The award-winning and internationally acclaimed husband-and-wife duo Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan created Dwellings 1 in 2014, a sculptural figure made of paper, metal, and other mediums that resembles a towering compound of houses in the shanties. Together, this artist-duo and life partners explore migration, family, and cultural displacement themes using mixed media works from collected and reassembled materials. Since then, the most predominant material in their works has been cardboard, symbolic of the balikbayan box that overseas Filipino workers and immigrants usually use to send packages back to the Philippines. The Aquilizans, having built their lives in the Philippines and Australia, are very familiar with this material. Celebrating ten years since Dwellings 1 appeared in the art market and the interpersonal relationships that go into the artistic production of the iconic piece’s touring exhibitions, The Fruitjuice Factori Studio showcased at the Art Fair Philippines 2024 some versions of its iconic Vessel and Dwellings pieces, and more.

Art Underground mounted an exhibition dedicated to the latest works of Sais and Arce.

Sais is a visual artist who resides in Cavite, finished a degree in fine arts from the Technological University of the Philippines in Manila, and has exhibited works since the pandemic. Most of his charcoal and graphite works are inspired by surreal contexts, rendered in a surreal and lowbrow pop manner. His childlike visual representations convey personal thoughts as he shares parts of himself through his artworks. 

Arce is a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in fine arts. His view of distortion is reflected through his unconventional use of media and an experimental technique that he created. Arce always works with what occupies his present state of mind, as it drives him to deal with his emotions. He looks for different perspectives as he deconstructs, twists, melts, and works beyond time. He listens to his inner force, understanding when to stop and pause for prayer; that is when he freezes that particular moment through his body of works and achieves inner peace.

This collaboration among seven artists from the Visayas has somehow become instinctive and natural for them. Headlined by Charlie Co, a prominent figure in the growth of the Negrense art and culture scene and founder of Orange Project gallery in Bacolod, this collaboration showcased the distinct style and expertise of Co alongside Jun Jun Montelibano, Jovito Hecita, Jay-R Delleva, RA Tijing, HR Campos III, and Barry “Bry” Cervantes. More importantly, the exhibition showed the boundless possibilities of artistic expression amidst being butaw or offsuit, a reference from the card game Pusoy (a Filipino version of poker). Ultimately, it highlights the power of collaboration.

Read also: Crossing Borders: Some of the Must-Visit Art Spaces and Galleries Outside NCR

Art Lounge Manila’s tucked-away gallery booth at the Art Fair Philippines is easy to miss, but discovering and being enclosed by it is worthwhile. For this year, it mounted ‘The Muse’, a group exhibition featuring CJ Tañedo, Jeff Cablog, Juanito Torres, and Carlo Magno.

In this exhibition, the complicated discourse of the feminine form is explored, which curator Ricky Francisco called one that “vacillates between idealising the female within the confines of a male gaze and the virtues of a patriarchal society, thereby ironically objectifying women in some context, to downgrading the accomplished female artists to one.” Here, Tañedo, Cablog, Torres, and Magno deconstruct the notion of a muse and feature her many figures—a mother, lover, wife, daughter, virgin, nature, culture, country, and all the life-giving and nurturing roles in between.

Read also: In homage to the modern Filipina: Carlo Magno’s new exhibition at Art Lounge Manila

Visitors of the Art Fair Philippines 2024 have seen some of the pieces to be featured at the first “If Trees Could Talk” International Art Biennale, happening on February 24, Saturday, in Ibaan, Batangas, which will run until June 24. This initiative uses art to spark reflection and dialogue on environmental issues, particularly climate change. This much-anticipated affair resulted from CANVAS’ past group exhibitions of the same theme in 2014, 2017, and 2018. Now, on a much bigger scale, it is the biennale will be at the site of the future Tumba-Tumba Children’s Museum of Philippine Art, featuring Geraldine Javier’s, Matthias Garff’s, Veronica Garcia’s and Laurence Vallieres’ use of found and recycled objects, multisensory spaces designed by Cian Dayrit, Pam and John Santos, Mark Salvatus, Don Bruan Bunag, and the Spore Initiative, as well as large-scale pieces by Elmer Borlongan, Lito Mondejar, and Leeroy New.

