Art Nelson Left Behind
Art Nelson Left Behind
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Learn about St. Malo, Ilocano Foods, and the Art Nelson Left Behind in 2026!
The spark for this exhibition began with an unexpected encounter. After a Filipino cultural event in May 2025, I was approached by Maria Lourdes Pérez Muñiz, a Puerto Rican woman carrying a small bundle of artwork once belonging to her late neighbor, Nelson Baldemor—a Filipino American who passed away suddenly in Virginia in 2021. With no next of kin to claim his belongings, Maria salvaged a few pieces, hoping they would one day find meaning beyond loss.
Months later, as I began organizing, framing, and photographing the works, I shared my progress with her. Her reply—“Today is Nelson’s birthday”—transformed the project from a simple act of preservation into something deeper. This exhibition now serves as an homage to Nelson’s life and legacy, and a reflection on the ways art endures as a vessel for memory, identity, and connection. It invites us to consider how stories continue to unfold long after their subjects have passed—and how, through art, we remain linked across cultures, generations, and time.
~ Chiara Cox ~
Autobiography by Dr. Anita BaldemorFilipino, born in Sta. Ana, Manila, Philippines, b. 1921-?document8.5" x 11"
Letter by Robert Dempsey DeHartAmerican, Danville, Virginia, 1919-1992document8.5" x 11"
By preserving his mother’s autobiography and a letter from a photographer, Nelson honored the stories and memories they carried, reflecting the care and value he placed on these intimate connections.
Letter by Robert Dempsey DeHartAmerican, Danville, Virginia, 1919-1992document8.5" x 11"
By preserving his mother’s autobiography and a letter from a photographer, Nelson honored the stories and memories they carried, reflecting the care and value he placed on these intimate connections.
Nelson Baldemor of Danville, Virginia, was a Filipino American whose life was tragically cut short in a hit-and-run accident in 2021. While few public details about his personal or professional life are known, his legacy endures through the belongings he left behind, collected by his neighbor, Maria Lourdes Pérez Muñiz. These items he treasured include a mother’s autobiography, letters, early 20th-century photographs of the Philippines by a news photographer, and works by his cousin, the renowned Filipino artist Manuel Baldemor.
Nelson carefully maintained these pieces as symbols of family pride and as tangible connections to the Philippines, his country of origin. Together, they offer a deeply personal narrative that extends into the broader Filipino diasporic experience. Through these intimate traces of one life, the exhibition explores memory, heritage, and the enduring power of art to convey stories beyond absence. Visitors are invited to reflect on what endures, what is remembered, and how personal and cultural histories intersect through the objects we leave behind.
The Collection
The Collection
Reminders of family and the Philippines: church, mass, markets, swimming, the heat, dances, rituals, food, harvest, jeepneys, tropical fruits, love...
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