Mylen Tumaliuan-Huggins
BIO

Mylen Tumaliuan-Huggins is a Filipina-American visual artist based in Seattle, Washington. Her artworks are primarily paintings in encaustic, mediums in oil and mixed media on paper, wood or canvas panels. She creates paintings that embody movement as lived experience. Through emergent abstraction grounded in material collaboration, she models a way of being that embraces constraint, cultivates presence, and allows form to arise through attentive action.
Her work contributes to contemporary abstraction by expanding its cultural, pedagogical, and philosophical dimensions — offering viewers not just an image, but a way of seeing.
She has worked as an arts educator for The Children’s Museum, Arts Corps, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Public Schools, as well as an artist mentor for Arts Impact. In addition, she served as a committee and board member for Arts Corps and a contributing art juror for Phinney Neighborhood Association. Her work has been shown at Core Gallery, exhibited at Piano Nobile, The Confluence Gallery, Gage Academy of Art, Phinney Neighborhood Association, Eras Living (The Lakeshore and Aljoya) and Dubsea Coffee.
At the age of 14, Mylen immigrated with her family from the Philippines to the United States in 1982 landing in Toledo, OH, then relocated to Detroit, MI then onwards to Hartford, CT. Her first formal exposure to visual art was when she attended Crockett Vocational School to study Commercial Art during the last two years of high school in Detroit, MI. With her father’s encouragement, she later attended College for Creative Studies - Center for Art and Design in Detroit, Michigan majoring in Graphic Design and Illustration. In 1995, Mylen moved with her husband from Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA.
Her current practice reflects time regained. Her studio work is disciplined, consistent, and intentional after devoting decades to teaching, caregiving, and supporting others’ growth. Now she centers her own. Her work carries the weight of that history — not as narrative illustration, but as embodied understanding.
CV
CURRENT SOLO EXHIBITION:
March 9- May 22, 2026
Piano Nobile, Seattle, WA
December 2025
Piano Nobile, Phinney Neighborhood Association WinterFest, Seattle, WA
January 13 – February 21, 2026
Look Up - The Confluence Gallery - Art in Twisp
June – September 2025
Landscape and Figure – Aljoya Thornton Place, Eras Living, Seattle, WA
Artist Talk, July 12, 2025
June 28 - September 26, 2025
Solo Exhibition – Roberson Art Space, Tacoma, WA
Artist Talk, June 28, 2025
January-May 2025
Metaphoric Landscapes - The Lakeshore, Eras Living, Seattle, WA
March 2022, 2023, 2024, April 2025
Dubsea Café - Miller School of Art annual group show
December 2024
Piano Nobile, Phinney Neighborhood Association, Seattle, WA
November 19, 2022- January 7, 2023
Perspectives: A Holiday Show, The Confluence Gallery - Art in Twisp
2022-present
The Confluence Gallery - Art in Twisp Marketplace
2020-2022
Gallery Representation - CORE Gallery, Seattle, WA
Solo shows- July 2020, April 2021, September 2022
Group shows - January 2020, December 2020, October 2021, December 2022
October 1-21, 2022
Gage Academy of Art; Journal of Reflections: Views from the Pacific Northwest Exhibition
October 18 & 19, 2020
Glass and Home Decor Art Walk
August 30, 2020
Phinney Neighborhood Association, Art Stroll
June 10-July10, 2019
Phinney Neighborhood Association, Northwest Fine Arts show
Education
College for Creative Studies- Center for Art and Design. Graphic Design and Illustration, Detroit, 1987-1990.
Columbia College -coursework on Science, Art and Technology; Chicago, 1993.
The Smithsonian Institute- Center for Museum Studies- certified in Museum Interpretation, Washington DC, 1998.
Visual Thinking Strategies - certified practitioner, Seattle, 2011.
Washington State Teaching Artists Training Lab- certified, Seattle, 2012.
Lil Street Studios -ceramics, Chicago, 1993-1995.
North Seattle Community College- course work, Early Childhood Education, Seattle,1997.
Community and Work Experience
Seattle Art Museum – Teaching Artist, 2018-2020
Arts Corps - Board Member (3yrs), Teaching Artist (5yrs) and Volunteer - 2012/2020
Artist Mentor – Arts Impact, 2017-2020
Art Juror - Phinney Neighborhood Association, Neighborhood Signal Box Project, 2025; Aurora Bridge Painting project
Set painter - Woodland Park Players, community theater, 3yrs
Teaching Artist / Art Docent/ Arts Coordinator– West Woodland Elementary School, 2005-2017