NOW on its sixth run, the annual ManilaArt aims to diversify with this year’s visual spread, “Crossing Borders.” The art fair continues to foster solidarity in different sectors by bridging the lineup of events slated on October 16 to 19 the SM Convention Center and Aura Premier in Taguig City.
To carry out activities in the spirit of this celebration of art, culture, and heritage, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) received support from the local government of Taguig City, Lifestyle Asia, SMX Convention CenterTaguig, SM Aura Premier, the Department of Industry’s Center for International Trade Exposition and Missions (CITEM), and glass sculptor Ramon Orlina’s Museo Orlina, among many other partners.
“Artworks are not just for pleasurable appreciation. Their more important function is that they can be forms of communication between the artist and the viewing public. They may inspire, change views, and touch lives. They can reflect culture and people’s aspirations. Art has a big role to play in progress and thus, the City of Taguig supports the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ ManilArt,” said Mayor Cayetano, who will also launch the city’s “I Love Taguig” campaign.
Working together
Among Manilart 2014’s highlights is a partnership with CITEM for its biennial Manila Fame, which will also be held the Convention Center, on the same dates.
“The synchronized show dates and copromotion of Manila FAME and ManilArt is a move to create a more vibrant trade fair atmosphere in the country. This will give foreign and local buyers and guests visiting both shows a feast of the best products ranging from home and fashion lifestyle to visual arts, and for our people, a source of pride in our crafts and in our creative heritage,” Manila FAME project director Leah Ocampo explained.
Works of Tacloban artists will be featured in PaglaUm: A Paperclay art exhibit, which is about art enkindling hope among the artists and people of the typhoon-stricken area who need a lift beyond the physical.
ManilArt 2014 is also giving the public a sneak peek of painter Romulo Galicano’s artistic commentary on the victims and survivors of Typhoon Yolanda with his The Triumph of Life Over Death, which shall be on show at the SMX Convention Center in Taguig.
Walking tours and other activities
This year’s ManilArt Walking Tours will include the participation of the local government of Taguig City as it cosponsors “A Day at the Art Fair,” a special field trip that will expose a number of Taguig’s public school students to contemporary Philippine art.
Faber Castell, in its global effort to make art more accessible, will be sponsoring art workshops also for a selected group of public school students from Taguig.
Emmanuel “Manny” Garibay will be one of the speakers in this year’s series of lectures. He will be talking about the responsibility of artists to the environment.
Previously executed by the NCCA and the ManilArt team, and related to the art fair, is this year’s ManilArt Caravan, which was held in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. It launched a cultural immersion endeavor called Salpung that was later brought to Manila and exhibited at the NCCA Gallery featuring guest Egyptian artist Ibrahim Ghazala, director of Luxor International Art Studios, and general commissar of Luxor International Symposium for Painting. He was joined by various Filipino artists around the country at the NCCA leg of Salpung.
An academic linkage is spotlighted with book launches by UST Publishing House, National Book Award’s 2013 publisher of the year. To be presented are Kritik/Critique: Essays from the J. Elizalde Navarro National Workshop in the Criticism of the Arts and Humanities, edited by Dr. Oscar V. Campomanes, and From the Major Arcana by Ralph Semino Galán, an intersemiotic translation of the 22 cards of the Tarot packed into a suite of poems, with pen and ink drawings by Wilfredo Offemaria, Jr.
Jonathan Olazo will head this year’s curatorial team which shall oversee the exhibitions at the art fair, which is also in observance of Museums and Galleries Month. Participating galleries are 371 Art Space, AltroMondo, Archivo 1984, Artepintura, Artery Manila, Artes Orientes, Bagong Hinanaw, City Art Gallery, Finale Art File, Galerie Anna, Galerie Francesca, Galerie Joaquin, Galerie Stephanie, Galery Y, Galleria Duemila, Galleria Quattrocento, Galerie Artes, Gallery Big, Gallery Nine, L’arc en Ciel, Leon Gallery, Qube Gallery, Renaissance Art Gallery, Secret Fresh, Transwing Art Gallery, Viewing Room, Vmeme Contemporary Art Gallery, and Ysobel Art Gallery.
In its effort to improve services for its clientele, ManilArt will now be providing a credit card payment facility for both artwork and ticket purchases. Additionally, Jeepney Tours will make the visual experience more accessible for fair goers by providing a jeepney that will ferry interested parties to and from SMX Aura and SMX MOA.
For details regarding ManilArt 2014, call or text 0917 3272925 or email info.manilart@gmail.com. You may also visit www.manilart.com or see ManilArt on facebook for further announcements.
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