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