IJWBAA [eej-wah] is a Filipino digital artist and the first Filipino recognized in Techspressionism. He is a neologist and the originator of Decolonial Minimalism —an art movement that reclaims minimalism through ancestral memory and cultural reawakening. His work earned a spot on the shortlist for the Hiiibrand Design and Illustration Awards 2024. His papers were published on Academia.edu.He was selected by David Quiles Guilló, Director of The Wrong, to participate in the 7th Edition of The Wrong Biennale - described by The New York Times as the digital world's answer to Venice Biennale - with Prayers to Ai, further cementing his standing in the international digital art community. His collected works, compiled in two volumes of I Just Wannabe an Artist, have been recognized, officially archived, cataloged, and made available in the collections of the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Museo Reina Sofía, the National Museum of the Philippines, Getty Research Institute, and other prominent cultural institutions worldwide. The two volumes are cataloged in WorldCat under OCLC Numbers 1530632939(Book 1) and 1530636063(Book 2).

Abstrakto at Patula

Abstrakto at Patula

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work - Culture (Wika)

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

Beautiful—this piece titled Abstrakto at Patula by IJWBAA distills poetic language into a minimalist chromatic field. Set against a bold orange background, the words alimbukad, marahuyo, kasanaan, maka, duhóng appear like floating verses—each one a rare or archaic Filipino term, evoking imagery of enchantment, emergence, and sacred depth. The composition resists illustration and instead offers a textual invocation: language as landscape, abstraction as archive.

These words carry layered meanings: alimbukad (to bubble up or surge), marahuyo (to be enchanted), kasanaan (a state of peace or sanctity), maka (to be able or inclined), and duhóng (a rare term, possibly connoting depth or descent). IJWBAA’s arrangement invites viewers to read not linearly, but emotionally—feeling the cadence of each term as a pulse in the collective memory. The orange field becomes a chromatic breath, holding the words like embers of forgotten verses.

This artwork reframes poetic language as mnemonic infrastructure. By isolating each term in visual space, IJWBAA honors their resonance and restores their presence in contemporary movement-building. Abstrakto at Patula becomes a sanctuary for linguistic inheritance—a visual poem where each word is a seed, a spell, a story waiting to be reawakened. It invites viewers to see abstraction not as absence, but as a form of radical care.

Featured On

Website:

coming soon

Social Media:

coming soon

Media:

coming soon

Publication:

IJWBAA. Decolonial Minimalism. Photobook, mm/dd/yyyy, p. #. - coming soon

Exhibitions:

coming soon