ARTS AND CULTURE
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September 14, 2026
Updated September 13, 2026
ILOILO CITY — Heroes and villains from popular culture are getting a distinctly Filipino visual treatment in “POPTADOS: Pop Culture, Filipino Roots,” artist Noel Cabangbang’s third solo exhibition and his first solo show in Iloilo City.
The exhibition runs from Sept. 12 to Oct. 30, 2026, at the Museum of Philippine Economic History in Iloilo City.
For Cabangbang, POPTADOS brings together two interests that have long shaped his work: the pop culture characters he grew up with and the indigenous art, material culture, and heritage of the Philippines.
“I’ve always enjoyed drawing pop culture characters, and POPTADOS is my way of bringing that interest together with my fascination with Filipino culture and heritage,” Cabangbang said.
The exhibition’s name combines “pop culture” with “Pintados,” the historical term Spanish chroniclers used in reference to tattooed peoples of the Visayas.
“The title POPTADOS came from combining POP culture and PINTADOS, the name historically used by the Spanish for tattooed peoples of the Visayas,” Cabangbang said. “I also have to admit—‘POPTADOS’ just sounded like a really good mix of the two words, and I liked how catchy it was.”
While the name draws from that history, Cabangbang emphasized that the exhibition is not an attempt to document Pintados culture or Philippine tattooing traditions in a literal way.
“The exhibition itself is not solely about the Pintados or Filipino tattoo traditions,” he said. “I use the name more broadly as a starting point for bringing Filipino indigenous culture into the world of pop culture.”
POPTADOS consists of pen-and-ink drawings that reinterpret recognizable pop culture heroes and villains through visual elements associated with Philippine culture.
“POPTADOS is a series of pen-and-ink drawings where I take familiar pop culture characters—heroes and villains—and give them a Filipino twist,” Cabangbang said. “I reimagine them using elements such as indigenous tattoo designs, traditional Philippine weapons, clothing, and Baybayin.”
The approach allows familiar fictional characters to become entry points into Filipino visual traditions rather than subjects of historical reconstruction.
“In many ways, these works are also my own form of fan art and homage to characters and pop culture that I have enjoyed and grown up with,” Cabangbang said.
He stressed that viewers should approach the works as imaginative reinterpretations rather than scholarly representations of specific indigenous communities or historical periods.
“They are not meant to be serious historical reconstructions,” Cabangbang said. “They are simply my playful attempts to imagine these familiar figures through a Filipino visual lens.”
That playfulness also carries an educational purpose, with the drawings offering audiences visual encounters with cultural forms they may otherwise rarely see alongside contemporary popular imagery.
“At the same time, I hope the drawings can introduce people to some of our indigenous traditions, designs, weapons, and cultural heritage—especially those who may not be familiar with them,” Cabangbang said.
The Iloilo setting adds another layer to that dialogue between popular imagery and heritage.
The Museum of Philippine Economic History is an institution of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and is housed in the historic Bahay Kalakal ng Ynchausti y Compañia along Calle Real, now J.M. Basa Street. The building served as a trading house beginning in 1905 and became an NHCP museum in 2017, according to the commission’s national registry.
Placing POPTADOS in a museum concerned with Philippine history also situates Cabangbang’s contemporary fan-art vocabulary within a broader space devoted to remembering how Filipino society, trade, and culture developed over time.
Cabangbang said the exhibition is his third solo outing as an artist and marks the first time he has staged a solo exhibition in Iloilo City.
He also plans to extend the show beyond the museum by sharing more of the works through his Instagram art account.
“I’ll be posting more updates about the works online also at my IG art account so hope you follow along and stay updated as I share more from the exhibition,” Cabangbang said.
For the artist, however, the invitation to encounter the exhibition remains simple.
“I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed drawing them,” Cabangbang said.
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