“Set the Weirdos Free” is the first solo exhibition of Filipino-American visual artist John Magnus in the Philippines. The exhibition features a curation of expressionistic, hybridized collage, with references to street art, on wooden panels and canvas that illustrates the artist’s musings on the theory of the universe through interpretations of Hermetica or ancient texts on the relationship between human beings, the cosmos, and God, a subject matter that has taken the artist by obsession.

His first ever solo exhibition is also autobiographical, revealing multifaceted imagery referencing urban life, socio-cultural dynamics, and the esoteric; and in the process, presenting truths that he has discovered through a layering of images and sometimes text, on canvas or wood. Also unique to his paintings are verses repeatedly hand-drawn on his works – like the magical chants of a healer found on an artwork that he calls a sensory-deprivation chamber for healing.

On top of everything, “Set the Weirdos Free” is Magnus’ way of embracing the strange and beautiful parts of his self, of all the questions and feelings that he has inside, which ultimately gives him a feeling of emancipation.

— by Lorraine Datuin