"The Longest Wait Makes the Prettiest Flowers" by Erikson Arcilla is on view at Art Underground until August 10, 2026Weathered limestone, slowly accumulating moss, and orchids in bloom form the unlikely ecosystem at the center of Erikson Arcilla’s The Longest Wait Makes the Prettiest Flowers. On view at Art Underground in San Juan until August 10, 2026, the body of work considers what happens when the durable and the delicate exist alongside one another—and the length of time it can take for life to establish itself in difficult terrain.
Arcilla renders each element with close attention to texture: the chalk and fractures of stone, the dense velvet of moss, and the translucence of orchid petals. Across the compositions, these contrasting forms come together in a quiet collaboration between the durable and the delicate.
The paintings are deliberately patient. Rather than focusing only on the eventual bloom, they consider the conditions that precede it. Here, growth does not depend on abundance. Instead, it happens through persistence and the gradual claiming of a surface that offers little.
When asked what "longest wait" means to him and how this idea connects to where he is in his life or artistic practice today, Arcilla shares with ABS-CBN Lifestyle: "The longest wait is that space between point A and point B. That can look like so many different things to different people in very different situations. It can be bliss, dread or a state of limbo even. Waiting is something every living thing is familiar with across different walks of life and it has no one clear image of how it can look like for someone or something."
He elaborates, "Personally, I have never been good with waiting to tell the truth, I don’t know if it’s my ADHD that fuels my wanting of immediate gratification or just simply a personal trait I have yet to conquer, but painting using oils helps you in that it forces you to wait. You cannot rush layers in an oil painting and it can take hours to days to dry before you can start working on the next layer. Working towards the completion of a painting is an exercise in waiting and patience."
According to Arcilla, life has its ups and downs; you get your highs and lows but that’s something everybody goes through. He shares further: "I’m getting married this year so that’s definitely something my fiancée and I are looking forward to. As someone who has trouble with delayed gratification, waiting is something I’ve looked at as something grueling and something to be endured. Looking back, I should have been more appreciative of the lags and spaces in between events that happen in life, and that I am now trying to enjoy the wait rather than struggle through it. Life also happens in the cracks and spaces between major shifts and I think it can be easy for one to take that for granted. Life isn’t a struggle between point A and point B, it is an ever-flowing state that we should take revel in if we want to enjoy it to the fullest."
A Study of Time and Form
Time becomes as central to the works as the natural forms Arcilla depicts. The stone carries the seasons it has endured. Moss represents years spent gradually softening its hardness. The orchid, meanwhile, embodies the long interval before flowering. Through these elements, The Longest Wait Makes the Prettiest Flowers becomes a meditation on the conditions under which beauty arrives. It also examines the distinction between belonging to something and becoming something.
The orchids in Arcilla’s works are neither simply ornamental nor subordinate to the rocks that support them. They remain distinct presences, asserting their own forms against the surfaces from which they grow.
Spring Kept in Secret, 48 x 36, Oil on Canvas (2026); Quiet Violets, 48 x 36, Oil on Canvas, (2026); At the End of the Long Wait, 48 x 36, Oil on Canvas, (2026)The paintings propose that integration and individuality do not have to exist in opposition. One can be rooted in a place and shaped by it while still remaining wholly oneself. Viewed together, the works offer a meditation on patience and perseverance, as well as the capacity of a landscape to eventually make space for something fragile to flourish. The exhibition’s title encapsulates this idea. Here, the “longest wait” is not treated simply as a delay. It is a process—the slow and deliberate becoming that takes place before anything worth seeing emerges.
Upon observing that the orchids remain distinctly themselves even as they grow from and are shaped by their surroundings, we asked the artist what the relationship between belonging and individuality means to him, and what he hopes viewers may takeaway from it.
He tells us, "It’s a wonderful thing to get to know yourself as an individual. Sometimes the greatest surprise is meeting yourself and it definitely affects the way you start building relationships in life."
He expounds by saying: "Growing up you are somehow forced into many situations where the act of belonging feels somehow forced. All walks of social life will have some level of peer pressure but this is even more apparent growing up, especially at school. A class will naturally divide itself into small groups of friends and form part of a whole. It can be easy to lose one’s identity and just meld into a group dynamic or culture." He believes that this is a lesson in learning how to develop a strong personality.
Arcilla believes that one of the great things about knowing yourself is that you can now choose to be part of different cultures and dynamics without compromising yourself, your values, and other things you believe in. He also believes that having strong individuality allows you the option of choosing for yourself where you will belong. "This is instrumental in surrounding yourself with people and things that lift you up and help you grow."
Expressions of Human Emotion
Born in 1992 and based in Quezon City, Arcilla centers his artistic practice on the visual articulation of human emotion. Working primarily in oil, he approaches the canvas as a way of translating affective states into form. His aim is to create images that viewers can recognize and relate to through their own emotional experiences.
Arcilla has presented numerous solo exhibitions with Art Underground Manila and has participated in Art Fair Philippines. His work has also been shown in group exhibitions in Tokyo and Fukuoka. His practice was included in the Lunar Codex, a digital art archive transported to the moon. He is currently represented by Art Underground Manila.
Arcilla shares, "I’m not one to tell people what they should specifically take away from my paintings. Everyone can see a different story through my paintings and that’s one of the wonderful things about getting to show your work in public. But if I had to say something, it would simply just be that I hope everyone gets a chance to know who they are as a person, grow from it, and find a place where they can belong. Waiting isn’t a guarantee of something but rather just moments in life when we are in between something. I hope we learn to handle those moments with patience, with love, and with grace."
About Art Underground
Established in 2014, Art Underground is a platform for contemporary visual art practice and projects. Its programs encompass painting, sculpture, installation, and new media.
Through its programming, the gallery seeks to inspire ingenuity, curiosity, and innovation while fostering dialogues through experiences of contemporary art and its disciplines, with regional, national, and international impact.
Art Underground also provides opportunities for artists on its roster to present their work locally and internationally. The gallery has consistently participated in notable art fairs including Art Fair Philippines, Art Fair Tokyo, Art Central Hong Kong, Art Kaohsiung, KIAF (Korean International Art Fair) Art Seoul, Art Busan, and Art Fair Asia Fukuoka.
Its focus includes discovering and creating new opportunities for young and emerging artists while also promoting and advancing established practitioners. The gallery aims to foreground current commentary in the field and celebrate the creativity of artists whose works reflect the Filipino experience and its potential global influence.
"The Longest Wait Makes the Prettiest Flowers" by Erikson Arcilla is on view until August 10, 2026, at Art Underground, 2/F Mabini180, San Juan. For more details about the exhibition, follow @artundergroundmanila on Facebook and Instagram.