Hersley-Ven Casero is a multidisciplinary visual artist and street and documentary photographer based in Dumaguete City, Philippines. A graduate of Foundation University with a BSC in Marketing, he was named Artist of the Year by the university, and in 2018 received the Negros Oriental Young Heroes Award for Visual Arts. In 2019, Casero became the first Filipino artist awarded a sponsored residency at the Chalk Hill Artist Residency in California, USA. In 2024, the Dumaguete City Council honored him with a Resolution of Recognition and Commendation as a Dumaguete Luminary. And in 2025, he became the youngest ever recipient of the city’s prestigious Outstanding Dumagueteño Award—a tribute to his exceptional achievements and invaluable contributions to the arts, which have brought honor and lasting distinction to Dumaguete, both locally and internationally.
Born and raised in Dumaguete, the city continues to shape his creative lens and serves as both subject and backdrop for many of his works. Casero actively shares his talents through local classes, workshops, and talks—including with the Department of Education—while also exhibiting his work across the globe. His paintings and photographs have been featured in exhibitions and publications in the USA, India, Ukraine, Dubai, Poland, Germany, Portugal, France, Cyprus, and Italy.
Casero’s work has appeared in The Dumaguete MetroPost, Negros Chronicle, Island News, Visayan Daily Star, The Freeman, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, and Manila Bulletin’s Picture Perfect, as well as in Smile, Cebu Pacific’s inflight magazine. In 2023, VOGUE Philippines featured an article about his life and photography. Internationally, his work has been published in The Los Angeles Times, VIEW Magazine (Germany), national publications in Denmark and India, The Lonely Planet, and a wide range of online galleries including The Pictorial List, Street Photographers Foundation, Street Photography International, EyeShot, 121 Clicks, and Bored Panda, among others.
Casero’s photography has been part of major international exhibitions such as #ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis at the International Center for Photography in New York; the traveling City vs Quarantine show in Lviv, Ukraine and across Europe; and the Tehran Street Photography Festival 2023. His work was featured in Art Fair Philippines in both 2023 and 2024 through collaborations with Fotomoto and MUGNA Gallery. His solo exhibit, Onion Kids, debuted in 2023 at Art Fair Philippines, showcasing some of his most iconic street photographs printed at their largest scale to date, and later returned for Onion Kids: Homecoming at MUGNA Gallery in Valencia, Negros Oriental. In 2024, Casero served as a guest judge for the Italian Street Photography Festival and exhibited at StreetSoup Art Gallery in Milan.
His photography has earned numerous international awards and honors, including: Silver Medal, Paris International Street Photography Awards (2020), First Prize & Category Winner, Muse Photography Awards (2021), Finalist, Sony World Photography Awards (2021), Finalist, Street Photography International Awards (2022), Finalist, Miami Street Photography Awards (2022), Finalist, Eyeshot Open Call (2022), and 2nd Prize & Finalist, Italian Street Photography Awards (2022).
Among his most notable long-term photography projects is Catch A Moment, a street photography series capturing uncanny, poetic, and humorous moments of everyday life. In 2021, he published his first photography book, All in Good Time, which features Catch A Moment photographs taken around Dumaguete.
Throughout his artistic journey, Casero has explored a wide spectrum of mediums, themes, and collaborations. He advocates for creativity, authenticity and self-expression through community-based art projects like Ha?: The Laughing Boy Project. In 2022, he illustrated the children’s book The Great Little Hunter, an imaginative tale inspired by Filipino mythology and the natural world of Dumaguete and Negros.
Casero’s art and photography perpetually inform and inspire each other, encouraging him to stay curious, to wonder daily at the whimsicality of the world around him, and to find, catch and immortalize the magic that exists in the mundane of everyday life within his hometown of Dumaguete and beyond.
