Timothy

Oil on Canvas

24 x 18 inches

2025

Thy Blood

Billy Bagtas has taken us through so much in his past shows—loss, grief, painful growth, and the kind of maturity that hits you in the gut. But with 'Thy Blood, ’ he changes direction, opting to talk candidly and simply about kindness and love.

This Is Not About Pain Anymore

Joan Velasquez

Past experiences: mistakes, heartbreaks, the good and the terrible, shape us into who we are, whether we welcome them or not, whether they wound us or pass us gently. But in the midst of all that, only a rare few reach out, stretch their hands, and choose to be your 'everything.' That kind of presence feels like grace. It stirs gratefulness and hope at the core.

Billy Bagtas follows this quiet, yet powerful current. If past exhibitions have led us through loss, grief, choiceless growth, and the gut-wrenching pain of becoming, this one offers something more tender. Something that has been healed. Like a scientist with a scalpel, Bagtas lays bare the flesh, the cells, the nerves, examining each element of the self in love rather than anguish. Not all bonds are tied by blood, but some people, with their sheer presence and care, fill those empty spaces so fully, they overflow.

In “Thy Blood,” that overflow becomes the work.

An 8-piece show composed of seven paintings and one sculpture. Billy Bagtas takes us into a raw and vulnerable existence in Thy Blood, where suffering is not concealed but rather known with great care and even reverence. Bagtas uses distortion, color, and gesture to create stories that are very human while confronting the body and spirit in its most shattered but honest states throughout these pieces. His paintings include deformed, ghostlike figures oozing through layers of crimson, black, and white, hinting at hardship, a sense of belonging, and perhaps relief. The names Timothy, Daniel, Thomas, Christian, Gabriela, and Eve ground the art in something personally distinct, as if each piece has an identity.

As a tangible representation of the paintings, the sculpture "Holy Conviction" relates to the quiet power that follows a spiritual reckoning or the calmness after a storm.

Thy Blood does not aim to provide peace or answers but it opens up as something worth looking at with both tenderness and truth. This is not just about pain; it’s about presence. About how people, even those not tied to us by blood, can enter our lives and fill the spaces left by old wounds. And sometimes, they stay. Sometimes, they become holy.

And the day will come forever and ever...