The old Hiligaynon saying, “Imo ulo, imo kolo; imo kalag, imo bakero,” means, “Your head is yours to carry; your soul is yours to tend.” While it may sound like a blunt warning to mind your own business, it actually speaks to personal responsibility—that our lives’ paths are deeply shaped by our own actions and ambitions.

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For his fifth solo exhibition, Guimaras-based visual artist and architect Frank Alexi Nobleza presents mixed-media canvases that ruminate on humanity’s often fraught relationship with nature. His paintings reach beyond mere preservation, extending a call to care for the soul of the land itself, recognizing our profound interdepedendence.

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In Bakero, a diptych, Nobleza centers the cowherd—a figure historically low in social standing. Here, the half-living, half-dead cow suggests humanity’s need to become true stewards in sustaining the planet. Another series, titled Imo ("Yours"), inverts familiar landscapes, with tree silhouettes cast as human shadows. This unusual perspective emphasizes both our unity with and estrangement from nature. With On This Site, Soon To Rise, Nobleza critiques real estate slogans, creating a triptych that imagines a barren future—tree shadows and ghostly cattle the only signs left on a desolate landscape. In this bleak vision, humanity faces a distant, ambiguous horizon where hope may yet linger. Meanwhile, Kalag reflects on the soul’s place amidst modernity’s encroachments. Here, a figure in a red necktie, symbolizing industry and civilization, appears disconnected from the skeletal avian behind him, posing the question: what has this progress truly cost? Nobleza invokes the butterfly—a symbol of the soul in Filipino folklore—to remind us of the spirit’s enduring call.

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Imo Kalag, Imo Bakero (Your Soul Is Yours to Tend) issues an urgent appeal: to hear the cries of the natural world and recognize the consequences of our own individual aspirations on all living things. In the end, we alone are responsible for our life’s direction. As the bakeros of this earth, tending to it is akin to saving our souls.  (JA Balaguer)