Selected Exhibitions:
2025
Mar “And Then…” Solo Art Exhibition, Mugna Gallery, Valencia, Philippines
2024
Jun Photography Collaboration & Photography Exhibition, Huawei Philippines & Fotomoto, Cebu & Manila, Philippines
May-Jun “Imaginarium II”, Group Art Exhibition, LibrAria, Arté Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Apr “Ang Pagdakop sa Damgo: An Exhibit of Dumaguete’s Children’s Literature” Featuring “Imaginarium” by LibrAria & “The Great Little Hunter”, Exhibition, National Museum of the Philippines Dumaguete, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Mar “The Street Soup”, International Photography Exhibition, The Street Soup Art Gallery, Milan, Italy
2023
Oct “Paghanduraw sa Sining Bahandi sa Negros”, Group Art Exhibition, Mugna Gallery, National Museum of the Philippines, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Oct “KAMUGNAAN”, Group Art Exhibition, Buglasan Festival 2023, Mugna Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Oct “Piaya Pop!”, Group Art Exhibition, Gallery Sort Of, Quezon City, Manila, Philippines
Sep “The World in Love with Itself”, Group Photography Exhibition, Qube Gallery, Cebu City, Philippines
Jun “Sunny Day”, Group Art Exhibition, Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery, Makati City, Philippines
May “Mother & Child Reimagined and Recast by 40 Contemporary Artists”, Group Art Exhibition, Qube Gallery, Banilad, Cebu City, Philippines
May “Fotomoto 22: Home”, Group Photography Exhibition, Orange Gallery, Bacolod, Philippines
Apr “Onion Kids: Homecoming”, Solo Photography Exhibition, Mugna Gallery, Valencia, Philippines
Mar “Fotomoto 21: Portraits” Group Photography Exhibition, Romeo Ariniego Gallery, Silliman University, Dumaguete, Philippines
Feb-Mar “Fotomoto 22: Home” Group Photography Exhibition, Gallery Indigo, BenCab Museum, Tuba, Benguet, Philippines
Feb “Onion Kids”, Solo Photography Exhibition, Mugna Gallery, Art Fair Philippines, Level 7, The Link Ayala Center, Makati City, Philippines
Feb “Fotomoto 22: Home” Special Edition, Group Photography Exhibition, Art Fair Philippines, Level 7, The Link Ayala Center, Makati City, Philippines
2022
Dec “The Miami Street Photography Festival”, Art Basel Miami, Miami, USA
Nov “Current”, Collaborative art series with Shelter Gallery, Visayas Art Fair, Cebu, Philippines
Nov “Fotomoto 22: Home”, Photography exhibition, Parola UP Fine Arts Gallery, Manila, Philippines
Nov “Eyeshot Open Call Exhibition”, Photography exhibition, Galleria del Cembalo, Rome, Italy
Oct Collaboration with Levi’s, Art exhibition and event , Glorietta Mall, Manila, Philippines
Apr “The Great Little Hunter”, Book Launching and Art exhibition, Dakong Balay Art Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Feb “Ripples”, Art exhibition, Shelter Art Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Jan “The Wall”, International Photography exhibition, Kennedy Square, Paphos, Cyprus
Jan “Bahandi sa Kabakhawan”, Group Art exhibition to benefit Mangrove conservation, Dakong Balay Art Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
2021
Jun “All in Good Time”, Book Launching and Photography exhibition, Dakong Balay Art Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Mar “SALT”, Solo Art exhibition, Art Cube Philippines Gallery, Makati City, Manila, Philippines
Feb “ATOA”, Group Art exhibition for February National Arts Month celebration, Dakong Balay Art Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Jan “MAKE OR BREAK: New Year’s Resolushow”, Group Art exhibition, Space Encounters Gallery, Ortigas Center, Manila, Philippines
2020
Dec “ORGANIC MAGIC”, Solo Art exhibition, Dakong Balay Art Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Nov “MMXX: Year End Exhibition”, Art for Space Gallery, Manila, Philippines
Nov “FUJIFILM MOMENT STREET PHOTO AWARDS 2020”, Group Photo Exhibition, Poland
Oct “City VS Quarantine”, Traveling Group Photo exhibition, Lviv, Ukraine & other European cities
