Maria Taniguchi’s midcareer survey “body of work” at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) in Manila marked the first moment that audiences could take in the full breadth of her practice. With 32 works spanning over nearly two decades, the exhibition centered on her ongoing series of untitled “brick paintings,” which the artist initiated in 2008. Curated by MCAD director Joselina Cruz, the show gathered a score of these monochrome abstract canvases, highlighting her sustained effort and formal consistency.

A winner of the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2015, Taniguchi grew up in the Philippines, earned an MFA at Goldsmiths in London in 2009, and now resides primarily in Manila. The artist makes her paintings in a time-consuming and labor-intensive manner. Their surfaces are covered with meticulously arranged rectilinear forms—each “brick” uniform in shape and size, outlined first by hand in graphite and then filled in with black or dark gray paint. These works, often several meters in width and height, address the materiality of painting, reflecting on the relationship between space and perception.