IJWBAA [eej-wah] is a Filipino digital artist and the first Filipino recognized in the Techspressionism movement. 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 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.

Frenemy

Frenemy

Decolonial Minimalism Founding Work - Culture (Wika)

Size: 1400 x 1400 pixels

Medium: Digital Art

Artist: IJWBAA

Year: 2025

Description:

The artwork "frenemy" uses the familiar style of Western minimalism—a repetitive grid and limited color palette—but completely subverts its tranquil purpose. While artists like Agnes Martin used grids to suggest universal harmony, "frenemy" uses the grid to emphasize relentless imposition. The dense yellow-orange squares are filled with constantly shifting text like "language and literature", "religion and beliefs," "history and records," and "culture and arts." This repetition isn't soothing; it is a claustrophobic visual that represents the persistent, systemic nature of cultural erasure and the destruction of indigenous Filipino narratives during colonization.

The choice of text directly confronts the specific tools of colonial power. By repeating the categories of cultural life, the work highlights the specific areas where the colonial "frenemy" presented itself as a benefactor while simultaneously replacing and suppressing native systems. The washed-out yellow-orange color palette reinforces this critique, suggesting both the faded records that document this history and the obscured "golden age" of pre-colonial heritage. The visual tension transforms the minimalist structure from a contemplative space into a site of historical and cultural confrontation.

Ultimately, "frenemy" functions as a powerful decolonial minimalist statement. It takes the aesthetic language of the colonizer (Western modernism) and turns it into a critique of the colonizer's ideology. The title perfectly summarizes the artwork's message: the colonial power acted as a "frenemy," offering supposed progress while committing acts of cultural violence. The piece demands that the viewer look past the surface harmony of the grid to acknowledge the profound, painful reality of cultural restructuring and loss beneath the seemingly innocuous surface of history.

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Publication:

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

Exhibitions:

IJWBAA. Filipino Folklore and Identity: What Makes a Filipino? The Wrong Biennale – 7th Edition, Open Pavilion, 1 Nov. 2025 – 31 Mar. 2026, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ijwbaa-eej-wah.