The Way Back — Maia Cruz Palileo

The Way Back

A dreamlike oil painting by Maia Cruz Palileo captures a man on horseback amidst lush trees to evoke ancestral memory and Filipino heritage, inviting you to explore this evocative piece of contemporary fine art.


Maia Cruz Palileo (1979)

Explore the captivating art of Maia Cruz Palileo: interdisciplinary paintings & sculptures blending Filipino-American heritage, memory, and colonial history. Discover dreamlike compositions examining identity & forgotten narratives.

Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (Durham, United States of America)

Discover the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University – a vibrant blend of Pre-Columbian artifacts and contemporary art fostering dialogue & exploration. Explore stunning exhibitions & architectural brilliance.

Maia Cruz Palileo is a multi-disciplinary artist working across themes of migration, history, and memory. This painting belongs to a series the artist made after researching what the Philippines looked like while their grandparents grew up there. The series blends fragments of drawings from pre-World War I photographs of the Philippines, taking them “out of this fixed, colonial context and creat[ing] a new vision of my ancestors, my family, and my culture,” Palileo has stated. In