The fair that love for art built

When people descend on Art Fair Philippines this week, they will marvel at how smoothly, if mysteriously, it seems to runs on its own: the galleries offer prompts welcoming in visitors; the special exhibitions and art talks are well-conceptualized; even the food in the cafeteria is excellent.

It’s actually the result of meticulous planning, months of preparation and attention to detail, and at the center of it all are Dindin Araneta, Trickie Lopa and Lisa Ongpin-Periquet. Together, they deliver what is undoubtedly the art event of the year, which extends from the central hub of the Fair to other locations all over the metropolis. They follow in the footsteps of notable Filipinas who have pioneered in the shaping of the art world as we know it — Art Association of the Philippines founder Purita Kalaw-Ledesma and the owner/curator of the country’s first modern gallery Lyd Arguilla, to name just two.

But what drives the three — from drafting a budget to coordinating with contractors to visiting artists in their studios — is a love of and commitment to art. Their exposure to arts began early, and this passion they have carried throughout their lives. Philippine STAR talks to the three ladies about their first memory of art, recent exhibitions that have made their hearts skip a beat, and their advice to first-time visitors to Art Fair. After all, when it comes to the arts, one begins as an amateur which, in its French context, means “someone who loves.”

PHILIPPINE STAR: What would be your first memory of the visual arts?

DINDIN ARANETA: One early memory was seeing the curtain design of the stage of the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), which was based on the painting “Genesis” by H.R. Ocampo. At a young age, my parents would bring me to watch performances at CCP. 

TRICKIE LOPA: On a visit to Malacañang, when I was about 10 years old, I remember standing transfixed as we reached the top of a set of stairs covered in red carpet. Juan Luna’s rendition of the blood compact between Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Rajah Sulayaman (“El Pacto del Sangre”) loomed larger than life.

More memorable to me was my first encounter with a contemporary Filipino painter. On a trip to New York in 2003, I happened upon an exhibit at The Whitney called “The American Effect.” I saw a painting that pretty much stopped me dead: in sepia tones, it depicted a bald eagle as an old woman cradling a little brown baby in her claws. Reading the label, I realized it was by a Filipino: Alfredo Esquillo Jr. The painting “Mamackinley” belongs to Kim Atienza. Up until then, I had only ever followed the local masters (Manansala, Joya, HR Ocampo). So I was pretty eager to find out more about this artist and his peers. That encounter led me to seek out contemporary Filipino work.

LISA ONGPIN-PERIQUET: Developing my eye for art started very early with my parents’ interest in art, particularly my father. I remember visits in the 1970s to the Quezon City home of his grandfather, Alfonso T. Ongpin, whom we called Lolo Poncho, where I saw many paintings: from 19th century portraits to pre-war Fabian de la Rosas and Amorsolos. Damian Domingo, the Filipino painter who established the first art school in the country in the 1830s, was an Ongpin ancestor, and his works in Lolo Poncho’s home were often pointed out as family treasures. A little later, when I was a young teenager, I remember going to ABC Galleries in Ali Mall to see a Solomon Saprid sculpture show — my father was a great fan of his work. That was probably my first exposure to the art market.  

What’s the course you finished in college, and how did this shape your education in the arts?

DA: For my undergraduate degree, I studied at UP Diliman and majored in Humanities. The professors of my generation greatly shaped my interest in Philippine arts and culture: Jun de Leon, Brenda Fajardo, Alice Guillermo, Ambeth Ocampo, Ana Labrador, Boots Herrera, Ginny Cruz and Belen Ponferrada. I eventually pursued a graduate degree in arts administration at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

TL: I graduated with a degree in management economics — as far away from art as you can imagine. But I had always been a history geek, especially European royal history. We always had books lying about the house on historical figures like Peter the Great or Marie Antoinette or the Borgias. You can ask me anything about the kings and queens of England (challenge me to name all the children of Queen Victoria or all the wives of Henry VIII and I can do so). So, I suppose, I naturally gravitated to museums, and the fascination easily extended to art.

As newlyweds, my husband, Randy, and I lived in London. Not exactly a bad city to find yourself in if you go for history and art. I couldn’t work while he completed his fellowship in rhinology. So I basically went on one long museum bender: took an art history course at the V&A, spent long winter days with my newborn daughter at the National Gallery or the Courtaulds. When we moved back, I knew I wanted to get involved with arts and culture in some way, so I joined the Museum Foundation. That led me, most memorably, to the founding of Art in the Park.

LOP: My course at the Ateneo de Manila University was AB interdisciplinary studies, which was the closest one could get to a humanities education in that school in the early 1980s, as it had unfortunately been excised from the curriculum many years before. My undergraduate thesis was on Alfonso Ongpin, my great-grandfather, and his contribution to arts and culture in the Philippines. He was the major collector of Philippine art before the war, and founded an art gallery in the early 20th century. He was, as well, a “Rizalista,” an old-fashioned term for a Jose Rizal fanatic, and collected anything and everything related to our National Hero. I was all of 18 years old then.

Alfonso Ongpin’s life and work inspired me to do more research on him so a few years later I decided I needed some context in the arts and did three years of post-graduate art history at the University of Virginia.

Studying art history gave me the context and framework for approaching visual arts in general, though my curriculum focus actually ended with early 20th century art. I’ve found this background very useful in looking at contemporary art from both micro and macro viewpoints.

Whose work did you first purchase? What attracted you to it?

