Biography
photo credit: M.Buenafe
Jo SiMalaya Alcampo (pronouns: they/them/siya) is an interdisciplinary artist born in Manila, the capital of the Philippines and raised in Malvern, in the heart of Scarborough. They currently live in Tkaranto / Toronto (Treaty 13) in the territory covered by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Agreement.
Jo’s art practice integrates storytelling, installation-based art, and electroacoustic soundscapes. They are a published author, playwright, and community-engaged arts facilitator.
They are a co-founder of Kapwa Collective, Kwentong Bayan, and participate as a Thread Residency artist with Musagetes’ Indigenous Otherwise Program.
Jo’s art practice integrates storytelling, installation-based art, and electroacoustic soundscapes. They are a published author, playwright, and community-engaged arts facilitator.
They are a co-founder of Kapwa Collective, Kwentong Bayan, and participate as a Thread Residency artist with Musagetes’ Indigenous Otherwise Program.
Full bio
Jo graduated from OCAD University with BFA Honours degree in Integrated Media and Photography. Advisors in OCADU's Indigenous Visual Culture Program inspired them to reconnect with their roots and travel to Baguio, Bontoc, and Sagada in the Cordillera mountain region of the Philippines. Jo met with traditional teachers and indigenous rights organizations to learn how to develop an ethical code of conduct when integrating Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices within an art practice. One response to this ongoing inquiry is the installation: Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory.
In 2012, Jo made a presentation at the KAPWA-3 Conference at the University of the Philippines-Baguio on “Indigenous Knowledge in the Academe - Bridging Local And Global Paradigms”. Jo made the journey with a group of Filipino-Canadian artists, critical thinkers and healers. They have since formed the Kapwa Collective and together they dream their visions for a Filipino-Canadian bridging narrative into action. Past projects include TBOLIxTO - a cultural exchange between the T'boli School of Living Traditions (Philippines) and the community in Toronto; and Restless Precinct - a site specific, group exhibition and performance series on land, identity and de/colonization in Scarborough's Guild Precinct.
Jo has exhibited internationally at festivals, conferences and galleries including A Space Gallery, Antimatter Film Festival, ArtsEverywhere Festival, Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival, Blackwood Gallery, CBC-Radio Canada International, Evergreen Brickworks, 401 Richmond, FADO Performance Art Centre, Gallery 101, Gallery 44, Gladstone Hotel, High Park Nature Centre, Images Festival, Inside Out Festival, InterAccess, Kapisanan Centre for Philippine Art & Culture, KAPWA-3 Conference, la Ferme du Buisson, Luminato Festival, Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, Musagetes, Nuit Blanche-Toronto, Myseum of Toronto, OCADU Gallery, Pride Toronto, Subtle Technologies Festival, Vtape, Worker's Arts and Heritage Centre, Xpace, and Y+ Contemporary.
Jo is a professional writer with work published in the award-winning anthologies, Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working Class Struggle and The Art of Solidarity: Labour Arts and Heritage in Canada, both published by Between the Lines Press. Other writing credits include Akdaan, a literary anthology on the theme of Migrant Issues and Migration, TOK 6: Writing the New Toronto (Diasporic Dialogues), INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics, Fireweed Women’s Literary & Cultural Journal, Pinoy Sa Canada, The Peak Magazine, Our Times Magazine, Briarpatch Magazine, and Ricepaper Magazine issue 19.4 on Asian and Asian Canadian activism.
Jo is a playwright and their play, Hilot Means Healer produced by Cahoots Theatre, in association with b current performing arts, was presented at the Theatre Centre from October 5 to 27, 2019.
Hilot Means Healer was published by Musagetes and the book was launched on May 9, 2026 at the ArtsEverywhere Festival in Guelph, Ontario. The event included a play reading directed by Marjorie Chan.
The published version of Hilot Means Healer is now available in-store at AnotherStory Bookshop. Order the book online and/or pick up at their Toronto location. And you can also order the book online at ArtsEverywhere.ca with international shipping options available. The book includes a foreword by Elwood Jimmy, a preface by Marjorie Chan, an introduction from the author, and a photo gallery from live stagings of the play.
