Joy Mallari

(b. 1966, Rizal, Philippines)

Joy Mallari’s art practice is rooted at the heart of storytelling. Her work thrives at the intersection of art and literature as her paintings, illustrations, and installations conjure layered worlds that are at once intimate and political, personal and collective. She employs mythic, expressive imagery to evoke the emotional and psychological texture of lived experience; while her visual language is both poetic and charged, often drawing from folklore, memory, history, and contemporary realities. Her practice is not merely illustrative but imaginative and critical, examining notions of identity, displacement, survival and nostalgia.

Mallari majored in Painting at the University of the Philippines and became actively involved in several art collectives during the vibrant period of cultural reawakening following the EDSA Revolution. These included Grupong Salingpusa (1985–1992), Artista ng Bayan or ABAY (1988–1990), and Sanggawa (1994–1998).

She received the Juror’s Choice Award at the ASEAN Art Awards (2000), was a finalist in the Osaka Triennale (2001), and won the National Children’s Book Award for her illustrations in Doll Eyes (2012). Most notably, she was honored with the Solidarity Award by the Filipino Workers Center in Los Angeles (2005) for her outstanding contributions to cultural work and advocacy within the Filipino diaspora.

In the early years of her career, Mallari worked in the pre-digital animation industry. From 2014 onward, she expanded her involvement in the art world through management and production roles, currently serving as exhibition and production manager for Mark Justiniani’s Infinity Series. This includes the major immersive installation Arkipelago for the Philippine Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale in Italy (2019).

Her commitment to art as a collective and socially rooted practice led her, alongside artist Mark Justiniani, to co-found several initiatives aimed at fostering artistic exchange and cultural development. In 2018, they established WAT Art Initiatives in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, followed by the founding of Aninagan Art Initiatives and the Tungtung Alon Art Foundation in Tanay, Rizal in 2022—all dedicated to nurturing dialogue, education, and experimentation among Filipino artists and cultural workers.