DA: It may have been two student works by Lui Medina from the first edition of Art in the Park 11 years ago. They were small paintings, but they caught my attention because they felt soft to the touch and were shocking red. I have yet to ask Lui what the idea was behind the works.

TL: Not my first purchase, but the first serious one that I bought, and that I treasure to this day, is a piece I still thoroughly enjoy looking at: a small burlap painting by Rodel Tapaya called “Mang Ambo” that I got in the first edition of Art in the Park.

LOP: My very first purchase of art with my own money as a young working woman in the mid-1980s was an Arturo Luz print from the now defunct Museum of Philippine Art, run by Luz himself. It cost me maybe P600 back then. I just loved its clean, modern look — a stark white embossed shape on white ground with an asymmetrical, bold black vertical strip in the middle. It was modern, dramatic, elegant, and faintly Japanese-looking. The attraction was both visual and practical, as I could actually afford it on my salary. It still hangs on my wall today.

Who is the first artist you’ve collected seriously?

DA: Seriously? I own only a few works. One of them is an installation by Patricia Perez Eustaquio, “Sha Naoba Muru (He Who Saw the Deep),” exhibited in 2009 when she was recognized as one of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ 13 Artists Awardees.

TL: Rodel Tapaya.

LOP: I lived abroad from 1987 until 1999, so was not as active as I could have been in the art scene here. After I moved back, I began to visit galleries again. I have quite a few works by Norman Dreo, whom I suppose can be described as a social realist. A large work of his, a photorealist yet somehow abstracted depiction of a barong-barong, had pride of place on our living room wall in our first apartment here. The work had quite a few admirers, who often thought I had purchased it abroad. They were very surprised to know it was by a Philippine artist. I bought his works from Liongoren Gallery in the early 2000s.

What is the latest exhibition that blew you away?

DA: I’d like to mention two. One was “The Surface of The World: Architecture and the Moving Image” curated by Clare Carolin for MCAD. Another I enjoyed was “Intimate Curiosity” curated by Fumio Nanjo and Roger McDonald for the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s Annual Collectors Contemporary Collaboration. It presented the diverse collections of seven Japanese collectors.

TL: “Proportio,” in 2015, at the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, as a complement to the Biennale. Axel Vervoordt combined artifacts and objets with big name contemporary artworks and architectural props. He installed them around the palazzo so that the exhibit takes on an increasingly dramatic turn as you make your way to the top floor; it brings the viewer to a crescendo — you almost physically exhale with relief when you reach the tranquility of the final installation.  

Last year, I was lucky enough to be in Madrid as the Prado celebrated 500 years since the death of Hieronymus Bosch. To see his “Garden of Earthly Delights” less than a foot away, and to have the time to just enjoy it — I don’t know if anything else will blow me away after that. 

LOP: In the last Venice Biennale in 2015, I was able to see “Proportio” in the Palazzo Fortuny, curated by the Fortuny’s own curator together with Axel Vervoordt, a Belgian designer and art dealer.

The curators put together art of all mediums from all ages; painting, sculpture, textile, artifacts, video and installation; from the medieval to the contemporary. Set in carefully designed interior settings in the atmospheric rooms of the palazzo, elements were combined in juxtapositions that were unexpected, elegant and thought provoking. One could not help but reflect on art over time, how it has developed and changed, and yet remained a source of intellectual stimulation and aesthetic pleasure in every era. It was an incredible exhibit in terms of scope alone, filling every room on every floor of the palazzo.

I thought this was a bold and novel approach: integrating art in a maximalist way in an interior setting; the very antithesis of a neutral white cube contemporary type of treatment.

What other art fairs in the world do you admire?

DA: I find The Armory Show in New York an interesting model perhaps because it’s held in 250,000 square feet of industrial space in the Piers by the Hudson River. A carpark can be similar to an industrial space although the low ceiling height is something to contend with.

TL: The Frieze Masters in London: the quality of the pieces just staggers the mind. The participants are obviously vetted so that only the top tier get to show.  

I always still enjoy the Hong Kong art fair, in both of its incarnations, first as ArtHK and now, Art Basel Hong Kong. I went to the first ArtHK in 2008, and haven’t missed one since. That it is a purely commercial behemoth cannot be denied, but at no other city on earth can you be as preoccupied with buying and trading and acquisitions as Hong Kong. Truly an experience!  

LOP: I like the Frieze contemporary art fair in London because it reminds me of our own Art Fair Philippines in that it is in an unusual venue — a series of tents in Regent’s Park — and has the same kind of buzzy energy about it. It also incorporates a sculpture garden in the park as part of its line-up of activities. I like even more its sister fair, the Frieze Masters, which shows art from ancient times to about the year 2000. The art presented there was amazing in breadth and quality — from Renaissance works to 20th century photographs, all in a beautifully designed, museum-like setting recreated in a tent.

For someone visiting Art Fair Philippines for the first time, what would be your advice?

DA: There is lots to see and do, so it’s best to check www.artfairphilippines.com then plan your visit.

TL: Don’t expect to take it all in in one day. Try to come back, as each time will yield a different surprise. What I do is at the end of each day, I ask myself what my favorite piece was for that particular day. That exercise helps me run through all that I’ve seen so the pieces don’t all get jumbled up in my head. And remembering a favorite means that you make sure that your memory of the visit is all good! 

LOP: Try and focus on the special exhibits we commission yearly, about eight of them scattered all over the venue. They are the major defining elements of the character of the fair that year. We pick artists at different points in their careers who use varied mediums and approaches, so it’s a good introduction to the landscape of the Art Fair and Philippine contemporary art in general.