Jo was one of twenty-four playwrights commissioned by Museum of Toronto to write two dramatic monologues for The 52: Stories of Women Who Transformed Toronto. This multi-year project was presented at Nuit Blanche in 2023; and was presented as a multi-media exhibit, The 52: The Exhibition (2025-2026); and as a live theatrical experience, The 52: Live at the Spadina Museum, as part of the Luminato Festival (2025-2026).
Jo graduated from OCAD University with BFA Honours degree in Integrated Media and Photography. Advisors in OCADU's Indigenous Visual Culture Program inspired them to reconnect with their roots and travel to Baguio, Bontoc, and Sagada in the Cordillera mountain region of the Philippines. Jo met with traditional teachers and indigenous rights organizations to learn how to develop an ethical code of conduct when integrating Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices within an art practice. One response to this ongoing inquiry is the installation: Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory.
In 2012, Jo made a presentation at the KAPWA-3 Conference at the University of the Philippines-Baguio on “Indigenous Knowledge in the Academe - Bridging Local And Global Paradigms”. Jo made the journey with a group of Filipino-Canadian artists, critical thinkers and healers. They have since formed the Kapwa Collective and together they dream their visions for a Filipino-Canadian bridging narrative into action. Past projects include TBOLIxTO - a cultural exchange between the T'boli School of Living Traditions (Philippines) and the community in Toronto; and Restless Precinct - a site specific, group exhibition and performance series on land, identity and de/colonization in Scarborough's Guild Precinct.
Jo has exhibited internationally at festivals, conferences and galleries including A Space Gallery, Antimatter Film Festival, ArtsEverywhere Festival, Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival, Blackwood Gallery, CBC-Radio Canada International, Evergreen Brickworks, 401 Richmond, FADO Performance Art Centre, Gallery 101, Gallery 44, Gladstone Hotel, High Park Nature Centre, Images Festival, Inside Out Festival, InterAccess, Kapisanan Centre for Philippine Art & Culture, KAPWA-3 Conference, la Ferme du Buisson, Luminato Festival, Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, Musagetes, Nuit Blanche-Toronto, Myseum of Toronto, OCADU Gallery, Pride Toronto, Subtle Technologies Festival, Vtape, Worker's Arts and Heritage Centre, Xpace, and Y+ Contemporary.
Jo is a professional writer with work published in the award-winning anthologies, Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working Class Struggle and The Art of Solidarity: Labour Arts and Heritage in Canada, both published by Between the Lines Press. Other writing credits include Akdaan, a literary anthology on the theme of Migrant Issues and Migration, TOK 6: Writing the New Toronto (Diasporic Dialogues), INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics, Fireweed Women’s Literary & Cultural Journal, Pinoy Sa Canada, The Peak Magazine, Our Times Magazine, Briarpatch Magazine, and Ricepaper Magazine issue 19.4 on Asian and Asian Canadian activism.
Jo is a playwright and their play, Hilot Means Healer produced by Cahoots Theatre, in association with b current performing arts, was presented at the Theatre Centre from October 5 to 27, 2019.
Hilot Means Healer was published by Musagetes and the book was launched on May 9, 2026 at the ArtsEverywhere Festival in Guelph, Ontario. The event included a play reading directed by Marjorie Chan.
The published version of Hilot Means Healer is now available in-store at AnotherStory Bookshop. Order the book online and/or pick up at their Toronto location. And you can also order the book online at ArtsEverywhere.ca with international shipping options available. The book includes a foreword by Elwood Jimmy, a preface by Marjorie Chan, an introduction from the author, and a photo gallery from live stagings of the play.
Jo was one of twenty-four playwrights commissioned by Museum of Toronto to write two dramatic monologues for The 52: Stories of Women Who Transformed Toronto. This multi-year project was presented at Nuit Blanche in 2023; and was presented as a multi-media exhibit, The 52: The Exhibition (2025-2026); and as a live theatrical experience, The 52: Live at the Spadina Museum, as part of the Luminato Festival (2025-2026).
Still from "the old world is dying, but a new world is being born..." (click image for more info)
