About the Artist
RM De Leon (Ramon Manuel De Leon, b. 1960, Philippines) is a Filipino contemporary artist known for works that merge abstraction, graphic imagery, and elements drawn from mass media. A graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 1990, he has built a career exploring mixed media, image appropriation, and layered visual interventions. His practice frequently examines the relationship between painterly gesture and popular visual culture, often combining expressive mark making with familiar imagery from everyday life.

Description
Untitled: Drawing w/ hair of strange matter & burger outlet #5 (2025) presents sweeping black and gray marks that spread across the paper, forming dense strands that resemble hair or organic matter emerging from an unstable surface. The turbulent field of gestural abstraction is abruptly interrupted by a brightly colored burger collage positioned on the right side, inserting a recognizable commercial image into an otherwise monochrome composition. The juxtaposition between expressive drawing and pop imagery creates tension between abstraction and consumer culture, highlighting the artist’s ongoing exploration of how mass media images disrupt and reshape painterly space.