David Medalla The Philippines, 1942-2020

David Medalla (1938–2020, Manila) was a pioneering Filipino-born artist whose practice encompassed performance, installation, kinetic sculpture, and participatory art. He moved across Manila, New York, London, Paris, and Berlin, connecting avant-garde communities worldwide.

He gained prominence in the 1960s with his kinetic Cloud Canyons bubble machines, which became icons of ephemeral, participatory art. His relational piece A Stitch in Time invited collective involvement, transforming everyday acts into poetic and political gestures.

Medalla also founded Signals Gallery in London (1964), a hub for experimental international artists, and later the London Biennale, continuing his role as a catalyst for collaborative and socially engaged art. Throughout his career, Medalla challenged institutional conventions and embraced activism, collaboration, and play, leaving a profound legacy within kinetic and participatory art. His works remain part of major museum collections worldwide.

Selected Exhibitions

2026 — El cielo es negro de noche, Caniche, Ibarrangelu, ES, in collaboration with Baró

2026 — Le Désir Cinétique..., Baró Paris, Paris, FR, in collaboration with Mountains, Berlin, DE

2024–2025 — In Conversation with the Cosmos, Hammer Museum, LA, US; Museo Tamayo, MX

2021–2022 — Parables of Friendship, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, DE; Museion, Bolzano, IT

2018 — A Stitch in Time, Southbank Centre, London, UK

2017 — Viva Arte Viva, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, IT

2017 — Light to Night | A Stitch in Time, National Gallery Singapore, SG

2017 — Locus Solus. Omaggio ad Arthur Rimbaud, Galleria Enrico Astuni, Bologna, IT

2016 — Menos é Mais, Baró Galeria, SP, BR

2016 — How Art Became Active: 1960 to Now, Tate Modern, London, UK

2016 — I am an enigma, even to my self, Venus Over Manhattan, NY, US

2015 — Frieze Masters, London, UK, presented by Baró

2014 — AstroAcupunctured Men — A Cosmic Dialogue*, Performance, Inhotim, BR

2013 — 9th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, BR

2012 — Homage to Clarice Lispector, Baró Galeria, SP, BR

2012 — Migrations, Tate Britain, London, UK

2010 — The Mondrian Fan Club (The Secret History of Mondrian Fanclub —
Part 3: SO PULO), Baró, SP, BR

2000 — Force Fields, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

1998–1999 — Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949–1979, MOCA, LA, US; MAK, Vienna, AT; MOCA, Tokyo, JP

1989 — The Other Story, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

1972 — Documenta 5, Kassel, DE

1969 — When Attitudes Become Form, Kunsthalle Bern, CH

Collections

— Tate, London, UK

— Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), NY, US

— M+, Hong Kong, HK

— National Gallery Singapore, SG

— National Museum of the Philippines, Manila, PH

— Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila, PH

— Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, ES

— Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR

— Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London, UK

— Inhotim, Brumadinho, BR

— Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, AU

— Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, NZ