MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Art Fair Philippines is excited to present a hybrid event for this year’s edition. The country’s premier art fair will open on March 23 and will run until April 1 with physical exhibitions set up at Ayala Triangle Gardens and in gallery venues, and online exhibitions and other activities accessible at www.artfairphilippines.com.
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46 exhibitors from the Philippines and abroad will showcase artworks in their respective physical locales and through online viewing rooms at the fair’s website.
This year’s Philippine exhibitors include 1335Mabini, Altro Mondo Gallery, Art Cube Gallery, Art Elaan, Art For Space, Art Underground, Art Verite Gallery, Artery Art Space, Avellana Art Gallery, Boston Art Gallery, CANVAS, District Gallery, Eskinita Gallery, Galerie Roberto, Galerie Stephanie, Grounded Holistic Arts and Culture Studio, J Studio, Kaida Contemporary, León Gallery, Luzviminda, Modeka, MONO8 Gallery, Paseo Art Gallery, Pinaglabanan X, Qube Gallery, Salcedo Private View, Secret Fresh, Silverlens, Strange Fruit, The Crucible Gallery, Tin-aw, The Metro Gallery, White Walls Gallery, and Ysobel Art Gallery.
Six international galleries – Art Agenda (Singapore/Jakarta), Gajah Gallery (Singapore/Yogyakarta), Mayoral (Paris/Barcelona), Yavuz Gallery (Singapore/Sydney), Gallery Kogure (Tokyo), and YOD Gallery (Osaka), and two NFT galleries – A/terhen and Cyber Baat will also present exhibitions at Art Fair Philippines 2022.
The fair has always sought to provide a platform for art practices beyond the recognized urban art centers. This year, several art groups from the three main island clusters of the Philippines will join the fair for a section that provides Regional Focus. These exhibitors are: Ibagiw Art Fest x Gallery 2600 (Luzon), VIVA ExCon Dasun Bacolod x Orange Project (Visayas), Langgikit x Museo De Oro x Art Portal Gallery (Mindanao), and Lawig-diwa x Gallery Down South (Mindanao).
#ArtFairPH Gallery Hops
As the world opens up to more activities, Art Fair Philippines strongly encourages its visitors to take time and visit the physical spaces of its exhibitors and experience art live.
Please refer to the fair’s Gallery Hop section to make it easier to plot out routes for viewing the gallery shows. We’ve organized our exhibitors via their locations to enable art lovers to optimize their schedules throughout the fair’s run.
#ArtFairPH live at Ayala Triangle Gardens
Art Fair Philippines will be taking over a new space for its first physical exhibition since 2020.
Working with art consultant Norman Crisologo and exhibition designer Ed Lacson, Art Fair Philippines will present art installations at the Ayala Tower One Fountain Area for the ArtFairPH/Projects section.
The 2022 featured artists will include a special exhibition of works by the late Arô Soriano and noted social realist Nune Alvarado. This section will also feature new commissions from both internationally established and rising Filipino visual artists such as Bjorn Calleja, Johanna Helmuth, Ryan Jara, Doktor Karayom, Tyang Karyel, Aze Ong, Wyndelle Remonde. Also in this section is Melvin Guirhem, the 2022 recipient of the Karen H. Montinola Selection, a private grant created in homage to art patron Karen Montinola.
A special project introduces the Filipino audience to the inflatable sculpture of Russian artist Sasha Frolova.
ArtFairPH/Projects is presented by the Bank of the Philippine Islands.
Also part of the physical exhibit is the fair’s ArtFairPH/Photo section. Curated by Neal Oshima, Michael Salientes, Mark Nicdao, and Gio Panlilio, this section will explore the exhibit entitled “Tattoos, Ternos and Couture, A Celebration of Philippine Fashion Photography.”
The film section of Art Fair Philippines will also be set up at the Ayala Triangle Gardens. This year, the ArtFairPH/Film section will present works by New York-based new media artist Jeremy Couillard, including his new film “There Is No Up Or Down, Only Attraction” (2022) which explores curious creatures across galactic vistas, pixelated gaming maps, and streetscapes. Art Fair Philippines will also present films from Couillard’s Fuzz Spiral series – a collection of three films based on the artist’s recent video game Fuzz Dungeon (2021). As Couillard’s works appear on the digital screens of Makati’s Ayala Triangle Gardens, viewers will be transported into fantastical worlds and new dimensions of color and light. ArtFairPH/Film is co-presented by Globe Platinum.
The OLED screens at the Film section are sponsored by LG Electronics.
The fair will also exhibit works by the chosen artists for #ArtFairPH/Residencies: Derek Tumala for Manila Observatory, Hannah Nantes for Linangan Art Residency, Jao San Pedro for Emerging Islands, Alwin Reamillo for Orange Project, and Faye Abantao for Butanding Barrio.
Launched in 2021 in partnership with Bleeding Heart Rum Corporation, makers of Don Papa Rum, ArtFairPH/Residencies is open to all Filipino artists across all disciplines. The application period for 2022 will be from March 23 to April 23 and the chosen artists shall be announced by May 20, 2022.
