For Reb Belleza, a painting is a visual diary, a personal journal that holds what lingers. He paints as one writes in longhand, slowly and with care: a glance, a line of conversation, a still moment. One mark leads to the next, guided by the feeling or memory that first surfaced.
As a child, he joined his mother, actress Divina Valencia, on film sets. While crews adjusted lights and actors rehearsed, he sketched from the sidelines. Susan Roces once noticed him drawing and handed him a box of crayons. The creative setting and the encouragement around him sharpened his eye. That early habit of keen observation continues to inform his work.
He never knew his father, Bernard Belleza, who died when he was seven months old. His godfather, Fernando Poe Jr., filled in the shoes. At his first exhibit, it was Poe who bought his first work, Blue Abstraction. Blue was Poe’s favorite color. “That painting wasn’t about proving anything,” Belleza says. “It just meant I should keep going.”
He studied fine arts at the University of the Philippines before moving to California, where he took up visual communication at Santa Monica College and a short course in art history at UCLA. The training helped refine his approach, though he remained intuitive: “Instinct was there early. What’s changed is how I listen.”
In 2011, he married Valerene Coo de la Riva. Around the same time, his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary deepened. His favorite subject is Our Lady of Lipa. Reverence moves through his works. He often uses indigo, ivory, and red, colors he associates with Mary.
In 2018, he completed Mga Liham Para Kay Ina, a series of painted letters addressed to his mother, to the Blessed Virgin, and to women who supported him through grief. “I just wanted the feeling to stay,” he says. The paintings carried what words could not.
His style shifts with each work. Some come together in days, formed by bold strokes and concentrated color. Others take longer, built through careful adjustments. Phrases and words sometimes appear beside drawn faces left untouched. These elements remain as they first arrived. He paints until the piece feels resolved. “I finish when the conversation with the piece comes to rest,” he says.
He now works in political communications for Senator Robinhood Padilla. He is not new to politics. His other godfather, former President Joseph Estrada, introduced him to public service. He remains close to former Senator Grace Poe and Congressman Brian Poe Llamanzares, whom he considers family. His work in the Senate continues to influence how he sees and responds as an artist and as a person.
Belleza founded the Brut Collective, a trio of anti-establishment artists with David Kaufman and Ron Lopez Davis. Their show, Exhibit Two, at J Studio in Makati brought their individual practices into one shared space and closes this weekend, August 16. He has noticed younger people at their shows. “Respect your voice. Study. Let the work speak before you do,” he says to artists starting out.
His upcoming exhibition, The Reflex and The Seven Astronauts, opens on September 20 at Alliance Française de Manille in Bel-Air, Makati. A collaboration with Archivo, the show is curated by Gus Albor.
For Belleza, painting is a way of staying grounded, in memory, in faith, and in the relationships that continue to shape his life.
