Ryan Villamael, born in 1987, is a contemporary Filipino artists who works on paper cutting. He introduced exquisite paper cutting as the traditional Philippine art form into the contemporary art scene. He received the Ateneo Art Awards for his work “Isles” in 2015. It allowed him to participate in artist residency programs in France, London, and Australia. He had been working on the concept of “Locus Amoenus” during the period of this international residency grants. The phrase meaning “pleasant place” in Latin also evokes the notion of an escape into an ideal landscape. His work “Locus Amoenus” exhibited in the 2016 Singapore Biennale was a site-specific installation of intricate cutout leaves using old and contemporary Philippines maps. This work pursued the imaging of Philippines’ history that endured the longest colonial rule in Southeast Asia. It was situated in a space of Singapore Art Museum, where a section of the original colonial building facade from 1852 was visible.