When John Gatip enters a room, he does so with a quiet confidence that feels earned rather than announced. A registered architect, artist and designer, he has co-led design studios at Melbourne School of Design, while exhibiting work at Brunswick Street Gallery and Craft Victoria. Even so, the recognition afforded to him within Australia’s design landscape has yet to fully reflect the depth of his talent.

Born in the Philippines and migrating to Australia in 2000 at the age of ten, John draws from his Filipino heritage as both material and narrative. Across sculpture, lighting and painting, his practice favours simple geometries, colour and composition – leaving subtle traces of ancestry and self. His use of capiz shells revisits age-old techniques from his motherland, preserving cultural craft while reinterpreting it through a contemporary design lens.

Some of John’s fondest memories are rooted in communal making and Filipino ingenuity, from Todos Los Santos picnics at the cemetery to candle-lit nights collecting wax as a child, and Christmas streets transformed through collective effort. These shared rituals continue to shape how he approaches art and design today.

Through commissioned artworks and bespoke works for hospitality and residential spaces, John quietly advocates for greater diversity in how art, architecture and design are imagined, made and represented – contributing with intention rather than volume.