While driving, you may have seen the work of Ron Lopez Davis on a digital billboard along EDSA, C5, or in Magallanes. Alongside fellow Brut Collective artists David Kaufman and Reb Belleza, his artwork appears in the weekday flow of traffic, offering a quick glimpse, and a breather. More than promoting their art, the group intends to break through the stream of commercial noise that usually dominates these spaces.
Davis was born in Manila and raised in the once bohemian district of Malate. As a child, he took drawing lessons arranged by his mother. “I liked creating images and playing with color,” he says.
He later moved to San Francisco, where he studied business and minored in fine arts. He also trained as a chef. Both disciplines, he explains, taught him how to respond, adapt, and work with routine. “You respond to what’s in front of you and keep adjusting. It’s about timing and instinct.”
Photography was his first serious medium. It helped him notice more and frame what he saw. Over time, though, he looked for something with more depth and flexibility. “I couldn’t always express what I wanted through the lens,” he says. Painting gave him more space to explore. He began combining collage, printed shapes, and color into a more open and layered process.
His early works helped him process what he was feeling or questioning. “Just like any young person, I was looking for meaning. Trying to shape those things into something visual.”
In San Francisco, he joined the Centipede Project Art Cooperative, a small group that held weekly exhibitions and shared studio space. The steady pace of making and showing gave structure to his practice. “It gave me rhythm. A reason to keep going,” he says.
Travel also shaped the way he approached his work. He learned from the people he met and the conversations that made him see things differently. “Meeting others with different beliefs makes you reconsider your own.” Museum visits added another layer. “Seeing how artists respond to their time helped me think about how I might respond to mine,” he adds.
Davis begins a painting with a single mark—a line, a color, or a shape—and lets the rest build from there. Some paintings are quiet and spare; others are textured or dynamic. He works by feel. “Sometimes I don’t fully know what the painting is saying until it’s finished,” he says. “And that’s okay.”
He adjusts his approach based on the energy of each piece. “Whatever brings out the right energy, I go with it.”
From time to time, he revisits older work, looking at those earlier pieces to see how far he’s moved. “I’m not the same person who made those pieces. But they help me understand where I was going.”
For Davis, change is part of the process. “The best time to reflect is when you notice something has shifted,” he says. “That means the work is still growing.”
His paintings leave room. They invite the viewer to look without rush. Each one becomes a space to stay with a thought or feeling—for as long as it needs to stay.
His recent works, along with those of Kaufman and Belleza, are on view at Exhibit Two through August 12 at J Studio, La Fuerza Compound, Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City.
