Celline Marge Mercado
b. 1997, Philippines
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Art (2024)
With Distinction
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
BFA Information Design, BFA Art Management,
Minor in Japanese Studies (2019)
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
Summer Session (2018)
Waseda University
Tokyo, Japan
Jesuit Educational Exchange Program (2017)
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, California, USA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
The heart of the matter*
10 April - 11 May 2025
Trocadero Projects, Melbourne, Australia
Somehow I can't stop eating
24 June - 5 August 2022
Galleria Duemila, Pasay City, Philippines
A Soft Place to Land
3 - 24 July 2022
Pintô Art Museum, Antipolo, Philippines
*Exhibition Grant
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025, forthcoming, opens November 28 / Ako ay may kaibigan, kasama ko kahit saan (I have a friend; where I go, they go)*
Incinerator Gallery, Aberfeldie, Melbourne, Australia
2025, forthcoming, opens August 14 / Gravitas, curated by Leslie de Chavez
West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2025, forthcoming, opens June 21 / Where do the stars land? as part of HOME 25: Invisible Cities, curated by Ka Yan So
Drum Theatre, Dandenong, Melbourne, Australia
2025, Re/Connect*
The Dax Centre, Parkville, Melbourne, Australia
2025, DEBUT XXI*,
curated by Emmy Robinson-Shaw and Veronica Charmont
Blindside Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2025 / Between Starshine and Clay III
Altro Mondo Creative Space, Makati, Philippines
2024 - 2025 / Mirrored Worlds
Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau and the Museum of Chinese Australian History, Melbourne
2024 / Master of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
2024 / The Analogue Attachments of Modern Love, curated by Louis Ho
39+ Art Space, Singapore
2023 / Illuminations, curated by Carlomar Daoana
Pintô Art Museum, Antipolo, Philippines
2023 / object orientations, curated by Carlos Quijon Jr.
Gravity Art Space, Quezon City, Philippines
2023 / Umbilicus, curated by Jan Sunday
Kalawakan Spacetime, Quezon City, Philippines
2023 / The Wild Garden of Childhood, curated by Empty Scholar
Modeka Art Space, Makati, Philippines
2023 / Eat Only When You're Angry
Space Encounters Gallery, Pasig, Philippines
2022 / First Edition
Cartellino, Mandaluyong, Philippines
2021 / Hitherto IV: Lamentations, curated by Leslie de Chavez
Project Space Pilipinas, Lucban, Quezon, Philippines
2020 / Marciano Galang Acquisition Prize
Ateneo Art Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2020 / For My Eyes Only
The Grey Space, San Juan, Philippines
2018 / The Tiny Show
Prism Gallery, Makati, Philippines
2017 / Thinking FWD: The 18th Thacher Annual
Thacher Gallery, San Francisco, USA
*Exhibition Grant
PROJECTS
Between the Lines
Practice research
July 2022 - June 2024
RMIT University, City Campus
Melbourne, Australia
In the Spaces We Mend
Curatorial
16 March - 29 April 2019
Rizal Library Special Collections
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
AWARDS & GRANTS
Quick Response Arts Grant (2025)
Visual Art
City of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
DEBUT XXI (2025)
Blindside Gallery
Melbourne, Australia
Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence (2024)
Master of Fine Art, School of Art, RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia
RMIT MFA Graduating Student Lowensteins Arts Management Award (2024)
Master of Fine Art, RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia
Marciano Galang Acquisition Prize (2020)
Shortlisted
Ateneo Art Gallery
Quezon City, Philippines
Loyola Schools Award for the Arts (2019)
Winner for Mixed Media, Visual Arts
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
Ateneo Socio Civic Engagement for National Development Awards (2019)
Citation for the project 'In the Spaces We Mend'
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
Thacher Annual (2017)
Curator's Choice Award
Thacher Gallery
San Francisco, California, USA
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
“Between the Lines: Exploring Filipino diasporic identity and colonial trauma through sculptural installations” in Australasian Network for Asian Art Postgraduate Symposium (2024)
Collab, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; RMIT University, Melbourne; and the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
“The Art of Celline Mercado” in The Art of the Domestic (2022)
Department of Fine Arts
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
“Introspective Art” in Heights Art Staff Training Talk (2022)
Heights Ateneo
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
“The Making of In the Spaces We Mend” in Beyond Indelible Pain: History, Memory, and the Actuality of Wartime Violence (2019)
Ateneo Japanese Studies Program
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
PUBLICATION
“Between the Lines: Wrapping as Art-Making, Introspection and Decolonisation,” Surface Design Journal, Volume 48 No. 2, Wrapping & Binding, Summer 2024.
OTHER EXPERIENCE
Associate Creative Producer
Student Life, Creative, RMIT University (2023 - 2024)
Executive for Marketing
RMIT Master of Fine Art Graduation Club (2023 - 2024)
Curatorial Assistant
Metropolitan Museum of Manila (2021 - 2022)
Gallery and Research Assistant
Ateneo Art Gallery (2021)
Art Editor
Heights Ateneo (2017 - 2018)