The Philippines' leading galleries will be joined by a wider roster of foreign galleries including Art Agenda (Singapore and Jakarta), Artemis Art (Malaysia),  Gallery Kogure (Japan), Kobayashi Gallery (Japan), Cayón (Spain), GALLERY SCENA (Japan), La Lanta Fine Art (Thailand), Nunu Fine Art (Taiwan), Gajah Gallery (Singapore), Vin Gallery (Vietnam), Yavuz Gallery (Singapore and Australia), and YOD Gallery (Japan). 

Several art groups from the three main island clusters of the Philippines will also join the fair for a section that provides regional focus. These exhibitors are: no Space (Luzon), Orange Project (Visayas) and Panit Bukog (Mindanao).

More from Tatler: Galeria Paloma offers a 'phygital' experience at Art Fair PH 2023

One highlight of the fair, Art Fair PH/Projects, will showcase work commissioned especially for the fair from artists who have made an impact both critically and commercially. For this year, Art Fair Philippines works once again with art consultant Norman Crisologo. 

Co-presented by BPI and located at The Link’s Roof Deck, artists mounting special exhibits include Faye Abantao, Kiko Escora, Mark Andy Garcia, Raymond Guevarra, Pow Martinez, Yeo Kaa, and Peter Zimmerman. "BPI sees the works of these talented artists not only as cultural expressions but also as art forms for investing in the future. Art is also a means to immortalize an idea that defines a generation. It is history in the making," said Jenny Lacerna, BPI Product & Sales Head of Unsecured Lending and Cards.

Scroll down to know more about these promising artists:

28-year-old visual artist Faye Abantao is hailed from the City of Smiles, Bacolod City, in Negros Occidental. She completed her bachelor's degree in Fine Arts majoring in Advertising at the La Consolacion College and pursued an art residency programme in Gwangju, South Korea. As of this writing, the artist has already participated in more than 20 group shows where she showed her talent in photography, digital printing, origami, print, and painting. 

Abantao's art highlights weaved stories from used books. She represents herself visually through profiles and portraits of the human condition. She describes her growth as an artist as reflections of her "observations of humanity and the human experience." 

In more recent times, Abantao works as a graphic designer.

Kiko Escora loves working on different media and interests. In the past, he was able to produce works that focus on graphic design, metal sculptures, abstractions, and even fashion. The prolific artist is often inspired by music, history, design, and architecture.

Read also: Filipino sculptural painter Arce reveals new works at Intramuros

Escora defines his works as "subjects that are superimposed on flat bold dimensions of colour."

Mark Andy Garcia loves to explore the notion of subjective space and landscape with the intent of producing sublime and sacred photographs. The artist's work takes shape in the form of uninhabited fields where space becomes the subject. "What one sees is what Garcia sees and puts forth, an articulation of his spiritual thought, often expressed in his deliberate declaration of faith," the artist writes on his online profile.

Garcia graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Advertising from the Technological University of the Philippines Manila, in 2005.  He is also the recipient of awards such as the Grand Prize for the 2007 Metrobank Art and Design Excellence National Art Competition (Oil Painting Category); the Juror’s Choice Award of Excellence in the 2008 Philippine Art Awards. He had chosen as one of the recipients of the 2015 Thirteen Artists Award by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In 2019, He receives the Metrobank Foundation’s Award for Continuing Excellence and Service (ACES) for Visual Arts.

Raymond Guevarra or "Rymd Gev," is an artist who is based in Valenzuela. He specialises in sculpture and mechanical mixed media works. Some of his most recent works include 199X Bully and Spirits of Unsung Christmas Carols which were both shown at Vintana gallery.

See also: From Digital to Physical: Vintana Gallery Braves the Local Art Scene by Finally Coming Out of the Internet

Guevarra has won numerous awards from prestigious art competitions like Shell NSAC and Metrobank. He has been shortlisted in The Philippine Art Awards.

Interdisciplinary artist Pow Martinez has a bachelor's degree in Visual Communication from the University of the Philippines. His practice ranges from traditional media such as painting, sound, and sculptural installations.

Martinez is a recipient of the 2010 Ateneo Art Award for his work 1 Billion Years at West Gallery. His works had already been shown in international exhibits including Prince/sses (2019) at Palais de Tokyo in Paris; Art Jakarta 2019 with Silverlens and ROH Projects; 50 Years in Hollywood (2019) at Pinto Art Museum in New York; Art Basel Hong Kong 2019 with Silverlens; WXXX (2019), West Gallery, Manila; Art Taipei 2017; WASAK! Reloaded (2016) in Arndt, Singapore; and WASAK! (2016) Arndt, Berlin.

Yeo Kaa is one of the only two female artists on this list. The artist describes her art as a personal journal where she shares her sentiments, struggles, and anxious feelings. "I aim to connect with the audience by way of my art's entanglements with contemporary life, current events, and broader human experience," she says. "I imagine a world set ablaze with vivid and bursting colours inspired by pop art and animation, to stage the mundane and render it enchanting to the eye."

The artist often mixes her "candy-flavoured" palette and doll-life figurations with dark and disturbing imagery of violence and body mutilations. According to Yeo Kaa, this "evokes discomfort to some, while easing the sensitivity of others who have real-life horrors."

In case you missed it: RECAP: Art Fair PH 2022: Tatler's Easy Guide to Gallery Hopping Around the Metro

German painter, sculptor, object artist, and university professor Peter Zimmerman's works use pigmented epoxy resin and acrylic on canvas. He explores the visual effects of form and material through multi-layered compositions of colours and shapes which produce mirror-esque surfaces.

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