“Daughters of Gaea” by Lydia Velasco

Marquis Events Place

July 3- 5, 2026

The earth has often been imagined as a nurturing mother, a source of life that holds memory within its soil. In Daughters of Gaea, Lydia Velasco turns to this ancient idea through women who seem to exist between the human and the elemental. Her figures do not stand apart from the landscape, they emerge from it. They suggest bodies shaped by the same forces that shape rivers, trees, and mountains. Nature becomes both their origin and their presence.

Velasco’s paintings draw from the language that has defined her practice for decades. Elongated faces, lowered gazes, and gestures that give each figure a sense of inner life. Lace veils, embroidered fabrics, heirloom jewelry, and floral motifs place them within a Filipino cultural setting without fixing them to one place or period. The women appear timeless. They recall saints, muses, ancestors, and ordinary people at once. Their stillness gives gravity to every glance and every hand. Each portrait feels less like a likeness than a state of mind.

The title invites another reading of these women. Gaea, the ancient personification of the earth, stands here as a symbol of creation, care, and renewal. Velasco’s muses inherit these qualities. They protect memory and carry tradition. Some appear alone in thought. Others lean toward one another in moments of closeness. These compositions suggest that care begins with the self and extends outward to family, community, and the land that sustains them. The recurring moon and open sky place these figures within larger cycles of time, where growth, loss, and return continue without end.

Rather than present nature as a distant landscape, Daughters of Gaea locates it within the human figure. The body becomes a living terrain where history, identity, and belonging meet. Velasco offers no grand narrative or fixed allegory. She creates a space for reflection. Her women remind us that our bond with the earth is not abstract. It is carried in memory, in culture, and in the ways we care for one another. Through Velasco’s work, the earth is not only the ground beneath our feet. It becomes a face that looks back at us.

Lydia Velasco was born in Navotas on December 27, 1942, the daughter of Jose Velasco – a set designer for LVN Studios – and his wife Melania. She majored Fine Arts at the University of Santo Tomas and later worked in Advertising as one of the first women in the industry. But the allure of her own artistic practice was too strong, and she eventually decided to become a full-time painter. She became a member of the Saturday Group, becoming familiar with such art luminaries as National Artists Hernando R. Ocampo and Cesar Legaspi—both of whom had already worked with her in advertising. And it was in advertising that Velasco discovered her particular passion in depicting the female form. “I was one of those that the bosses would ask to do the story boards for TV commercials of products such as Palmolive and Camay,” she recalls. “Whatever it is, I would make sure their faces contained certain expression-coy, seductive, smiling, or winsomely trying to attract attention. Even then, I already knew that I wanted to paint.”

“Daughters of Gaea” by Lydia Velasco will be on view at the Modern and Contemporary Art Festival (MoCAF) 2026, Booth 1, Marquis Events Place, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig from July 3 – 5, 2026. For inquiries, visit MoCAF’s Facebook (mocaf.net), Instagram (@mocafmanila), or email info@mocaf.net.