Gio Panlilio

Negotiating constriction and change through photography
By Alana Malika

Gio Panlilio, ‘Vessel VI’, 2024, photograph collage. Image courtesy of the artist.

Gio Panlilio (b.1994) is a Philippines-based curator, photo editor, and artist working primarily in photography. As a founding member of FotomotoPH, he is involved in organising exhibitions and other programmes dedicated to developing the photography scene across the Philippines. In 2017, he co-founded Tarzeer Pictures with his friends Enzo Razon and Dinesh Mohnani.

Installation view of ‘Home Holds Still’ (2024-25) by Hannah Reyes Morales at Tarzeer Pictures. Image courtesy of Gio Panlilio.

Panlilio’s photography practice is shaped by key periods of constriction and change in his personal life. He began exploring the medium during his time in New York pursuing an undergraduate degree in Economics. While nursing a torn ACL from playing basketball, Panlilio needed a new reason to move and go outside. After a year of recovery, Panlilio decided to experiment with street photography. As he began to capture mundane New York moments, photography became a reason for him to take the long way home, seek detours, and take trips.

Installation view of ‘A History of Hollows’ (2024) by Micaela Benedicto at Tarzeer Pictures. Image courtesy of Gio Panlilio.

Since 2017, Panlilio, Razon, and Mohnani have grown Tarzeer Pictures into a creative space that primarily functions as a gallery and a production agency. Based in Manila, Tarzeer Pictures has held exhibitions by artists Derek Tumala, Hannah Reyes Morales, Geloy Concepcion, JL Javier, and more. Panlilio has also exhibited his own work at the gallery, such as ‘View’ (2021). 

Under the restrictions of the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, Panlilio was once again stuck in his apartment like when he was recuperating from his knee injury. During this period, he developed a more deliberate approach from his street photography by capturing the only constant that kept marching on during the pandemic: time. ‘View’ is a longitudinal project that depicts recurring scenes from the people, rooftops, and streets that are visible from the window of his apartment in Makati. In ‘Rooftop - Workout’, Panlilio created a collage of a rooftop with people doing various exercises. The difference in exposures and textures of each tile in the constructed image reminds the audience that this togetherness is fabricated and that each instance is separated by time.

Gio Panlilio, ‘Vessel IV’, 2024, photograph collage. Image courtesy of the artist.

Panlilio continued his exploration of collage-making in his most recent exhibition ‘Temporary Constellations’ (2024) at Artinformal. The artist plays into the liminal essence of his emptied apartment, a room now devoid of furniture, residents, and other evidence of a lived in home, abstracts the images further through collage. Panlilio describes this process as one that “again filled (the room) with the weight of texture, shape and form.” 

Click here to read our dialogue with Gio Panlilio, where he speaks about founding Tarzeer Pictures, his artistic practice and latest solo exhibition ‘Temporary Constellations’ at Artinformal Gallery.