Born in Quezon City, Philippines in 1987 and currently living in Toronto, Canada. Patrick Cruz is an artist and educator who draws from aspects of diasporic experience, clownhood and folk spirituality. He received the Thirteen Artist Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2021, was long listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2019, and won the 17th RBC Canadian Painting Competition in 2015. Cruz is an Assistant Professor in Studio Art at the University of Toronto’s Scarborough and Daniels campuses and is a co-founder of the Kamias collective which hosts and organizes the Kamias Triennial. Cruz studied Painting at the University of The Philippines Diliman and holds a certificate in Pochinko Clowning, a BFA from Emily Carr University and an MFA from the University of Guelph.
Cruz has presented work both nationally and internationally at venues such as, the Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, CA); The Art Center of Chulangkorn (Bangkok, TH); Contemporary Art Gallery, (Vancouver, CA); Whose Museum (Malmӧ, SE); Plug In ICA (Winnipeg, CA); Project Panjee (Montreal, CA) Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Vancouver, CA); Cultural Center of The Philippines (Manila, PH); Vargas Museum (Manila, PH); Obrera Centro (Mexico City, MX); Feldfünf (Berlin, DE); Oakville galleries (Oakville, CA); 1st Manila Biennale (Manila, PH); Gasworks (London, UK); 3331 Arts Chiyoda (Tokyo, JP) Gallery TPW (Toronto, CA); Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton, CA); Or Gallery Berlin (Berlin, DE).