Representing at CANVAS’s Art Fair booth was Daniel dela Cruz’s prototype study for a water feature that will become a permanent fixture of Tumba-Tumba.

While passing through the corridor of the exhibition floor, one might stumble upon a whimsical, life-sized dollhouse with a white picket fence that would surely catch your eye. Two Front Teeth is the pseudonym and signature style of Mapua graduate artist Jheng Dela Cruz. Her artworks revolve around the adventures of “Deer Boy”, an anthropomorphic deer with boyish physical qualities, which sparks nostalgic memories towards its collectors.

Another must-see exhibition is ‘Europa Unveiled’, which evokes a Marie Antoinette space at the heart of the Art Fair Philippines. In this enclosed space, artist Noli Principe Manalang exhibits his sculpture series inspired by his European trip last year—fulfilled through hard work and perseverance.

Noli Principe Manalang is a renowned Filipino artist hailing from Bulacan. He completed his degree in architecture from the prestigious University of Santo Tomas. His works are predominantly acrylic and watercolour paintings that showcase traditional Roman Catholic imagery inspired by his alma mater. Manalang is known for adding hyperrealism to three-dimensional church artworks, and in 2017, he embellished a chapel in the Czech Republic with his artwork, which the Philippine Chargé d’affaires gifted. Manalang was also awarded the 5th Leonardo da Vinci International Prize for painting.

Finally, we see Rom Villaseran’s ‘Kuhol’ exhibition, presented by Mono8 Gallery and curated by Gwen Bautista. After his 2017 show, ‘Ilaw ng Buwan’, this elusive artist finally mounted a solo exhibition again. Holder of degrees in architecture and fine arts, Villaseran has a distinct mastery of conjuring evocative pieces that straddle between macabre and sublimity. In this show, he designed and constructed imagined realms and terrains, rethinking the empirical life through metaphysical forms and environmental adaptations that illustrate broad landscapes and mediate specific realities drawn from personal and collective insights.

In Mono8’s post about his show, Villaseran explained that he used kuhol or snail as a reference because, in some cultures, it has different symbolic meanings. One, in particular, is that of the Aztecs, who revere the snail as a representation of “life-appearing and disappearing while taking its time in transition but marking its constant presence and knowing the secrets of reincarnation”.

Besides having international company Daata in the Digital Section of Art Fair Philippines 2024, with its founder David Gryn constantly present and attending to guests, there was also a dedicated space for Cryptoart PH, one of the country’s foremost collective of NFT artists, helmed by Jopet Arias and Isaiah Cacnio.

There, you would see a poem turned digital art, which inspired a series of physical artworks and applied augmented reality artworks over them. The centrepiece of the exhibition was a screen that shows: (1) Why by artofgk, mixed medium, 2160 x 2880 px; (2) The Second Verse by Jopet Arias, physical art print on paper, 24 x 36 inches; (3) Island by Margaux Belleza and Jian Lea, digital art with spoken word; (4) Becoming Part VI by Salawaki, digital art with spoken word; (5) Whispers and Beats: A syncopated Tapestry by OoakosiM and Jian Lea, digital art with spoken word; and (6) Square City by Kai and Jian Lea, digital art with spoken word.

Before we go into the must-have artworks from the Exhibitors section, let’s pick some pieces from the Projects and Special Exhibition sections. Of course, Andreea Medar and David “StarCity” White’s works were already spectacular, even those of acclaimed artists Jigger Cruz and Jonathan Ching’s expressionist works. But it’s hard not to highlight Gean Brix Garcia’s ‘Ceremonials’ series.

This year’s grant recipient, Garcia, chose a theme that fits an art fair perfectly. The series by Garcia showcases a variety of social gatherings, ranging from grand occasions to everyday events. The massive size of the artwork draws its viewers in, making them feel like they are a part of the strange assembly. Experiencing Garcia’s work is akin to entering a scene from a horror fantasy novel. He brings each character to life with carefully crafted costumes, imbuing them with a complex history only partially known to outsiders.

