Preview Creative 25: The 2026 List of Artists Celebrating Filipino Identity Through Craft

Baus Rufo and Macoy Dubs work in a way that feels closer to a conversation you just happen to overhear—an exchange that is loose, quick, and rooted in how they already know each other. The dynamic traces back to a guesting on Baus’ podcast, where neither of them came in with a plan. “We were like, ‘What do we talk about?’” he recalls. “So we were like, you know what? Let’s just improvise.” That episode kept stretching—into inside jokes and tangents that didn’t need tying up—and people followed, reaching the point of virality.

It often reads as pop culture and chaos on the surface, but the conversations pull from something more lived-in, such as work, frustration, and the small absurdities of everyday life in the Philippines. “I think it represents hardworking people na pagod na pero walang choice,” he says. “Dogshow Divas is, hopefully, the 45- to 60-minute escape where you can leave your troubles and then, you’re just much more pumped to make it through the next day.” 

Macoy picks up from there, framing humor as something that carries weight. “Whenever there is a serious topic ongoing in the country… You need to have that softness, and you need to have that empathy through humor,” he says. “Humor talaga… It’s a universal love language.”

Painting sits at the core of Isabel Santos’ practice, though it rarely remains within a single medium. Her works layer images, textures, and materials, extending into textiles and photography, with each piece building on the last rather than settling into a single form. The process is cumulative, allowing fragments to shift, repeat, and take on different weights as they’re reworked.

She grew up in a family of artists, a starting point she acknowledges while placing equal weight on the demands of sustaining a career. In 2020, Isabel won the MoMA x Uniqlo UT Grand Prix, with her work later shown in the Philippines and abroad, including New York, France, and Berlin. Residencies across these cities further shaped her exposure to diverse artistic environments, expanding the ways she approaches both material and form.

Her work is guided by what feels immediate and personal. “It’s more of my feelings, what I’m going through, what’s in my head at that time,” she says. The work holds on to that moment without pushing toward a single reading.

Gabriela Serrano sees film with a clear sense of direction early on. Her short film, Dikit (2021), premiered at Cinemalaya, where it won both the Jury Prize and Best Director, and was later acquired by the Criterion Channel—a milestone that placed her work on an international platform. Since then, she has continued building a body of work that moves between shorts and her first full-length feature, Please Bear With Me, a call center-set sci-fi project. Alongside this, she works as an editor and visual artist, grounding her filmmaking in both technical precision and a strong visual language shaped through years in post-production.

Her films draw from Filipino mythology and lived experience, often centering women and those on the margins. “We always try to think of film as a way to push form,” she says, describing an approach that reworks familiar narratives through genre and perspective. That extends to how she sees the role of Filipino creatives more broadly: “It’s up to filmmakers and creatives… to say, ‘We have things to say.’” Across her work, film becomes a space to articulate what is otherwise difficult to express—whether through silence, language, or the limits placed on who gets to be seen and heard.

Years ago, Royd Santiago lived a completely different life as a corporate employee. After sticking it out for a while, he jumped the gun and returned to school, this time as an industrial design student. Fully leaning into his curiosity about how objects behave in certain spaces, he learned to create animations and three-dimensional models. 

Royd has been enlisted by many of his fellow creatives (Preview included) to create engaging visuals that really stick to one’s psyche. “It has to be crisp, it has to be clean. If you look closer, you can see na pinagisipan 'yung details,” he says of his work. Now that he’s immersed in a career that draws on his artistic energy, Royd hopes the local industry will recognize 3D artists as the true owners of their craft. “The talent is here,” he says.

“But I feel like there should be a switch from just being seen as production tools to artists having true authorship of their work,” he continues. “It should be like ‘This is my voice, and I’m using 3D art to make it known.’”

For Chef Don Baldosano, cooking often begins outside the kitchen. Travel plays a central role in how he develops dishes at Linamnam, his bahay kubo-inspired restaurant in Parañaque that earned one Michelin Star. On his days off, Don visits different provinces to speak with farmers, fishermen, and local cooks, gathering ingredients and insights that eventually shape the restaurant’s ever-changing menu. The approach reflects the philosophy that recently earned him the 2026 Michelin Guide Young Chef Award. “My creativity is not just dictated by what I think,” he says. “It’s also dictated by nature.”

