Bio
Leonard Aguinaldo (b. 1967, Baguio City, Philippines; lives and works in Baguio City, Philippines) is a Baguio and Benguet-based artist whose practice is inseparable from the highlands that raised him. Known for his masterful carving on wood and rubber, he transforms these humble materials into striking relief prints and mixed-media works that feel both ancestral and contemporary. His pieces function as vivid ethnographic records-reverent yet unafraid to be satirical-capturing the cadences of local life, the humor folded into everyday customs, and the quiet spiritual worlds that hover beneath Cordilleran culture.
Over nearly two decades of artistic practice, Aguinaldo has built a body of work that stands as both cultural testimony and creative innovation. His artworks, exhibited widely in the Philippines and internationally, are celebrated for how they champion the narratives of upland communities.
His deep immersion in community life continues to be the force that animates his work. Rather than observing from afar, Aguinaldo moves within the highland cultures that inspire him-listening, learning, absorbing the stories that become the backbone of his imagery. In doing so, he creates art that is not merely about place, but from place: textured with memory, weighted with meaning, and anchored by the people whose lives he honors.
Today, Leonard Aguinaldo remains one of the most distinctive voices in Northern Luzon's contemporary artscape. His works serve as a bridge between past and present, local and global, personal and communal-holding space for a people's story, carved with both tenderness and truth.
Leonard Aguinaldo (b. 1967, Baguio City, Philippines; lives and works in Baguio City, Philippines) is a Baguio and Benguet-based artist whose practice is inseparable from the highlands that raised him. Known for his masterful carving on wood and rubber, he transforms these humble materials into striking relief prints and mixed-media works that feel both ancestral and contemporary. His pieces function as vivid ethnographic records-reverent yet unafraid to be satirical-capturing the cadences of local life, the humor folded into everyday customs, and the quiet spiritual worlds that hover beneath Cordilleran culture.
Over nearly two decades of artistic practice, Aguinaldo has built a body of work that stands as both cultural testimony and creative innovation. His artworks, exhibited widely in the Philippines and internationally, are celebrated for how they champion the narratives of upland communities.
His deep immersion in community life continues to be the force that animates his work. Rather than observing from afar, Aguinaldo moves within the highland cultures that inspire him-listening, learning, absorbing the stories that become the backbone of his imagery. In doing so, he creates art that is not merely about place, but from place: textured with memory, weighted with meaning, and anchored by the people whose lives he honors.
Today, Leonard Aguinaldo remains one of the most distinctive voices in Northern Luzon's contemporary artscape. His works serve as a bridge between past and present, local and global, personal and communal-holding space for a people's story, carved with both tenderness and truth.