Xyza Cruz Bacani (b. 1987, the Philippines) is an award-winning artist and writer based in New York. Her experience as a second-generation domestic worker in Hong Kong informs her practice and engagement in less visible, erased, and underreported world events. Her works explore migration, transnational identity, climate change, and labor.
Bacani has been recognized as one of Asia Society’s Asia 21 Young Leaders, Artpil 30 Under 30 Women Photographers, Forbes’s 30 Under 30 Asia, and BBC’s 100 Women of the World. Her artistic accomplishments are documented by the Philippines House of Representatives under ‘House Resolution No. 1969’. She received multiple grants from the New York State Council of the Arts, WMA Commission, the Open Society Moving Walls Foundation, and the Pulitzer Center, and was one of the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellows. She is also the author of We Are Like Air.
Bacani’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York, Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, KADIST Collection, Asian Art Museum San Francisco, Foreign Correspondents Club Hong Kong, New York University Special Collections, and numerous private collections worldwide.
EDUCATION
2021 - 2022 M.A. Arts Politics, TISCH School of the Arts, New York University, New York
2015 Photography and Social Justice Fellow, TISCH School of the Arts, New York University, New York
REPRESENTED BY
Redux Pictures New York City, USA
Christine Park Gallery: Shanghai, China and New York
BOOKS and PUBLICATIONS
Language : English and Chinese
Author : Xyza Cruz Bacani
ISBN : 978-988-14231-5-3
Publisher : WE Press Co. Ltd. 香港人出版 2018
Project Ugnayan
https://www.projectugnayan.org
Interactive website of stories in the Philippines
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
Mothering in Komunidad, NYU, April 23-June 12, 2026
2025
The Diaspora is Home, Flux IV, New York October 04-November 02, 2025
2023
Peter Augustus Gallery, Dallas- February 18-March 25, 2023
2022
Taipei Dangdai 2022 presented by Christine Park Gallery, Taiwan-May 20-22, 2022
2019 Photofairs Shanghai 2019 presented by Christine Park Gallery, Shanghai-September 20-22, 2019 We Are Like Air, Christine Park Gallery, New York-May 03-June 08, 2019
We Are Like Air, Glendale Community College, Los Angeles- November 20-December 20, 2019 2018
We Are Like Air, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong-December 01-December 23, 2018
We Are Like Air, Open Source Gallery, New York- August 01-25, 2018
We Are Like Air Public Art Display: June 15-August 01, New York
2017 American Chamber of Commerce Gallery, Hong Kong Street Photography
International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum Saint Louis, Missouri
Modern Slavery, Cho Why Gallery,
Bangkok Modern Slavery, Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre, Bangkok
2016 Under Represented, Christine Park Gallery at Apiary Studios, London
Modern Slavery, Kong Art Space, Hong Kong
Humans of Makati, Ayala Triangle Gardens Metro Manila
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS & ART FAIRS
2026
Stay Connected, Supplying the Globe, Tai Kwun, HK, Feb 28-May 31
Behind The Lens, Metropolitan Museum of Manila September-October 03,
2025
Threads of Kinship, Kadist Paris, Oct. 11 -Jan. 26, 2026
“Brown Palms, Yellow Balms: Reinventing Caregivers of Color” SOMarts, San Francisco, USAApril 24-May 25, 2025
2024 Marginalia (notes from the peripheries) May 19-June 30, 2024 Current Plans Hong Kong
Foreman Gallery, New York- February 08-March 25 2023. Museum of City of New York: New York Now: Home, March 10- August 27 2023