#ArtFairPH Augmented Reality, digital meets physical
For this year’s edition, Art Fair Philippines is inviting its guests to follow an interactive augmented reality (AR) art trail at the Ayala Triangle Gardens using the Daata AR app.
Named after Leeroy New’s artwork Aparisyon (Apparition), this AR Art Trail examines the timeless nature of storytelling through words and imagery, inspired by the Philippines’ thriving speculative fiction.
Curated by Daata, this digital-meets-physical show offers an opportunity to discover ground-breaking artists and newly commissioned artworks by artist Leeroy New and author Eliza Victoria.
Aparisyon brings to life sculptures that the artist created from discarded plastic bottles during the pandemic. The works take the shape of an extinct animalistic creature from another universe – albeit one facing a climate emergency much like our own. In addition to inspiring the work’s translucent and ethereal quality, the recycled plastic waste is a metaphor for storytelling, through words and their ability to conjure images. New invites audiences to embark on a journey into his imagination, where alternative futures, only possible by avoiding a climate disaster, are brought to life.
Eliza Victoria’s story entitled Let Me Hold Your Hand draws from the tropes of portal fantasy and local folk narratives of people losing themselves in enchanted realms. Addressed to an unnamed friend, Let me hold your hand is a meditation on language, illness, betrayal, and forgiveness, narrated by a woman who escapes an enchanted realm and deals with the lingering trauma of her experience. Unlike New’s work, this story does not dwell on this magical other place but is instead an examination of what happens after the characters return to the real world.
Together with the older commissions, New’s artwork and Victoria’s story weave a tale that carries audiences on a journey through time and space, questioning the solidity of our relationship with reality and imagination in the face of a climate emergency.
Daata’s presentation also includes artworks premiering in Asia by artists Jeremy Couillard, Eva Papamargariti, Elliot Dodd, Tuomas Laitinen, Keiken, Aaajiao, and Florian Meisenberg. Daata is a digital platform that commissions original digital artworks by established and emerging artists, allowing viewers to stream or download high-quality digital artworks on any device.
#ArtFairPH Metaverse with virtual exhibits, Talks, Open Studios, and Online Tours
The exhibits by this year’s participants will be viewable at www.artfairphilippines.com. Art Fair Philippines guests can also join the Gallery Walkthrough, scheduled on March 23 and March 24, for virtual tours of the exhibitors.
In keeping with the fair’s thrust to widen the audience for the visual arts and to continue to expand the appreciation of fair visitors for contemporary art, ArtFairPH/Talks features daily discussions presented in partnership with the Ateneo Art Gallery, Museum Foundation of the Philippines, and the Embassy of Spain. The talks will be accessible at www.artfairphilippines.com.
This year’s ArtFairPH/Talks will include a series of virtual discussions with Paco Barragán, an independent curator and arts writer based in Madrid, about art collecting and advice for artists. There will also be a panel discussion about NFTs, which was the main focus of last year’s edition of Art Fair Philippines. Guests can also look forward to an interesting discussion on the special photo exhibit “Tattoos, Ternos, and Couture, A Celebration of Philippine Fashion Photography” with curators Neal Oshima, Michael Salientes, Mark Nicdao, and Gio Panlilio. For the full list of ArtFairPH/Talks schedule, please visit www.artfairphilippines.com or follow Art Fair Philippines on social media.
Art Fair Philippines 2022 also continues to develop ArtFairPH/Open Studios. For this edition, Art Fair Philippines has collaborated with J Studio and ceramicist Pablo Capati to showcase a three-part series of pottery demos entitled Conversations on Clay with Jezzel Wee, Marco Rosario, Ella Mendoza, Krista Nogueras, Jon Pettyjohn, and Joey de Castro.
The fair will also continue to present virtual art tours. In the pipeline for ArtFairPH/Tours is Baguio Artists Studio Visits: Part 2, a continuation of last year’s video documentation of visits to artists’ studios by Nona Garcia, Abbie Lara, and Kawayan de Guia.
Visual artists Plet Bolipata and Elmer Borlongan will take fair visitors on a virtual tour of their new studio in what they call the Bolipata and Borlongan Talyer Video Tour.
10 Days of Art
Also complementing the fair is the 10 Days of Art initiative, a series of events around the Makati Central Business District in celebrating art beyond the venue of the fair.
As in previous years, the public may visit art installations around Makati City. This year’s three major public art exhibits will include an art installation by James Clar called I Can’t Tell You What I Don’t Know, Only That I Don’t Know at the plinth in front of the Ayala Museum. Works by Juanito Torres and Norman Dreo, two solo exhibits in conversation under the title Perspectives, will also be on view at the Greenbelt 5 Gallery. For schedule and updates, visit www.10daysofart.com.
For more information on this year’s program and schedule of activities, please visit the Art Fair Philippines website www.artfairphilippines.com and follow Art Fair Philippines on Instagram (@artfairph) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/artfairph).
