Sheen Ochavez is a British-Filipino contemporary artist whose practice is shaped by lived histories and cross-cultural dialogue. Born in 1970 and raised in Manila during the Marcos Martial Law regime, her work carries an acute awareness of political tension, memory, and resilience. Drawing from Mannerist and Vitalist traditions, Ochavez reinterprets historical paintings as generative frameworks for her own evolving iconography.
Her compositions are informed by an engagement with art history, politics, and both Philippine and Western visual cultures. By fusing these influences, she challenges the boundaries of a Western-centric canon and addresses its silences and omissions. Trained formally in the arts, Ochavez moves fluidly between figuration and abstraction, resisting the constraints of both representation and pure form.
This oscillation produces a visual language rooted in movement and energy, inviting viewers into an active dialogue. Through her work, Ochavez proposes a space where histories converge, fracture, and are reimagined. She lives and works between Oxfordshire and Makati, Philippines.
Sheen had solo shows in Asia and participated in various group shows in US and Europe.
Education:
MA Painting 2025 - 2026 Royal College of Art
Graduate Diploma Art and Design/Fine Art 2024-2025 Royal College of Art
UG Diploma History of Art 2024 – 2025
(Period late Middle Ages to Early Renaissance) University of Oxford
Post Diploma Figurative Painting 2023- 2024 Heatherley School of Fine Art
Diploma in Portraiture 2020 – 2022 Heatherley School of Fine Art