A compact show at Silverlens, a gallery with locations in Manila and New York City, distills of the career of Carlos Villa (1936-2013), a San Francisco-based artist, performer and teacher of Filipino descent whose pioneering multiculturalist advocacy and fantastically inventive art — a marvelous feathered coat here is a cross between a shaman’s robe and a chasuble — is only now becoming widely known.

As blue-chip American galleries continue to expand into Asia with outposts in Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul, Silverlens has headed in the opposite direction. Closely watched by collectors and curators in east and west alike, the Manila gallery, which focuses on contemporary artists from south-east Asia and its diaspora, opened a location in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood last year. The opening was a bustling, exuberant affair. At the event, Isa Lorenzo recalls, one visitor “gave us both a big hug and said, ‘This is it. This is gravity. This is where people will come to see themselves and be represented.’”

Corinne De San Jose’s ACC grant will enable her to integrate works of visual art and sound design by learning more about art practices that use sound in sculpture and installations, as well as artmaking and technology involving the visualization of sound.