The Manila and Manhattan Intersection: How Joshua Villena’s ‘Homecoming’ Redefines Roots, Resilience, and Runways

Home is a tricky word for artists. For some, it’s a place you leave to grow. For others, it’s the compass you keep in your pocket, reminding you where you first learned to dream. For 26-year-old artist Joshua Villena, home is both. It is the starting point and the destination. Last July, he returned to it, not quietly, but with an exhibition that stitched together where he’s been and who he’s become.

In Batangas, where the air smelled faintly of paint and turpentine, Villena’s first lessons in art didn’t come from textbooks. They came from watching his father’s brush meet canvas, from seeing his grandfather’s pencil bring form out of emptiness. The walls weren’t just walls, they were galleries. Without a television to pull him elsewhere, he learned to see the world in lines and shades. At five, he was already sketching. By eight, he wasn’t just making art; he was winning national competitions, already learning that creation could open doors far beyond his hometown.

But the path wasn’t without detours. For every triumph, there were turns that could have ended the story. At sixteen, financial realities forced him out of college. He could have stopped there. Instead, he found an internet café, sent his portfolio to iACADEMY, and waited—a leap that landed him a full presidential scholarship.

Animation became his medium, but grit and resilience became his discipline. Even when the pandemic made online classes unreliable and a failed thesis course threatened to stall his graduation, he treated each setback like a sketch,  erased, redrawn, and layered until it made sense. He finished with honors, earning the Best Thesis Award. But more than that, he left with a philosophy: art was not just about skill but persistence.

We say that experience is the best teacher. That rings to be true. But there’s more when New York taught you to grind and hustle a hundred times you’re used to. Growing up in a familiar territory of juggling multiple jobs, Villena had enough pennies in his pocket to fly himself to the bustling streets of Manhattan in 2022.

Landed hand-carrying more than 7 kg of talents and skills, allowed him to paint his portrait of who he is becoming.  In his personally curated first solo exhibition, it is not just artworks that are featured; also, the chances of dreams becoming possibilities. Who would’ve thought that the man behind the music videos and photos of Oscar-winning rapper and actor Joey Bada$$, Waqas Ghani, would be a big head in translating the themes of his first solo exhibition into reality.

“The themes are very personal, some of them dark. Stories of when I was a kid up until college that I felt ready to share…We linked up and discussed the idea of doing the show, so that’s how it came about.”

Years have passed, and he is back to where the first stroke began. Bringing not a “balikbayan” box of goods, but a canvas and fabric that echoes his far-gone success. A “homecoming” event, typically reserved for kings and queens, has found a new parade to follow. In the height of iAcadamy in Makati, vibrant colors of success in the form of art had its Philippine preview. Treating his exhibitions like an album equates to cohesiveness and thematic flow. From the first-ever artworks to laying out his country’s first exhibition to setting up a runway show, his younger self is for sure in full celebration.