Julius Poncelet Manapul (Born in Manila, Philippines 1980) immigrated to Canada in 1990, identifying as a queer migrant nonbinary Filipinx, Ilocano artist and descendant of Maria Josefa Gabriela Carino de Silang, known as an inti-colonial fighter during the 18th century Spanish rule over the Philippines, the first female leader of a Filipino movement for independence from Spain. In 2009, they completed BFA at OCAD and MFA (UofT) in 2013. Over the last decade, Manapul has exhibited across North America and Europe, Nuit Blanche, Toronto World Pride, Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival, Toronto Queer Film Festival, had been featured several times on CBC, written in several academic articles, Journal of Asian American Studies Vol.19 #3, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas Vol.1 #2, Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginaries" to name a few, and had hosted workshops and panel talks on queer diasporic decolonial research. Currently, a Professor in the Faculty of Arts at OCAD University.  

 

Manapul’s multidisciplinary art practice and research examines eternal displacement, complicated by colonialism, sexual identity, diasporic bodies, global identity construction, and the Eurocentric Western hegemony. Focusing on the hybrid nature of Filipinx culture through post-colonial realities, and the gaze of queer identities as taxonomy. Excavating narratives specific to diasporic queer bodies and the loss of motherlands.