Derek Tumala (lives and works in Manila, Philippines) is a visual artist working with emerging technologies, moving image and various media in the pursuit of ecological world-making. His art practice revolves around the mediation of science in art, on the idea of interconnectedness and conviviality. Tumala graduated at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila (2006) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts Major in Advertising Arts.
His artistic research on the Philippine climate crisis has brought him to present Tropical Climate Forensics (2021-ongoing), a gamified online diorama specific to the Philippines as a tropical site, with biomes to represent his research into the climate crisis; commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Arts and Design-Manila. Tumala’s notable artistic projects were presented in The Oracle: On Fantasy and Freedom at 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Slovenia (2025); Embodied Knowledge, Shifting Grounds, Biennale Jogja 17, Indonesia (2023); World Weather Network (2022-2024); Sediment Spirit: The Activation of Art in the Anthropocene, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK (2023); der TANK, Basel Academy of Art and Design, Switzerland (2025).
He attended Delfina Foundation’s Politics of Food program in London, UK (2022), Manila Observatory Artist-in-Residency (2021), Apexart Fellowship in New York City, USA (2019) and 10x10 Korea Research Fellow (2021). He received grants from British Council’s Connection through Culture for the foraging project ‘Wild Patch’ (2024) and International Rice Research Institute’s Art/Science Seed Grant with his artistic research on wild rice (2023).
Tumala’s notable public art commissions reflect his techno-ecological framework with ‘a warm orange colored liquid’ (2024, Art Fair Philippines), a monumental sun sculpture using solar power and abaca paper; and ‘Kayamanan ng Pilipinas (Treasures of the Philippines), 2022, private commission, is an LED wall of a digital forest made up of Philippine indigenous plants with real-time weather using open-source weather data, API and codes.
Tumala is named as one of Cultural Center of the Philippines’s Thirteen Artists Award (2025), with an exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts-Manila (Oct 2025); ArtReview Magazine’s Future Greats (2024); and a finalist for the exhibition Sacred Geometry at the Ateneo Art Awards Philippines (2015).
Email derektumala@gmail.com
Instagram @derektumala
His artistic research on the Philippine climate crisis has brought him to present Tropical Climate Forensics (2021-ongoing), a gamified online diorama specific to the Philippines as a tropical site, with biomes to represent his research into the climate crisis; commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Arts and Design-Manila. Tumala’s notable artistic projects were presented in The Oracle: On Fantasy and Freedom at 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Slovenia (2025); Embodied Knowledge, Shifting Grounds, Biennale Jogja 17, Indonesia (2023); World Weather Network (2022-2024); Sediment Spirit: The Activation of Art in the Anthropocene, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK (2023); der TANK, Basel Academy of Art and Design, Switzerland (2025).
He attended Delfina Foundation’s Politics of Food program in London, UK (2022), Manila Observatory Artist-in-Residency (2021), Apexart Fellowship in New York City, USA (2019) and 10x10 Korea Research Fellow (2021). He received grants from British Council’s Connection through Culture for the foraging project ‘Wild Patch’ (2024) and International Rice Research Institute’s Art/Science Seed Grant with his artistic research on wild rice (2023).
Tumala’s notable public art commissions reflect his techno-ecological framework with ‘a warm orange colored liquid’ (2024, Art Fair Philippines), a monumental sun sculpture using solar power and abaca paper; and ‘Kayamanan ng Pilipinas (Treasures of the Philippines), 2022, private commission, is an LED wall of a digital forest made up of Philippine indigenous plants with real-time weather using open-source weather data, API and codes.
Tumala is named as one of Cultural Center of the Philippines’s Thirteen Artists Award (2025), with an exhibition at the National Museum of Fine Arts-Manila (Oct 2025); ArtReview Magazine’s Future Greats (2024); and a finalist for the exhibition Sacred Geometry at the Ateneo Art Awards Philippines (2015).
Email derektumala@gmail.com
Instagram @derektumala