Breakout 22-year-old visual artist explores themes of loss, grief, remembrance, and reckoning in her first one-woman show at Gallery BIG.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Contrary to her Gen Z peers, Fil-Am visual artist Chels Munger feels life is too short and unpredictable for nonchalance and emotional detachment.

“We don’t know what’s gonna happen even next week, next month — let alone five years. I think if there’s something that you want to be said, there’s something that you want to do, there’s something you want to act on — especially creatively — I really feel like we should just go for it,” the young artist says.

Five years ago, life  looked different for then-17-year-old Chels, who lived in Valencia, California with her parents and her only brother, Seth. Then came some unwelcome turbulence that changed the shape of their family — and then, her mother Rachel’s unexpected cancer diagnosis. After a valiant, three-year battle, her mom passed away in 2024, leaving Chels, then 20, and her brother Seth, then 18, to redefine what their family and future would look like.

“These past five years have been a lot of just me and my brother, really clinging together, and I think it really taught me to just… speak my voice. It’s like, okay, there’s no going back now. It’s really just me. All of this relies on me. I need to do this for myself. And if this is how I’m feeling, I should express it, because I bet there’s someone out there who feels the same way.”

Grief mixed with oil on canvas

Chels Munger leaves no feeling unexpressed in Glass Houses. Each piece feels like oil, acrylic, or various tactile media mixed in with the involuntary tears, the unarticulated ache, the deep longing and grief — and the eventual self-reckoning — that came with her mother’s loss.

“The first piece was “Counting Sheep”— and that whole piece was really about anticipatory grief,” Chels recounts.

“My mom was going through her treatments, and things just kept getting worse, you know. So a lot of it was, I guess, just expressing those feelings. The way things were going in the U.S., too. — I was even afraid to lose my brother. I think all those fears and anxieties manifested into that piece.”

The work was so powerful and emotionally resonant, that when Chels posted about it, her maternal grandfather — multi-awarded Filipino visual artist Roy Veneracion — messaged her to say how much he liked her work, and asked if she was ready to show her piece in the Philippines.

What Chels thought was meant to be a one-piece contribution to a group show, turned out to be the seeds — “a push”, she describes it — for around  20 completed works and her first solo exhibition in the Philippines.

A next-generation artist comes into her own

Besides the death of her mother, diving into painting was the plot twist Chels did not see coming.

“I was always really stubborn,” she admits. “So I was like, oh, my grandpa is a painter, so I’m gonna do everything but paint.”

As hard as she tried, though, painting was the only art form that allowed Chels to release and, quite literally, handle her emotions.

“I got to a point where, emotionally, I couldn’t strike exactly what I was feeling unless it was painting, and that’s really where it came out,” Chels shares. “At our house in the U.S.,  every single wall is filled with [Roy Veneracion] paintings. Wow! So I really did grow up looking at his work at all times and constantly observing it, even if we didn’t really get to paint together much. I definitely put a lot of those things kind of in the back of my head.”

As a debut exhibition, Glass Houses introduces the art public to Chels Munger’s unique style — informed by her influences and her lived experience, but decidedly and  boldly, her own. She writes in her artist statement: 

“Each piece’s surface consists of oil or acrylic paint, layered over with oil pastels, text cutouts, and tactile media. Text plays a central role in my process, leaving clues for narrative or meaning. Deeply inspired by music — especially the emotional complexity captured by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke — my work toes the line between tension and tenderness, exploring recurring themes of family, relationship dynamics, regression, and growth.”

“In my process, I feel like a sculptor chiseling away at a rugged surface until I find the form underneath. I invite viewers to explore these vulnerable corridors and discover what they find. Everything is up to your own interpretation; take what sticks and toss the rest. The work does not ask you to understand it, but rather to better understand yourself.”

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Glass Houses runs from October 1 to 25, 2026 at Gallery BIG, 4/F Main Wing of the Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City. 

For Opening Reception and Press Inquires: Email chelra.art@ninasnotebook.com and nathrondina@gmail.com.  

For Catalogue and Acquisition inquiries: Contact Gallery BIG on social media or call (+63 2) 8775.8888. You may also reach out directly to Gallery BIG sales staff: Megan (+63 977 8265943), Tess (+63 977 826 5989) or Darwin (+63 977 826 5980).

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