Artist Statement

As a queer Filipino immigrant artist based in San Francisco, my practice is rooted in decolonization — not as theory, but as lived experience. I work across film, performance, and visual art to interrogate how identity, power, and representation are constructed, distorted, and reclaimed. Drag is central to my methodology: both as performance and material language, it becomes a tool for subversion, embodiment, and resistance.

Through interdisciplinary work, I challenge dominant narratives and reframe marginalized histories, centering bodies and stories that have long been excluded from cultural authorship. I create immersive, multi-sensory experiences that blur the line between spectacle and critique — inviting audiences to confront inherited systems while imagining alternative futures.

My work is not only about visibility; it is about reclamation. It seeks to dismantle colonial frameworks, disrupt normative hierarchies, and open space for Indigenous, queer, immigrant, and diasporic voices to define themselves on their own terms. Ultimately, my practice is an act of cultural resistance — building spaces where complexity, multiplicity, and liberation can coexist.

Bio

Jethro Patalinghug is a Filipino non-binary interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and activist whose work lives at the intersection of cultural memory, queer visibility, and social justice. A recipient of the 2026–27 San Francisco Impact Endowment Grant and the 2023 San Francisco Artist Grant, Jethro has emerged as a powerful voice within the Bay Area’s contemporary arts landscape.

In 2025, they presented their solo exhibition KAANYAG at the Chan National Queer Arts Center, a striking portrait series honoring queer and trans drag performers across the Bay Area. Running from May through August, the exhibition centered glamour as resistance and visibility as legacy, positioning drag artists not only as performers, but as cultural historians and community architects.

Jethro was also the featured visual artist for the 2023 Oaklash Drag Festival in Oakland, California, where they debuted sculptural works including Disco Balling Heads, The Performer, and Gabriela Rising. Their multidisciplinary practice has been featured in the 2022 Trans Aware Art Exhibition in San Francisco and included in Out of Site: Sylvester the Mighty Real, a historical walking tour honoring the legacy of Sylvester, reinforcing Jethro’s commitment to preserving and amplifying queer cultural history.

Beyond the gallery, Jethro’s storytelling extends to film. They were selected as a fellow for the Producer’s Connection at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Gotham Week in 2024. They were also selected as a fellow for the 2022 Film Independent CNN Docu-Series Intensive and DOCNY’s Storytelling Incubator, recognizing their promise as a documentary filmmaker with a global lens. They are currently directing The Long Rescue, a feature documentary following ten years in the lives of child sex trafficking survivors in the Philippines — a deeply personal and longitudinal exploration of resilience, systemic injustice, and survival.

Jethro is also widely known for their drag persona, Virginia Please, through which they advocate for Indigenous, Black, and Brown queer and trans representation, using performance and digital platforms as tools for education and empowerment. Their leadership extends into community governance, serving on the Boards of Directors for the GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, Oaklash, Center for Immigrant Protection, and EyeZen.

Across mediums — from sculpture and portraiture to film and performance — Jethro Patalinghug builds work that is both aesthetically bold and politically urgent, centering queer and trans communities while advancing conversations around migration, labor, survival, and joy.