Food had long been a defining presence in Don’s life. He began joining cooking competitions at 12, growing up in a household where meals were a constant topic of conversation. While raised in Manila, the flavors that lingered most came from his parents’ home province of Capiz, where seafood and freshly harvested produce shaped family meals. Those early encounters with ingredients continue to shape his cooking—rooted in place, but always searching for new ways to tell the story of Filipino food.

Before the streams and chart placements, there were small rooms and open mics—weddings, birthdays, any setup that would have him singing covers while writing songs on the side. Arthur Nery came out of that circuit, forming 9K Records with friends and releasing “Life Puzzle,” eventually building toward Letters Never Sent and tracks like “Higa,” “Binhi,” and “Happy w u.” “Pagsamo” pushed him into a wider listenership, pulling in millions of streams and even surpassing international acts in daily streams in the Philippines.

He talks about the work in terms of who it reaches and what it holds. “My biggest achievement is inspiring my listeners to create a loving community,” he says, referring to Binhi. Growing up in Cagayan de Oro and being exposed to different cultures early on feeds into how he writes across moods and perspectives. He frames it simply when asked what his work stands for. “Freedom of expression,” he shares. “And emotional connection with people through sound.”

To Chef Andre Casper, cooking is both a profession and a responsibility. A U.S. Marine veteran, the chef splits his time between restaurant kitchens in California and creating online food content, where he often introduces Filipino cuisine to audiences encountering it for the first time. In Vacaville, where his family once ran a restaurant, Andre grew up surrounded by food, with much of what he knows tracing back to his mother. These days, that work extends to his Northern California restaurants, Roline’s and Moonlight Station, while the videos he shares—initially created to promote the business—have also become a space where Filipino food and culture take center stage.

Food remains central to Andre’s sense of identity. “Food is pretty much the hallmark of how I connect to my Filipino side,” he says. That awareness carries into how he approaches both his cooking and the content he shares online. “In every little aspect of the content I create, I keep in mind that I am Filipino.”

Galvanized by her stepfather, a photojournalist, Yel Dela Paz picked up a camera before she even knew what shutter speed or ISO meant. A multimedia arts graduate who’s been a close collaborator of Preview’s in recent years, Yel’s early fascination has evolved into a career she can call her own. This autonomy over her craft stems from a deep appreciation for her craft. “I need to love what I’m doing para mabigay ko 'yung best ko,” she puts it.

The female gaze has become an integral tool in Yel’s visual storytelling. There’s always a distinct perspective applied to her work, as seen in how she composes her subjects, lights the set, and treats the shots in post-production. In her words, “laging may bali. Mas may layers 'yung photos.” The community she’s immersed herself in has greatly helped in cultivating this creativity, as their mutual support is reflected in their output. As she says, “You know they put their hearts into what they produce.”

Brandon Liu grew up around the rhythms of retail, but stepping into the family business was never automatic. In the Liu household, joining Golden ABC had to meet three conditions set out in the family constitution: one had to be “willing, able, and available.” Before finding his place in the company, Brandon spent time in finance, eventually entering through inventory planning. The numbers made sense to him, but merchandising was where the job started to feel personal—an intersection of discipline and taste that mirrored how he had always approached fashion as he grew up.

As vice president of Penshoppe, Brandon now helps guide a brand that has quietly woven itself into everyday Filipino life. The excitement he sees around a new collaboration or endorser campaign feels familiar because he remembers being on the other side of it as a fan. “A jacket, a sneaker, or even a billboard campaign was once part of someone’s core memories growing up,” he says. “Now, when we launch something new and see that same spark in our customers—the excitement and connection—I know exactly how that feels because I once felt it myself.”

The metro’s glitziest affairs are often documented through Keso’s lens. A familiar face many celebrities look forward to seeing at events, the photographer’s signature style is attributed to a blindingly strong flash that highlights the best of his subjects’ features. To master such a technique, Keso was honed by none other than the OG it girls, who developed from clients to close friends of his. “Seeing how my work resonated with them gave me the confidence to pursue it more seriously,” he shares.

While Keso attests that anyone with a smartphone and a tiny flash can replicate his photos (he said so himself in a past conversation with Preview), what makes his work truly unique is his dedication to producing the best snaps. An integral aspect of his process is being adaptable, whether that’s to location hurdles or rapid shifts in program flow. “My photography has always been spontaneous and often unplanned,” Keso expresses. “It’s about finding creative solutions and always delivering strong output, no matter the circumstances.”

