Faculty of Arts & Science

Criticism and Curatorial Practice

Asia Ruggiero

Patrick Cruz

Patrick Cruz (besides artmaking and teaching), Cruz is a practising albularyo, a faith healer in the shamanic tradition in the Philippines. Cruz considers the role of spirituality, improvisation, intuition, and play as emancipatory tools to reify embedded colonial frameworks and ideologies in art making and collective dreaming. Cruz employs cooking, healing, meditation, divination, exorcism, and hypnosis as research methodologies to exhume and retrieve hidden knowledge. His works are informed by the intersections of the occult and their syncretic manifestations and relationships in contemporary life. Most recently, Cruz has been making works using material retrieved from past-life regressions to sidestep cultural and ancestral identity.Four works from Cruz are featured as part of the exhibition Sunlight in a Deep Forest, on view at Mark Christopher Gallery March 27 to April 17 2026. Curated by Asia Ruggiero. Documentation by Philip Leonard Ocampo.

“Patrick Cruz, Duende Matrix, 2026. Brass and nails, 8.5 x 8 in.Patrick Cruz, Infinito Matrix, 2026. Brass and nails, 7 x 6.5 in.Patrick Cruz, Christo Matrix, 2026. Brass and nails 6 x 5.5 in.Cast in Cavite and Batangas, Philippines, this assemblage brings together anting-anting, Filipino talismans associated with protection, healing, and the warding off of curses, the evil eye, sorcery, and other negative energies. Rooted in pre-colonial traditions, these forms later absorbed Christian and esoteric symbolism alongside indigenous imagery in the wake of colonization. Within this grouping, the Infinito Deus holds a particularly prominent place in Philippine mysticism, understood as a Christian-syncretized equivalent of Bathala, while the Infinito Matrix gathers a wider range of talismans, including the Duende, many of which carry related protective properties. Here, the talismans remain in a sleep state: newly cast, they mark the threshold just before transformation, when material form has emerged but spiritual activation has not yet occurred. Cruz, a practicing albularyo, or faith healer within a shamanic tradition in the Philippines, is able to awaken these talismans through their practice. Patrick Cruz, Introduction to Etiquette, 2016-2025. Silverware, 35 x 23 in.Forged from metal forks, spoons and knives, the palm tree operates as both a marker of place and a loaded symbol of the Philippines, evoking tropical abundance, labour, resilience, and the persistent shaping of the land by colonial fantasy. Filipinos traditionally practiced kamayan, a way of eating with the hands as an embodied and communal gesture, colonial rule gradually normalized utensil-based dining. Here, the palm becomes both a marker of homeland and a reminder of the lingering grip of colonization and western intervention. ”