Filipino visual artist Reybert Ramos opens the year with Magnus, his latest solo exhibition with Galerie Stephanie. The show takes its title from a Latin adjective meaning “great,” historically linked to figures such as the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (Alexander Magnus) and the Roman emperor Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus), and later evolving into a symbol of power across the centuries.
In Magnus, Ramos reckons with humanity’s pursuit of glory in its most primal form. He presents portraits of his signature anthropomorphic alpha animals—lions, tigers, and wolves—rendered in commanding gazes and forceful stances, as though poised to step beyond the canvas in pursuit of prey. Yet rather than the wild, these figures inhabit lounges and boardrooms, situated firmly within a human world of industrial dominance marked by whiskey, cigarettes, and bespoke suits.
Once kings of the jungle, the animals continue to reign supreme in their new terrain. Ramos gestures toward a form of greatness that persists across shifting social orders, from the hierarchies of wildlife to those of capitalism. In doing so, he frames the hunt for greatness as an enduring impulse that transcends centuries, ecologies, and species. From the human to the non-human, Ramos traces a continuum in which dominance endures, migrating across bodies, worlds, and systems.
Exhibition notes by Chesca Santiago
