1. The theme of the annual art fair’s sixth edition is “Crossing Borders.” The four-day event features 28 art galleries and will be held from October 16 to 19 at SMX Convention Center Taguig. It coincides with Manila FAME, a design fair for exporters.
2. There’s free transportation if you want to shuttle between ManilART and Manila FAME at SMX Convention Center Mall of Asia. Your ride is a souped-up airconditioned jeepney with bus-type seating and videoke. It seats 20 passengers per trip—do we smell a party?
3. Paintings speak louder than words—and The Triumph of Life Over Death, above, is acclaimed painter Romulo Galicano’s booming commentary on Typhoon Yolanda, to be unveiled at ManilART.
4. Art as therapy—works of Tacloban artists are featured in “Pagla-Um: A Paperclay Art Exhibit” at Manila FAME.
5. Filipino painter Emmanuel Garibay, known for his expressionist figurative style, expresses his opinion in a talk about the responsibility of artists to the environment.
6. Sculptor Ramon Orlina, who recently opened Museo Orlina in Tagaytay, loans pieces from his eponymous museum to ManilART.
7. A number of works from “Sculpture Review,” an ongoing exhibition at SM Megamall, are to be transferred to SM Aura Premier to coincide with ManilART. Get ready to Instagram photos of works by Orlina, Michael Cacnio, Chris Murillo, Carlito Ortega, Jinggoy Salcedo and Omi Reyes.
8. Prepare to be transported back in time with the classical renderings of Agustin Goy—a contemporary of Vicente Manansala. His works will hang at the Gallery Nine booth.
9. Go international with “Endangered Visions,” an exhibition featuring the works of 23 foreign and 18 local artists such as Louis Markoya, a protégé of surrealist artist Salvador Dali; mystical artist Otto Rapp; contemporary symbolist Danny Malbeouf; fantastic realist painter Maura Holden; and pop-surrealist artist Jana Brike.
10. Read up on local art—attend the book launches of Kritik/Critique: Essays from the J. Elizalde Navarro National Workshop in the Criticism of the Arts and Humanities, 2009-2012, edited by Oscar Campomanes; and Ralph Semino Galán’s From The Major Arcana, an intersemiotic translation of the 22 cards of the tarot pack into a suite of poems, accompanied by the pen and ink drawings of Wilfredo Offemaria, Jr.
ManilART 2014 runs from Oct 16-19, 10am-10pm, at SMX Convention Center Taguig. Tickets at PHP200, www.manilart.com.
Reader Interactions