About

Bio
Cherisse Alcantara is a Filipina-American painter, whose luminous and deeply observed oil paintings are poetic and reimagined depictions of her surroundings, finding beauty and sublime within the ordinary and ephemeral. Her paintings reflect on home, place, and the complex search for rootedness and belonging, while bringing attention to simple forms and the essence of everyday objects, and a richer connection with nature and the here and now.

Alcantara is the recipient of the Wendy Sussman Prize in Painting (UC Berkeley), the Dessner Memorial Travel Award (PAFA), and the Balay Kreative Growth Grant. She has been awarded artist residencies at Jentel (Wyoming) and Chalk Hill (California). The artist’s work has been published in 48 Hills and shown in museums and galleries locally and nationally, including The de Young Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Brea Gallery, Vessel Gallery, Pence Gallery, 500 Capp Street, Sanchez Art Center, and Berkeley Art Center. She received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2021) and BA from the University of California-Berkeley (2013). She was born in the Philippines and partly raised in the Philippines and the United States. She lives and works in San Francisco, CA.