In the FotomotoPH section, we found Jason Quibilan’s kinetic sculptural work that puts a series of ballet photos in motion. In the exhibition for the revered art critic, writer, artist, and collector Rod Paras-Perez, curator Migs Rosales walked us through a discovery that the prominent personality had a penchant for the art of tattoos and tantric sex. Then Rosales used this as a jump-off point to an exhibition dedicated to the country’s prominent women artists. [Un]surprisingly, the exhibition had no labels as these women had been overshadowed by their male contemporaries. But a Nena Saguil masterpiece and Phyllis Zaballero iconic series are easy to identify for one with a discerning eye.

Meanwhile, in the Residencies section, we see the works funded by Don Papa Rum in partnership with five of the esteemed artist-residencies across the country. Anna Mindanaoan artist Anna Miguel Cervantes went to Linangan Art Residency in Cavite, which “became a refuge” for her to “focus on studio practice that gave artistic space for experimentation and re-examination”. French artist Iseult Perrault went to the Orange Project in Bacolod and created an exhibition that reflected her experience of the Philippines—her memories and discoveries. Jett Ilagan took surfing lessons while in La Union, having his residency at Emerging Islands, and explored the thesis that our bodies are moving through space. He discovered soundscapes imprinted on his movements, radiating with momentary worlds. Julian Tapales, meanwhile at Butanding Barrio in Palawan, dug deeper into photogrammetry, a technique that translates images into 3D models, to re-construct the interior of Ille Cave. Here, he found evidence of early cremation. For Mark Salvatus, his was adjacently personal as he pursued the studies of a Jesuit priest about Mt Banahaw. He went to Manila Observatory, found archived black and white photographs labelled Manila Clouds and presented an idea for a future project at Art Fair Philippines, borrowing from the Manila Clouds archive. Peter Hajdyla’s work from his residency at the Orange Project invites us to have an intimate moment with ourselves and embrace the power enveloping us underwater.

What was most striking in this section was Renz Baluyot’s work from his immersion in the sugarcane plantations of Negros. His residency at the Orange Project resulted in a socially relevant piece that symbolises and translates the plight of the sakadas (diasporic sugarcane farmers in areas surrounding Bacolod who earn from their harvests only and are not entitled to the lands they till). The uniquely shaped scythes these farmers use become the steps of Baluyot’s makeshift stairs that remind us of the ones used when loading harvested sugarcanes to trucks. As they are somewhat heirloom pieces for the farmers, Baluyot used newly bought tools for his artwork, which led him to discover that this enduring Filipino social problem could have resonated with other cultures, like Brazil, where the object was sourced. Having tried what the life and labour of a sakada were like during his immersion, he placed nails as he found the sugarcanes itchy to the skin. Baluyot also discovered that the azucareros (sugar barons) weren’t more fortunate as an economic downturn during the Martial Law period led to the infamous Negros famine and the decline of the industry. 

Back to the Exhibitors section, we found two group works most worthy of collecting. One is the work of Alfredo Esquillo with Cealwyn Tagle and Diego Cera Organbuilders. Made of bamboo pipes, a wooden keyboard, bamboo wood, sawdust, plastic hose, metal, and leather, this Musika ng Loob suits Vantage Contemporary’s exhibition ‘Mensahe’ (message). It is a functional sculpture of an angel—a shaped sawdust bust attached to a miniature bamboo organ, that commemorates the 200th year of the historical bamboo organ housed by the St Joseph Parish Church in Las Piñas, where the late Fr Diego Cera served as the parish priest from 1795-1830.

Another is Butterfly Effect, a mural-sized painting from the Tuklas Sentro group of Eskinita Art Farm’s Tuklas programme. Facilitated by mentor Renato Habulan, it is an intuitive and symbolic rendering of Filipino culture and values. Mainly grounded on the Rorschach image of a butterfly, which signifies the projection and contradiction of mirroring, the images presented in this work are catalysts for interpretations of perceptions patterned after the psychological test. Involved in this work were Ianna Engaño, Orland Espinosa, Carlo de Laza, Mark Laza, Joshua Limon Palisoc, Joen Sudlon, and Bryan Barrios.

Finally, here are 50 artworks worth collecting from this year’s participating galleries:

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