125 PROJECTS is pleased to announce the opening of AUPEN Founder Nicholas Tan’s first solo exhibition and designer pop-up in Manila on Tuesday, 18 August 2026, at 6:00 PM onwards at 125 Projects, NBS Park, 125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City. The exhibition will be open to the public until 30 August 2026.
For his maiden show in Manila, 125 PROJECTS offers Nicholas Tan a carte blanche to transform the entire gallery, marking one of his first comprehensive presentations outside of fashion. The exhibition brings together Tan’s experience as an artist, designer, and founder, while introducing a practice that extends beyond his work in accessories.
Known for founding AUPEN, Tan extends the sculptural language developed through his accessories into sculpture, canvas, and text. Rather than leaving fashion behind, the exhibition collapses the boundaries between fashion, design, and contemporary art, asking what happens when an artist’s way of seeing is freed from the function of making products.
From Fashion and Design to Contemporary Art
At the centre of the exhibition is a recurring shape derived from the silhouette of the Purpose bag, designed by Tan and carried by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Hailey Bieber, and Olivia Rodrigo.
Removed from the object it once defined, the shape becomes a visual language that appears throughout the exhibition. By taking a form originally associated with an accessory and placing it within a broader artistic context, Tan explores how an object can take on a different meaning once it is separated from its original purpose.
The exhibition asks: What remains when an object is stripped of its function? Can a silhouette once designed to be carried acquire a different life as sculpture, symbol or memory?
By separating form from utility, Tan proposes that meaning does not disappear when function is removed. It simply changes.
The exhibition marks the beginning of Tan’s practice as a contemporary artist, extending a language first developed through fashion into sculpture, installation, and text. It also signals the realisation of 125 PROJECTS’ desire to build a platform that fosters new modes and intersectional approaches to artmaking.
Nicholas Tan’s Multidisciplinary Practice
Nicholas Tan is an artist, designer, and founder. He studied Biology at Harvard University, earning a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, where he conducted and published scientific research. A former national swimmer for Singapore, he has also collaborated with LVMH Métiers d’Art.
In 2022, Tan founded AUPEN, an independent accessories brand recognized for its sculptural silhouettes. His multidisciplinary background informs a practice shaped by observation, experimentation, and inquiry.
Through his first solo exhibition in Manila, Tan extends the sculptural language developed through AUPEN into sculpture, canvas, installation, and text. The presentation marks a move into contemporary art while continuing to explore the relationship between form, function, and meaning.
125 PROJECTS and Its Manila Exhibition Platform
125 PROJECTS is a curator-led platform in Manila founded by curator and art critic Gwen Bautista. The gallery is dedicated to artistic practices shaped by collective realities, responsible modes of production, and long-term community engagements.
Drawing on its founder’s continuing curatorial practice and close collaboration with artists across the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region, 125 PROJECTS presents exhibitions, publications, fellowships, and public programs that support emerging and intergenerational artists working across disciplines.
Alongside its artistic program, 125 PROJECTS operates a fine art services arm offering art advisory, archiving, collections management, publication production, and conservation. These services act as practical scaffolding for artistic work overtime, ensuring its care, continuity, and legacy beyond the exhibition cycle.
Nicholas Tan’s first solo exhibition and designer pop-up in Manila brings together his background in fashion and design with his emerging practice as a contemporary artist. Presented at 125 Projects, NBS Park, the exhibition explores how a silhouette originally created for an object can take on a new life as sculpture, symbol, or memory.
The exhibition opens on Tuesday, 18 August 2026, from 6:00 PM onwards and will be open to the public until 30 August 2026 at 125 Projects, NBS Park, 125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City.
For more information, please contact inquiry@125projects.com or studio@aupen.com.
