Studio Ciclo’s Fara Manuel-Nolasco is the intermedia artist, designer, and printmaker behind the Agam Agenda octopus.
Since moving to Baguio in 2008, Fara has taught at the University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio and explores graphic arts, video, photography and installation in her practice. As part of her graduate degree in Art Theory from the Graduate Studies Program of the College of Fine Arts, she studied Geographic Information System applications and now incorporates Geohumanities in her work as an artist and a teacher. She has participated in international residencies such as Bamboo Curtain Studio in Taipei, Taiwan in 2014 and Art No Wall, Khonkean, Thailand in 2015. Fara currently serves as the Chair of the Committee on Culture and the Arts in UP Baguio and is a member of the Association of Pinoy Printmakers (A/P), Philippine Geographical Society, and Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society.
Fara has participated in international residencies such as Bamboo Curtain Studio in Taipei, Taiwan in 2014 and Art No Wall, Khonkean, Thailand in 2015. Her print work was among those selected for the annual Awagami International Miniprint Juried Exhibition (AIMPE) in Tokushima, Japan in 2015. She received her BFA Major in Visual Communication from the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in 2003.
Fun fact: Octavia lives as a physical 20” x 30” linocut print that Fara created in Studio Ciclo.
“Sinisimbulo ng aktong pagdampot sa buwan ang pagtuklas ng kaalaman.” (“The act of reaching for the moon suggests searching for and finding knowledge.”)
Fara on how Octavia, the Agam Agenda symbol, reaches for the moon