Dia Maté makes pop music with a purpose. Even before she wore the Philippine sash at Reina Hispanoamericana 2025—of which she was the official victor—the 24-year-old has already been engrossed in making music. As a child, she pleaded with her parents to let her take piano and voice lessons. “I was manifesting my life to be like Hannah Montana’s,” she candidly recalls.

Having penned her first songs at 12 years old, Dia found solace in being a “bedroom producer,” moved by the soulful melodies of Norah Jones. A contemporary she’s constantly inspired by is Olivia Dean, whose calm yet expressive singing resonates with her own style. “In the Philippines, as an artist, you feel that pressure ‘make birit,’ but I'm so happy that an artist like her is becoming mainstream,” she says.

When it comes to her work, the "Ganda Gandahan" singer uses her voice for good, whether that’s by producing empowering earworm tracks or by sharing stages with members of maligned communities. “I wanted to use my platform to champion different things that I believe in… [My music] is for the girls, the gays, the dolls, for everybody. It’s for anyone who wants to feel beautiful,” she declares.

Quiccs grew up with an unshakeable affinity for anime. At the time, every kid’s obsession was the Gundam or Voltes V figurines that swiftly flew off toy store shelves. He also had a distinct liking for ’90s hip-hop, as you would find him bopping his head to The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac. These two interests would eventually fuel his creative pursuits as a toy designer, which began with TEQ63.

A  Japanese robot with a skeletal face and hands tucked into a hoodie, the character became Quiccs’ means of expressing himself and immortalizing his child-like glee. “I wanted to make a character that I wouldn't get tired of until I'm very old. Parang siya 'yung combination of all of my passions I had since I was a kid,” he expresses.

For more than a decade now, Quiccs has been birthing new characters and putting Filipino toy design on the map. To date, he’s collaborated with brands such as Adidas, Jollibee, Smart Telecommunications, and Johnnie Walker. By doing so, he hopes to cultivate the next generation of toy enthusiasts who never let go of their youthful desires. “I hope to inspire other artists to stand out like how we did. Hopefully, dadami tayong ma-recognize na toy designers,” he says.

A lot of Dennis Sulit’s work centers on a familiar brief: make someone look like the best version of themselves, without losing what already makes them recognizable. It’s a line he’s been working through since 2017, when he moved from drawing into photography, and it shows across everything from commercial campaigns to editorials and portrait shoots. He’s photographed Preview’s Creative 25 in 2024 and 2025; this year, he joins the list himself.

“Gusto ko na napapa-feel ko na mas maganda sila through my work… na nakikita nila sarili nila na levelled up.” The adjustment is controlled, almost cinematic, but always attentive to the person in front of the lens. More recently, that thinking carries over into how he works with others and within a community of budding photographers—opening up his process to a younger set and treating the craft as something that grows through exchange.

As an information technology student, Angeline Dela Cruz had doubts about whether or not pursuing a creative career would benefit her in the long run. But the self-professed kikay just couldn’t withhold herself from picking up the makeup brush and actualizing her childhood desires. With mentorship from celebrity makeup artist Anton Patdu, Angeline was guided into a career that fully leveraged her talents. “Dito ako naging masaya,” she sentimentally recounts. 

One of Anton’s nuggets of advice for Angeline was to learn a wide variety of techniques suited to different clients. This turned her into a chameleon who could do a clean face on one girl, and go full-on avant-garde on the next. Her mastery of maquillage is exemplified on the faces of Maris Racal and Jolina Magdangal, whom she dolled up for Preview’s recent editorial spreads.

Dwight de Leon has spent nearly a decade in journalism, working across formats as a multimedia reporter covering politics for Rappler. His days move between writing, filming, and editing, often within the same story cycle, while assigned to Congress. The pace and proximity to power have shaped a practice built on repetition and follow-through—showing up, doing the work, and seeing it through. “I don’t romanticize it that way,” he says. “I just want to keep going… people trust me to provide accurate information, so I feel like I owe it to them.”

A sense of responsibility sharpened over the past year as his reporting began to gain wider traction, particularly in investigations tied to public works and government contracts. Recognition, for him, is tied to visibility—to being read, to having his work circulate, to being part of the conversations he’s been covering.

At its core, his work returns to a principle that remains unchanged across platforms and beats. “It is my honest pursuit of the truth,” he says. “When they consume my report, they know that they are reading… a piece of journalistic work that is vetted properly, that is thoroughly corroborated.” It’s a direct articulation, one that reflects the conditions he works within: a media landscape that demands adaptability, persistence, and credibility built over time.

