Homeward in art: Lopez collection returns to Iloilo with stories of women and migration

For the Lopez family, bringing a portion of their renowned art collection to Iloilo is more than a logistical exercise in transport and curation — it is, in many ways, a homecoming.

Exploring the intersections of gender, movement, and identity, the Lopez Group Foundation, Inc. (LGFI) has opened its latest exhibition, Sown by the Traveler: Women and Migrants in Philippine Art, at the University of the Philippines Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage.

Running until 6 June, the exhibition gathers paintings from the Lopez Museum and Library, curated to foreground stories of the Filipino diaspora — often told in fragments, and just as often left at the margins.

Mercedes “Cedie” Lopez-Vargas, executive director of the museum, framed the exhibition as both recovery and recognition.

“The exhibit is a cultural event — more aptly, a celebration of stories that are very Filipino, but often overlooked in national narratives — stories of women and migrants,” she said during the launch. “Here, history and culture meet art, and speak to the realities of the Filipino today.”

The works trace a quiet but persistent thread: artists as travelers, and the Filipino as a people shaped by movement. Across canvases, departure and return, distance and memory, become recurring motifs.

Lopez-Vargas also underscored the “soft power” of art — its ability to inspire, educate, and connect across generations without spectacle.

Yet the exhibition’s resonance extends beyond its themes. Its staging in Iloilo carries its own significance. For the Lopez family, whose roots trace back to the province, the exhibition is a gesture of return — an affirmation that heritage belongs not only in institutions, but in the communities from which it grew.

“For us, bringing the collection to Iloilo is a way of giving back,” Lopez-Vargas noted, emphasizing that heritage is a shared legacy meant to be experienced where it is most deeply felt.

For Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas, the exhibition affirms Iloilo’s steady emergence as a cultural center — a vision she shares with her father, former mayor Jerry Treñas.

In her remarks, she recalled a childhood shaped by art, where conversations around paintings were part of daily life.

“I grew up in a home where art was part of our lives,” she said. “We didn’t just look at it — we talked about it, listened to it, and shared stories through it.”

She also expressed gratitude for the opportunity to bring works by masters such as Anita Magsaysay-Ho and Alfonso Ossorio closer to the public, noting that such encounters deepen a community’s sense of identity.

“We dream of Iloilo becoming an arts capital of the Philippines,” Treñas added. “And today, we carry that vision forward — honoring our shared story as Ilonggos and as Filipinos.”

The exhibition echoes the vision of the late Oscar Lopez, former LGFI chairman, who saw the museum as a bridge across the cultural discontinuities shaped by colonization and migration.

Through its Filipiniana collection — spanning from the pre-colonial past to the present — the exhibition invites viewers to trace these continuities, and perhaps, to see themselves within them.

The opening drew key figures from Iloilo’s cultural and civic spheres, including Franklin Drilon and Clement Camposano, highlighting a shared effort among the private sector, academe, and local government in stewarding heritage.

Sown by the Traveler is open to the public at the UPV Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage from 23 January to 6 June.