The Aesthetic of the Nakikibakang Loob: Kiri Dalena’s Militant and Transcendent Art

This essay is a reading of the works of artist/activist Kira Dalena from a _loob _as kapwa perspective. Dialoguing with the theories of Alejo, Levinas, and Maritain, it will discuss the artists works as social realism that opens to the transcendent. It explores how social realist works make present the face/_loob_ which call us to responsibility and in doing so opens the person who encounters the work to the trace of the Other.