The Cafe as a Third Place

Gerardo Jimenez’s paintings meander through the spaces where people pause, gather, and recharge—the café. He works across watercolor, oil, and pen-and-ink, with each medium informing and strengthening the others.

In Welcome to the Third Place, Jimenez paints café facades that open to the street, interiors that capture the mood of a room, and portraits of people alone or in company—scenes he often encountered during his past occupation as an organic farmer supplying specialty produce to restaurants.

Jimenez has focused his attention on the café as a universal site of connection, a third place. “In more than a year of visiting cafés, I found myself drawn to a café’s unique choice of furnishings and fixtures. I felt that’s what gave them character.”

“I observed in my visits that customers came to meet with friends, family, and colleagues. I also noticed many who went by themselves. Several used the café as an extension of their offices, it seemed, while others were content to let the time pass leisurely. I myself feel a sense of comfort going to a regular coffee place, where I knew the staff and some of the other regulars. The café is a place where I can order a comforting cup of coffee, a favorite pastry, or even a regular meal—comfort food. This feeling of just being myself, relaxed, brought to my mind the idea of a ‘Third place,’ a place not quite like home, that’s not a workplace, but had that feeling of familiarity, where I could converse with people I knew like a home away from home.”

Third places are distinct from the home (the first place) and the workplace (the second place)—settings where communities are built, ideas exchanged, and relationships nourished. Jimenez’s paintings of cafés, both in the Philippines and abroad, resonate with this idea, showing how these third places offer refuge and renewal to everyday life.

This solo show also reflects a personal moment of transition for the artist. “The idea for this show comes at this time when I will be looking for and moving to a new place. I am in search of my home.”

That search for belonging is layered with Jimenez’s reflections on family. “With my children, now adults living busy lives, I long for more chances to be together—like sharing coffee at a cozy café. Even if it seems only remotely connected, I find the café, and our shared love for coffee, to be one of the things we have in common.”

For the artist, the café becomes a bridge to his children, a place where he senses their nearness. “In the quiet presence of young women at their tables, I am reminded of my daughters,” he confides—hints of this longing emerging in the recurring motif of solitary figures throughout the exhibition. In a very real way, Welcome to the Third Place captures the artist’s search for connection—with community, with home, and with his own children.  

– Marz Aglipay