Kristian Kabuay was born in the Philippines and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He spent his college years in the Philippines where he honed his knowledge about the native ancient writing system, Baybayin. Kristian is a self-taught artist influenced by calligraphy, graffiti, abstract art, indigenous culture, technology and Asian writing systems.

As a leading authority for the propagation and instruction of the Philippine script, he developed a modern performance style of the writing system called Tulang Kalis (Poetry of the Sword) and introduced it as Filipino Calligraphy with a series of live demonstrations and lectures at the Asian Art Museum in October 2012. He has spoken at numerous schools and institutions such as Stanford University, UC Berkeley, SF State University, UC Davis, Sonoma State, University of the Philippines, National Anthropology Museum of Madrid, Tokyo University, and the San Francisco Philippine Consulate.

Currently based in San Francisco, Kristian tirelessly advocates a reawakening of the indigenous spirit through decolonization and Baybayin. Conscious of his role, Kristian launched his own company around the script specializing custom art, translations, books and apparel. This lead to collaborations with t-shirt, hat and skateboard companies. Kristian completed a European tour of Paris, Madrid, London and Brussels in July, 2013 and is currently working on an online school and documentary.

His work explores pre- to post- Filipino culture in the diaspora. Using Baybayin, the nearly extinct indigenous Filipino writing system as a foundation, I incorporate and deconstruct calligraphy and graffiti methods. Didactic in nature, my works both entertain and instruct while exploring themes of identity, poverty, death, love and duality. By blending the ancient script with contemporary aesthetics, my work bridges time and space, as well as challenges the necessity of economic value to prove our cultural heritage worthy of preserving.