naval is a painter-sculptor. And a daughter of Rey Valera is a painter.

We’ve been missing Direk Nuel Naval’s always optimistically ending films. His last was Family of Two, an entry in the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival top-billed by Sharon Cuneta and Alden Richards. 

And so when we once attended an art exhibit and saw some sculptures and paintings created by someone with Naval as a surname, we immediately asked the artist if he was related to the filmmaker.

“Yes, Nuel Naval is my uncle. We both come from Navotas!” replied sculptor-painter Patrick Naval-without batting an eyelash, as the saying goes.

The event was one of the exhibits organized by Marie Pe-Yang, practically every two months or so, as president of the UST Atelier Alumni Association for some years now. The Association seems to be the most active alumni group from the University of Santo Tomas. 

The Association’s members have been increasing as many graduates of the former UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts and the present College of Fine Arts and Design who hardly join exhibits get warmly encouraged by Pe-Yang to show her their works so she can schedule any of them (or as many as three artworks) in the Association’s curated exhibits. The dean of UST College of Fine Arts, Mary Christine Que, a UST alumna herself, has attended several Atelier group shows. 

In a recent group show, Pe-Yang’s favorite coverage photographer, Nilo Mark Odiamar, told us that he was glad he caught Rey Valera’s daughter and managed to pose her with one of her paintings in the exhibit. 

If the woman he is referring to goes by the surname “Valera,” then she’s most likely not a daughter of the famous OPM singer — because it is not the singer’s real surname. Rey’s real surname is Guardiano.

“The daughter’s name is Clarisse Guardiano Aguilera. I’ve always known that Rey is not a Valera but a Guardiano,” Odiamar corrected us.

Naval has participated in three to four exhibits put up by UST Atelier, the last one being “Seated in Sentiment: A Rocking Chair Art Exhibition” at Eastwood Mall Atrium in celebration of Grandparents’ Day last 11 September. 

The exhibition features rocking chairs transformed into one-of-a-kind artworks by Thomasian artists, symbolizing S.I.L.Y.A.’s advocacy of providing seniors with comfort and dignity in public spaces. 

The exhibit, which opened at 1 p.m., was a joint project of UST Atelier Alumni Association, Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, S.I.L.Y.A. (Sa Iyo Lola at Lolo, Yantok Aming Alay). 

Naval’s work featured a mother and child on the rocking chair’s back rest and bees on its arms. “It took me eight hours to do it,” he shared during the exhibit. “It’s not easy to paint a rocking chair because you cannot turn it around, unlike a canvas.” 

Naval also had two sculptural works at the Annual Sculptural Review of Gallery Nine at the Art Center of SM Megamall, which opened at 6 p.m. on 11 September. Other UST Atelier members participated in the exhibit, including Anita del Rosario and Elmer Dumlao. 

Aguilera had three paintings featuring small boats at UST Atelier’s Vision Spectrum exhibit at exhibit at Galerie Joaquin in Bonifacio Global City on 14 to 30 June 2025. She started participating in Thomasian artists exhibits only a few years ago simply because she has been a variously employed artist in private companies and in a government corporation. 

Her father occasionally features her and her paintings in his social media accounts as Valera.