UPSIZE PH | Art Fair Philippines Goes Physical After 2 Years

Art Fair Philippines, 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.

Some 46 exhibitors from the Philippines and abroad will showcase artworks in their respective physical locales and through online viewing rooms in 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 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.

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.

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 schedules and updates, visit www.10daysofart.com.