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Aeson Baldevia, a Negrense visual artist who wears many hats as an image-maker, will hold his first solo exhibit, “Chance Encounters”, at the Orange Project at the Art District in Barangay Mandalagan, Bacolod City, and July 5 to August 31.
Homegrown and currently based in Silay City, Baldevia’s works have been featured in galleries across the globe over the years, including Switzerland, Belgium, London, South Korea, and Germany.
His creative works include travel and commercial photography, documentary, and fine art image-making.
As a visual storyteller, he explores the profound themes of human behavior and emotion, relationships, and the indomitable spirit of survival within one’s environment.
At the age of 14 years old, Baldevia joined his first photo contest and was first runner-up at the Negros Environment Week against industry professionals two to three times his age.
His momentum continued as he attended college at the University of St. La Salle, where he took up Liberal Arts and Commerce under AB Communications and a BS in Marketing.
Baldevia left a legacy as the first and only four-time recipient of the university’s Corps d’ Elite Award for visual arts, Best Campus Photoblogger, and Campus Photojournalist in Western Visayas.
He has the instinct of a historian. His keen sensitivity to preserving cultural significance and defying impermanence through his photography catapulted him to his first international stage in 2017 when he had the distinction of being the lone Filipino finalist in the Celeste Prize in London for his work “Antes Sanda Madura / Before They Are Gone,” a visual homage to the indigenous community of Panay Bukidnon that documented their way of living.
This same sensitivity can be seen in his other works as well, such as in “Ato Bala” for Art Fair 2023, “Whispers of Light: A Homage to Félix Laureano” for Viva EXCON 2023, and Para Sa Pumapasada: A Tribute to the Filipino Jeepney.
Notably, his photo entry “Look Up” was awarded third place at the FIBA International Photo Contest 2019 and prominently displayed at the House of Basketball in Switzerland.
The caliber of his work did not go unnoticed by the regional art community. In 2018, Orange Project offered him to exhibit his work with them. It was in this space that he debuted his work in a gallery format as part of a group show entitled “Cycles 003.” That was the start of a prolific collaboration between the Baldevia and the contemporary art gallery.
In November, 2023, Baldevia was part of a group artist residency under a collaborative project between Orange Project and Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig, where the Filipino artists recreated their exhibit, “Majica.” From his prolific 40-day residency in Leipzig, Baldevia recently published two photobooks, namely, “From Point A to Point B” and “Midpoints Matter.”*