SPRUCE Gallery opens Squares of Water, the first solo exhibition of Filipino visual artist and architect Jeff Siscar curated by Ric Gindap, on April 11.The works hold structure in place, then deliberately withdraw its authority.

Siscar was trained in architecture at the University of Santo Tomas and now practices as a principal architect and co-founder of Celllo Design Collective, following his tenure as President of Stroca Design.

His discipline demands resolution. Buildings must stand. Lines must hold and decisions carry consequences. In his paintings, that contract loosens. Structure remains, but it no longer secures clarity. It sets the terms for uncertainty.

The spaces appear legible at first. Planes align. Surfaces suggest depth then something resists. Direction does not settle and perspective hesitates. What appears resolved opens again. What seems clear begins to turn. Siscar allows and heightens the disruption. 

There are traces of influence from the paradoxes of M.C. Escher surface in the handling of space. Giorgio de Chirico’s psychological staging appears in architectures that hold unease. René Magritte’s refusal of logic echoes in moments where the familiar shifts just enough. A restrained elasticity of perception recalls Salvador Dalí. 

Siscar’s figures enter intermittently, often alone. Suspended within thresholds that do not resolve. Their gestures remain incomplete and they occupy the interval before action settles. Where Marc Chagall’s figures drift in release, Siscar’s hesitate and remain within a decision that has not yet arrived.

Water moves through the works as both presence and condition. It behaves less as substance than as a proposition. One senses an affinity with Gaston Bachelard’s thinking that water as a site of memory and projection, holding interiority.

Geometry anchors the compositions. Circles, squares, triangles. Forms long associated with stability and essential order, echoes of Bauhaus reduction and Constructivist discipline.

Call it psychological spatialism, if a name is needed: spaces that register states of mind rather than fixed locations. The works remain open as they hold their position without resolving yours.

In Squares of Water, meaning does not arrive on command but stays in suspension, where looking and deciding collapse into the same act.

Venue
SPRUCE Gallery, UG3 City & Land Mega Plaza, ADB Avenue cor Garnet Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines

Artists
Jeff Siscar

Exhibition Dates
11 April – 8 May 2026

Gallery Hours
Monday – Saturday | 11AM – 9PM

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/sprucegalleryph/

Contact
sprucegalleryph@gmail.com

About the Artist

Jeff Siscar is a Filipino visual artist and architect based in the Philippines. He is a principal architect and co-founder of Celllo Design Collective, following his tenure as President of Stroca Design. His work explores the relationship between space, perception, and human experience.

About SPRUCE Gallery

SPRUCE is an independent magazine gallery and art space located in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, dedicated to print culture, contemporary art, and emerging creative voices. Known for its curated selection of international independent magazines, art publications, and little-known zines from around the world—many of which are available in the Philippines for the first time—the gallery champions independent publishing.

Alongside its advocacy for print culture, Spruce Gallery is committed to supporting emerging artists and creative underdogs whose work may not yet belong to the mainstream art world. The gallery believes that emerging artists are the lifeblood of artistic evolution, bringing fresh perspectives, experimentation, and new ways of seeing. Through exhibitions, talks, and collaborations, Spruce Gallery seeks to provide a platform for new voices and to connect them with audiences willing to discover, support, and grow with untested but promising visionaries.

(Text and images courtesy of SPRUCE Gallery)