Francis T. Lim b. 1991 Tondo Manila Philippines is a visual artist based in Pandacan Manila. His practice engages acrylic aerosol spray mixed media augmented reality and blockchain technologies situating painting within a hybrid field where material presence and digital activation coexist.

Lim’s early training in watercolor established a sensitivity to atmosphere spatial tension and compositional flow. While no longer central to his current output this foundation informs the structural balance underlying his otherwise aggressive and gestural surfaces.

His recent works are characterized by figurative abstraction and expressive mark making presenting ghost like entities that hover between figuration and dissolution. These forms function as psychological surrogates drawn from personal childhood experiences and internalized memory. Rather than narrative illustration Lim’s paintings articulate emotional states such as trauma vulnerability and transformation through distortion layering and erasure.

Conceptually aligned with the existential and grotesque traditions of James Ensor and Francis Bacon Lim treats the figure as an unstable site of tension rather than a fixed identity. The body is fragmented and spectral continuously reformed through paint evoking the instability of memory and selfhood. Acrylic and aerosol are employed to generate atmospheric depth and abrupt disruption reinforcing a sense of haunting and psychological presence.

Extending beyond the physical surface Lim integrates augmented reality into selected paintings activating digital layers that expand the work’s spatial and experiential dimensions. These AR enhanced works are minted on the blockchain positioning the painting as both object and evolving digital artifact and challenging the boundaries between material and virtual practices.

Lim is an active member of TLYR Collective formerly CryptoArt PH a community driven platform co founded by forerunner and digital nomad Jopet Arias recognized for its role in shaping the Philippine NFT and digital art landscape. Through the collective Lim has consistently participated in major art fairs including Art Fair Philippines and Luzon Art Fair contributing to dialogues that bridge contemporary painting technology and community led initiatives.

Through an interdisciplinary and materially grounded practice Lim’s work interrogates how memory identity and personal history can be reconfigured through contemporary painting and emerging technologies offering a psychologically charged visual language with international resonance.