Jon Poblador at Bridgette Mayer Gallery

Jon Poblador’s Quiet Triumph: A Meditation in Color

The Bridgette Mayer Gallery presents “Chapel of Color”, the long-awaited first solo exhibition by Filipino American painter Jon Poblador. On view from June 3 through August 2, 2025, “Chapel of Color” represents a pivotal moment in Poblador’s distinguished career—an exhibition that marks both a homecoming and a breakthrough. Featuring 20 new paintings and drawings, the show is a luminous celebration of Poblador’s distinct visual language: one that finds transcendence in repetition, harmony in restraint, and meaning in process.

^{“Composition No. 25” 2023, Acrylic on linen over panel, 11 x 14 inches}

An MFA graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Jon Poblador has spent the past two decades cultivating a body of work that marries conceptual discipline with poetic introspection. Now based in Hong Kong, Poblador has exhibited across the globe—from New York and Philadelphia to Guangzhou and Phoenix—but “Chapel of Color” at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery is perhaps his most personal statement yet. Through rectangular grids, methodically layered color fields, and subtle asymmetries, Poblador constructs a visual sanctuary—a space where the viewer is encouraged to pause, reflect, and engage in a deeper form of seeing.

The artist reception and talk on June 27th, from 5:00 to 7:30 PM, will provide an opportunity to hear Jon Poblador speak about his meditative approach to painting. “I don’t expect these works to offer answers or tell stories,” Poblador notes. “Instead, I hope they create a space for quiet observation and introspection.” This invitation to slow down—so rare in our image-saturated world—lies at the heart of “Chapel of Color”.

Jon Poblador’s Visual Rituals: The Sacred in the Repetitive

What makes Jon Poblador’s work resonate so deeply is its near-spiritual commitment to stillness and simplicity. Working in thin, transparent layers of paint, Poblador doesn’t chase spectacle; he builds meditative surfaces through quiet insistence. His compositions, often built within a rectilinear grid, pulse with rhythm and nuance. Upon first observation, the work may appear minimal. But the longer one lingers, the more complexities rise to the surface—shifts in hue, brushwork imperfections, and the artist’s human hand made visible.

^{(left) “Composition No. 35” 2024, Acrylic on cotton over panel, 35.5 x 23.5 inches
(right) “Composition No. 36” 2024, Acrylic on linen over panel, 23.5 x 20 inches}

In this exhibition, Poblador treats painting not as a means of representation, but as a ritual act. The grid, often a symbol of control and order, becomes in his hands a flexible framework within which imperfection, irregularity, and feeling are given space to emerge. This is where the power of “Chapel of Color” lies: in the tension between structure and spontaneity, between silence and vibration.

The 20 works on view in “Chapel of Color” quietly challenge our perception of time. Each canvas rewards not a glance, but a gaze. In a world driven by speed and visual overload, Jon Poblador reminds us that slowness is an act of resistance—and beauty can be found in the overlooked.