Phl makes a mark in Singapore art fair

SINGAPORE – The Philippine participation in Art Stage Singapore has been deemed “auspicious” as works of Filipino artists now stand at par with the region’s and the world’s best.

Critics and organizers of the four-day event that wraps up this weekend at Marina Bay Sands said this is most evident in the presence of four Manila-based galleries and artist Ronald Ventura landing on the cover of a trade magazine, Blouin Artinfo.com Asia Edition.

Art Informal, Silverlens, the Drawing Room, and Finale Art File brought the works of their respective artists – and in some cases the artists themselves – to this bustling city state where art collecting is as prevalent as playing the stock market.

Evita Sarenas of Finale Art File said that despite the formidable overhead, they still brought in the all-woman show “Haven’t we met before?” to give necessary exposure to local artists Annie Cabigting, Lyra Garcellano, Nona Garcia, Keiye Miranda, Yasmin Sison, and Liv Romualdez Vinluan.

“It’s not just a showcase, not exactly feminist,” said one of the gallery owners of the show put together by Nilo Ilarde.

Cabigting, whose works depict a woman with her back to the painter and staring into the unknown, complained that the Bureau of Customs even taxes their unsold work upon return to Manila, as if freight alone wasn’t enough burden.

“It’s more tax in the Philippines,” a kibbitzer said to lighten Cabigting’s mood.

Meanwhile in Silverlens, Geraldine Javier’s “Red Fights Back” installation and reworking of a popular fairy tale holds forth, complete with desiccated guava tree and assorted otherworldly embroidery.

Javier’s work is for sale as a set piece, said the gallery’s Neli Go, who adds that the Little Red Riding Hood theme is the second and most likely last part of a reworked myth by the artist.

As Vermont Coronel Jr. dominates the booth of the Drawing Room with his mural “High Way,” a number of Japanese art connoisseurs seem drawn to the work that bears the colors of a rising sun.

The work itself is the underside of the MRT Kamuning side, based on a photograph taken at nighttime when the intersection has for a split second simultaneous red lights.

On an adjacent wall runs an endless loop video taken during the artist’s days as a bicycle messenger, which Coronel said is not a step toward filmmaking.

Coronel himself doesn’t necessarily consider the visual artist as an OFW in Singapore, unless involved in advertising or the art departments of newspapers, such as Dengcoy Miel and Ludwig Ilio of the Straits Times group.

Siddharta Perez of Drawing Room said the gallery would also have presence at the nearby Gillman Barracks, where the “Prototypes” show of Australia-based couple Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan is on view till late February.

Excitement at the fair in the sprawling complex that resembles the book extravaganzas in the World Trade Center in Pasay has spilled over to the Art Informal section, where owner Tina Fernandez makes a sale before the night is through – embroidery and silkscreen glasswork by Eugenia Alcaide, purchased by a young Filipino couple now based in Singapore.

Alcaide is a student of painter Jose Santos III, whose triptych on the imminent death of plastic is also on display, along with the works of Marina Cruz, Zean Cabangis, Tatong Rachete Torres, Mark Valenzuela, Erwin Leano, Pam Yan-Santos, and Joel Alonday.

Also in the galleries are the works of Ventura, the current toast for fetching record-setting prices at art auctions, and of Leslie de Chavez, under the respective auspices of a Singapore printmakers shop and Korea-based Arario.

Art Stage Singapore is on its fourth year, according to communications director Regina Cruz, the fair coinciding with art week in the city state.