2026 Kreative Growth: MAHAL
Balay Kreative presents MAHAL,
an Exhibition by the Kreative Growth 2026 Artists.
On Display at CAST SF Gallery | Dempster Building 447 Minna Street
May 28 - Jun 12, 2026
Opening Reception: Thurs. May 28 6pm-9pm
Gallery hours: Schedule Private Walkthru with Artists.
The theme for this year’s kreative growth is ‘MAHAL’, Mahal is a Tagalog word with roots influenced by Arabic, reflecting precolonial trade and cultural exchange. It carries the dual meaning of both ‘beloved’ and ‘valuable,’ suggesting that what we love is inherently precious.
Mahal—meaning love, care, and value—feels especially urgent now. In a world shaped by loss, burnout, and widening inequities, Mahal invites us to reconsider what we protect, what we nurture, and what we hold dear beyond profit or prestige.
For Kreative Growth 2026, Mahal is not just a theme, but a practice. We’re asking artists what Mahal means to them. How do you imagine love as an action, care as a cultural responsibility, and creativity as a means of tending to one another and the places we call home.
As we look back on ten years of community-rooted work and towards the future of Balay Kreative, Mahal grounds this next chapter—honoring where we’ve been while shaping what comes next.
Gelli Pascual
Photographer · Filmmaker · Poet
Gelli Pascual is a Queer Filipina photographer, filmmaker, and poet who transforms personal memory, cultural heritage, and collective healing into powerful works of art. Born in Manila, she moves fluidly across mediums — using poetry for rhythm, photography for stillness, and film for movement — to reclaim power and silenced histories and reimagine belonging. Her photographs have been exhibited locally and films have been screened at renowned international film festivals. Through every frame, image, and verse, Gelli creates spaces of resilience and transformation, positioning storytelling as both a weapon of resistance and a path toward change.
Project: Mana ng Mahal: The Legacy of Mahal
A photography series exploring how love is lived and passed across generations through acts of care in Filipino and immigrant communities. Through intimate portraits and real-life moments, it centers the unseen labor of caregiving — cooking, guiding, providing, protecting, and showing up — as both cultural responsibility and inheritance. By documenting elders, parents, mentors, and chosen family, the project reframes care as a vital legacy that sustains community, preserves cultural memory, and holds us together.
Website: https://gellipascual.my.canva.site/
Instagram: @gellipascual
Tanza J. Solis
Multidisciplinary Artist — Painting & Sculpture
Tanza J. Solis is a multidisciplinary artist and material necromancer whose paintings and sculptures address the oppressive legacy of colonial industry on both our material and emotional landscapes.
Project: Mother Oceania
Mother Oceania is a mixed-media sculpture made from coastal textiles, plastic waste, and microplastics gathered from the Alameda shoreline. Her body is a container both for the waste the oceans are made to carry and the collective grief our planet endures in the shadow of industrial capitalism.
Website: https://www.manyhandscreative.com/
Instagram: @manyhandscreative | TikTok: @manyhandscreative
About Kreative Growth
Art is an expression of our experiences, and can therefore manifest through many art forms. Aware of the dynamic range of our people, Balay Kreative has developed an unprecedented program, KREATIVE GROWTH, that will uplift and foster their diverse creative voices, with the goal of sparking a renaissance of creativity and hustle in SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage district.
Balay Kreative has invested $100,000 of our budget each year to building programming that reflects the rich culture and history of Filipinx Diaspora in SOMA Pilipinas and across the Bay Area, now expanding to serving all artists of diverse backgrounds.