Mar - Dec 2020 “#ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis”, International Center of Photography, 79 Essex Street, New York, USA
Feb “Pedicab Art Project”, first mobile Group Art exhibition in Dumaguete City, Philippines
Jan “On The Rocks”, Solo Art exhibition, Space Encounters Gallery, Ortigas Center, Manila, Philippines
2019
Oct - Jan 2020 “California Dreamin”, Back to back Art exhibition with NY Artist Antoinette Wysocki, Gallery 105, Santa Rosa, California, USA
Oct “SOLSTICE SEASON”, Group Art exhibition, Chalk Hill Residency Art Gallery, Healdsburg, California, USA
Sep “WISHING ROCKS”, Solo Art exhibition, Chalk Hill Residency Art Gallery, Healdsburg, California, USA
Jun “ROOTS”, Group Art exhibition, BLOCK17 Art Space, Art District, Bacolod City, Philippines
Feb “ANONYMOUS ANIMALS 2018”, Group Art exhibition, NCCA Art Gallery, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines
2018
Oct “ANONYMOUS ANIMALS 2018”, Group Art exhibition, Mariyah Gallery & Ariniego Art Gallery, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Aug “IMPERMANENCE”, Solo Art exhibition, Space Encounters Gallery, Ortigas, Manila, Philippines
Mar “NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED”, Group Art exhibition, Space Encounters Gallery, Ortigas, Manila, Philippines
Feb “I SEE FACES TOO”, Group exhibition, The Perfect Exposure Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA
2017
Nov “MAONG”, Solo Art exhibition, Art Cube Philippines Gallery, Makati City, Manila, Philippines
Oct “PROJECT UNO”, Group Art exhibition, Robinson’s Place, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Feb “StART”, Group Art exhibition, Art Cube Philippines Gallery, Makati City, Manila, Philippines
2016
Oct “REAPING WALLS”, Group Art exhibition, House of Frida Gallery, Bacolod City
Sep “SANCTUARY”, Solo Art exhibition, Art Verite Gallery, Serendra, Bonifacio High Global, Taquig City, Manila
Jun “PROMDI”, Group Art exhibition, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila
Jun “PROMDI”, Group Art exhibition, National Commission for the Culture & the Arts Art Gallery,
Intramuros, Manila
Apr “ART IN THE PARK 2016”, Group Art exhibition, Art Verite Gallery Booth, Jaime Velasquez Park, Salcedo Village, Makati City
Mar “THE ACADEMY COLLECTIVE”, Group Art exhibition, Qube Gallery, Crossroads, Banilad, Cebu
Feb “ART FAIR PHILIPPINES 2016”, Group Art exhibition, Art Verite Gallery, Booth 26, Level 7, The Link Ayala Center, Makati City
Feb “VIVID”, Group Photo exhibition, Paseo Perdices, Dumaguete City, Philippines
2015
Nov “CHROMATEXT Rebooted”, Group Art exhibition, Bulwagang Juan Luna and Pasilyo Juan Luna, Cultural Center of the Philippines
Jun “South Pacific Photo Exhibition”, El Amigo & KRI Restaurant, Dumaguete City
May “HIPA” International Photography Exhibition, SM Aura, Manila, Philippines
Feb “Faculty Forum: DAFA Mentor’s Art Exhibit”, Café Memento, Dumaguete City
2014
Nov “Thirty”, Solo Art Exhibition, KRI Restaurant, Dumaguete City
Nov “Homegrown II”, Mural Project, Bacolod, Philippines
Feb “In-Twin & Stay Series”, Café Memento, Dumaguete City
Feb “ONE: FU DAFA Mentor’s Art Exhibit”, Café Memento & KRI Restaurant, Dumaguete City
2013
Nov “ARTWalk: Art for a Cause”, Dumaguete City, Co-Organizer & Exhibiting Artist
Sep “Mientras Tanto”, Qube Gallery, Cebu, Philippines
Aug “Take Off”, Group Art exhibit, KRI Restaurant, Dumaguete
Apr “The Ha? Project: Master’s Series”, Primero Kongreso, Qube Gallery, Cebu, Philippines
2012
Nov “Pagpahiluna” – Featured Artist, curated show by Patrick Flores, The 12th VIVA Excon Biennale, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Oct “Opening”, Group Show, KOP Building, Dumaguete City, Philippines
Feb “The Dragon”, The Dumaguete's First Art Auction to benefit the Survivors of Typhoon Sendong and Earthquake, February 25, 2012
Feb “PAPER”, featured film at CINEMA REHIYON 2012, Bacolod, Philippines
