bernolflores

Each work captures a personal inner world—a method of recording and making sense of the experience.

Mata Taga Isda was my first solo exhibition in 2000, presented as the culminating work for BFA studies at the University of Philippines Cebu. The paintings were part of a personal visual diary, combining everyday objects and color to give form to emotion and memory. Each artwork expresses a private terrain—a form of mapping and reflection.

Over time, most of these works disappeared. Some were sold. Others were stolen or destroyed. A few were lost completely, including several that ended up in Singapore. Their absence is real, but the impact they have had on me remains. This site is not only a record of that first exhibit, but also a reminder to continue painting and creating new work.

Now that I’m beginning a new chapter in Germany, I am focused on building fresh momentum.

My current work is shared through the Alemanya Series at bernolflores.kunst. Painting is still how I process life and how I move forward. It allows me to hold on to moments, let go of others, and keep making space for what comes next.

Bernolflores

Get in Touch

www.bernolfores.com

Exhibits

A solo exhibit by Bernolflores -Alemanya Series- The Path of Being Fully Seen 2025. Photo by The Tea and Gallery. Cebu Making Space.

Artist Bio

Bernolflores is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work explores identity, visibility, and the emotional terrain of living between cultures. Originally from Cebu City, Philippines, and having lived in Lagos (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana), Hamburg (Germany), and Singapore, Bernol has spent years navigating the complexities of life as an expat—a journey that has both shaped and challenged her creative path. Her practice reflects the emotional landscape of expatriate life, delving into themes of absence, adaptation, and belonging.

After a decade-long hiatus from art-making, Bernolflores returned to her creative practice in 2018, using acrylic and textiles as spaces for introspection, storytelling, and reclamation. Her visual diaries intertwine rawness and poetry, capturing the nuanced process of rediscovering the self.

Living in Germany has influenced Bernol’s palette and rhythm—inviting greater introspection and a slower, more deliberate approach to her work. Holding a Fine Arts degree with a specialisation in Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines Cebu, Bernol has cultivated a distinctive artistic voice. Her early work was shaped by expressionist influences, especially in the use of colour to convey subjective emotion and inner truth. Across all mediums, Bernol’s art carries emotional depth and integrity.

She primarily works with acrylics, textiles, paper, and mixed media techniques, such as Decalcomania, layering materials to evoke memories and emotions. Her Alemanya series presents a more distilled aesthetic compared to her 1995–2000 works, which were largely assemblages of found objects.

In 2018, upon returning to Germany for the second time, she rediscovered her passion for fibre arts and began working as a freelance sample knitter, alongside her work in graphic and web design.

During the summer months, she paints to expand her Alemanya series—artworks that chronicle her life in Germany.

Alemanya Series-The Path of Being Fully Seen.

Cebu 2nd Solo Exhibit 2025

The “Alemanya Series - The Path of Being Fully Seen collection marks not only a stylistic evolution, but the emergence of a new form. Materials once used for composition become instruments of memory:

muted acrylics, paper, mixed media and layered textiles was once declarative is now contemplative.

Each piece stands not as a conclusion, but an invitation. This is a visual memoir of transformation. Not linear, but lived. It traces a path from surface to depth, from mastery to vulnerability.

The series honours the years it took to break the frame—and the courage it took to step beyond it. Bernolflores’s work invites viewers into the intimate space between concealment and revelation. Through it, she explores what it means to be truly seen—not as a curated identity, but as an honest, evolving presence.