Icoy Rapadas is a cook who turned a simple habit—filming what he cooks at home—into a growing online following. Most of his videos are shot in his condo kitchen using accessible ingredients and straightforward techniques, the kind of meals people can realistically make after a grocery run. The idea began casually in January 2024, when he started posting cooking videos while still working a corporate job. “I’m a home cook that decided to take videos of it,” he says. “I guess what I do in essence is to just show recipes that I like doing in my condo.”

Before becoming a full-time content creator, Icoy worked as a partnerships director for an esports company and previously as a digital marketing strategist. Cooking, however, had long been a personal interest—something he developed through experience, online videos, and eventually a short course at the Center for Culinary Arts. Today, what keeps him motivated is hearing from viewers who begin cooking because of his content. “Whenever people say that sumarap na ’yung sinigang nila sa bahay dahil sinundan nila ’yung recipe ko,” he says. “Then that helps me keep going.”

When Ginger Gaddi had her first child, she had to slow down and stay home for an indefinite period. Whenever she had her hands free, she found herself redecorating her room, repainting her walls, and doing whatever arts-and-crafts she could. She decided to turn these hobbies into a profession when she enrolled in an event design and interior styling course at SoFA Design Institute. Years later, and with Ginger Events Styling patented and responsible for functions around the metro and abroad, Ginger has fully realized her potential.

When one steps into a space curated by her, they can trust that every detail—from the kinds of flowers to the color palette utilized—is 100 percent intentional. “Considerate ako sa personalities ng clients ko. Kailangan it will translate,” she says. “That’s what makes an event unique. Hindi siya kayang i-replicate because that's uniquely them.”

As someone mentored by events stylist to the stars Teddy Manuel, Ginger hopes that her work inspired other women to enter the scene. “‘Yung events industry is very male-dominated. Lahat ng kausap mo na supplier, lalaki,” she illustrates. “So paano ka lalaban bilang babae? By showing how good you are. Kapag alam nila 'yung kaya mong gawin, bibigyan ka nila ng tiwala.”

Jilson Tiu doesn’t stay in one lane, and that’s exactly the point. A Manila-based photographer and photojournalist, he navigates documentary, editorial, and commercial work with an ease shaped by his early years at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, where no two days ever looked the same. The unpredictability sharpened his eye and set the tone for a career he still describes as that of a “journeyman,” a term once used by his mentor, Randy Olson. These days, his projects range from NGO collaborations with organizations such as the United Nations to more personal work that captures the texture of everyday Filipino life.

Grounding it all is his instinct for “light and life.” He follows it wherever it shows up—sometimes literally stopping mid-day to shoot when the light hits right, tracing stories across Metro Manila on a bicycle. His images often circle back to the city’s density, where moments of possibility emerge. “What does my work stand for? I think most of the time, I lean towards hope,” he says.

Before Lio Mangubat was a Straits Times best-selling author, he was an avid reader. An editor with credits at K-Zone, Town & Country, and Esquire, he has always had a passion for documenting history through words, whether written or spoken.

When his nonfiction book Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves: Lost Tales from the Philippine Colonial Period was published in 2024, Lio was thrust into a whole new publishing landscape, one that was uncharted even for a veteran like him. His book was inspired by his podcast The Colonial Dept., where he discovered a new way of getting his stories across. Even with the change in medium, his fascination with the written word has stayed intact. “Writing long-form articles is where I got my start. So I still have that rigor, that connective tissue to print, and I try to translate it into audio,” he says.

From his perspective, there are still many facets of Philippine history that have yet to be unraveled—and in peeling away these layers, he hopes Filipinos can reclaim their voices. “What I want to do is to try to center the Filipino voice even if other people are talking for us sometimes,” he expresses. “I want to say, ‘Okay, ito pa rin ’yung istorya natin.’ If we can reclaim that, that would be super important to me.”

Jacque de Borja-Medestomas has moved through different corners of the creative industry long before tea became her focus. In the early 2010s, she was writing for Stylebible.ph, Preview’s online counterpart, where she also produced the Creative It List. Years later, she finds herself part of Creative 25, marking a full-circle moment.

Her work with tea took shape during the pandemic, when making her usual drinks at home became part of her daily rhythm. That time opened up a deeper engagement with matcha—through research, conversations with tea communities in the Philippines and abroad, and eventually, direct relationships with farmers and producers in Japan. The work now spans pop-ups, workshops, and a business centered on both sourcing and education.

The sense of intention carries into how she approaches tea. “I dedicate my work to all the tea enthusiasts and to fellow tea geeks,” she says. “There’s a certain feeling when you get to find your circle.”

Husband-wife duo Jim Bacarro and Saab Magalona have dabbled in several creative pursuits. Much of the podcast-listening public has probably woken up to their voices as they discuss everything from the realities of raising two kids to the importance of maintaining one’s mental health. “We've had multiple iterations na, ‘Kami na bahala. [We’ll talk about]  whatever makes us happy…’ but we became more responsible because there was an actual community listening to us.”

Outside of the pod, the two are members of indie band Cheats, and Jim is also the co-owner of T-shirt label Linya-Linya. In these endeavors, Saab attests that Jim helps her become more organized, while she espouses both of their spontaneities. In whatever they do, the two unlock different facets of their shared creativity.

“You become better at your craft by learning new crafts,” Jim illustrates. “Saab has become a better content creator because she has started businesses. I have learned to become a better manager because we've done the podcast… In everything we’ve done, we don’t take it too seriously. Having fun is also important.”

T33g33 came of age in a musically inclined household. The DJ and film scorer attests that they were practically born learning how to play different instruments, which evolved into the guitar they picked up in adolescence. Much of their experiences growing up influenced the type of music they make—grungey, angsty, but filled with a soul of its own.

If one were to be on the dancefloor of a T33g33 set, they’d be transported through different genres and worlds. “I start with a certain kind of music, and then it goes somewhere else, because I really like playing weird kinds of music as well,” they explain. “I like to make people dance, but at the same time, I like to shock them or make them think. There's storytelling to it.”

And perhaps the narrative T33g33 will continue to recount is that of being Filipino, which, in their words, is about “constantly reclaiming identity.”

“It's a spiritual journey of sifting through our culture to find out what is truly ours,” they express. “In terms of music, it’s about finding the sounds that I feel like are truly Filipino. That’s why I like collaborating with other artists because together, how can we make a sound that we can say identifies with who we are?”

Upon graduating from high school, Josh Tolentino was gifted a Kodak C182 point-and-shoot camera by his parents. His younger self took photos of just about anything—his friends, stray dogs, flowers on trees, what have you—which eventually led him to pursue photography full-time. Taking cues from the greats Mario Testino and Patrick Demarchelier, Josh developed a style of clean and precise portraiture that has since become a go-to for Preview’s editorial spreads.

As a Filipino creative, Josh has been welcomed into a community of collaborators that constantly seeks to create the best work they can. It's this gutsiness that inspires him to never stagnate or settle for less. “Sobrang bigay-todo talaga ang mga Filipinos when they put out creative outputs… As for me, I always think, ‘May ibubuga pa 'to, itodo na natin 'to,’” he states. “[That’s why] our art is an 11 out of 10.”

A talent that sprouted out of necessity, Dencio Aguilar first learned how to cut hair by trimming his own. Eventually, he learned how to cut hair for other people when he applied as a hairstylist at certain salons. At the time, there was prejudice he had to overcome being a male hairstylist, but it was a hurdle he passed thanks to his evident skills with shears.

At present, Dencio is one of the lead stylists at Menstribe Manila, a San Juan salon that’s been frequented by the likes of Anne Curtis, Jericho Rosales, BJ Pascual, and more high-profile clients. No matter who’s in his chair, Dencio makes it a point to document each session, partly to promote his salon and partly to see how much his talent has developed.

The oeuvre of Edgar San Diego continues to move between fashion and painting, both of which are shaped by decades in design. When the pandemic brought his business to a halt, he returned to painting—working daily and sharing each piece online, where early reactions quickly turned into sales and exhibition offers. In 2021, he mounted his first solo show, Baro’t Saya, Tuwa at Ligaya, followed by exhibitions in New York and Honolulu. His fashion career runs alongside this, from staging shows for Filipino communities abroad to serving as president of the Fashion Designers Association of the Philippines for eight years.

Across both practices, his focus remains rooted in Filipino culture and dress, shaped by years of experience across industries and disciplines. “I consider my work as a product of my years in the business, my life experiences as a fashion and costume designer, my travels, as a visual artist, as a person, a leader, and a father.”