FOR FOUR days this October, ManilArt, the country’s longest-running art fair, will again be home to both the brightest names in the visual arts here and abroad, which is only fitting as it takes the theme “Raising the Filipino colors on the world stage.”

Among the foreign artists whose works shall be on display Oct. 8-11 at the SM Aura Convention Center in Taguig City are Israeli painter-sculptor David Gerstein, pop artist Charles Fazzino and French-Filipino duo Artheline.

The multi-dimensional works of Gerstein, Fazzino and Artheline’s Arnaud and Adeline Nazare-Aga are the proud offerings of the Bruno Art Group, an art organization with a global network of exhibition spaces and one of the newest additions to ManilArt’s lineup of exhibitors.

While Bruno Art Group has offices and galleries in Israel, Turks and Caicos Islands and the US, it is its Singapore arm that will be presenting a visual spread with the theme “Homage to Life” at this year’s ManilArt.

According to Bruno Gallery Singapore, “the artworks celebrate the vitality of life with vibrant colors and decorative themes.” The pieces also explore the re-imagination of urban living.

Aside from Bruno Gallery, audiences may also look forward to the participation of another Singaporean art space, Art Prime Contemporary. The gallery is set to showcase Filipino painter Rex Aguilar’s brand of abstract.

Local representation at the art fair’s seventh edition will consist mostly of groups familiar to ManilArt’s previous runs.

Archivo 1984 this year features works of artists, who in various ways, were mentored and influenced by National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco.

The show encapsulates rural life as seen through the eyes of José Blanco, Salvador Juban, Tam Austria, Manuel Baldemor and Vicente Reyes.

The cherry on top, perhaps, is Archivo 1984’s collection of drawings and prints by Botong himself.

Galerie Nicolas will mount the two-man show, “2D/3D: “Exploring Abstract Art’s Various Dimensions.”

In “2D/3D,” renowned sculptor Eduardo Castrillo brings the works of National Artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz to a whole new dimension—to three-dimension, that is.

An assemblage of Alcuaz pieces shall accompany Castrillo’s sculptures. On show shall be a body of work that spotlights the late modernist’s rarer palette and less exhibited themes.

Yearly, ManilArt also serves as a venue for fresh talent in the local industry.

Arte Pintura highlights exactly this— along with the use of diverse media— through “Imprint: Indelible Expressions.” Another two-man show, “Imprint” features the works of painter Joven Ignacio and multimedia artist Tebs Gomez.

While Ignacio is known for baring the full potential of watercolor and its unique transparency, Gomez explores a medium that is rarely employed in Philippine contemporary art: carabao bone.

Through her chosen medium, Gomez artfully reappropriates animal remains into the ornamental.

Renaissance Art Gallery delves into the abstract, as it always has.

In the exhibit note titled “Driven to Abstraction,” writer and critic Cid Reyes tells how the couple behind Renaissance Art Gallery has always promoted Filipino abstractionists, whether established or emerging.

“To this day, they are driven by the conviction that abstraction is an essential visual language that enriches the human spirit, capable, as no other idiom can, to connect man to the depths of universal emotion,” Reyes says.

“Of Strings and Pieces” is VMeme Contemporary Art Gallery’s concept for ManilArt 2015. The exhibit questions an art practitioner’s personal process of creation and will attempt to “arrest the artist’s roots and identity.”

Federico “Boy” Dominguez, Kermit Tesoro, Avie Felix, Maya Esguerra, Vincent Navarro, Brave Singh, Francisco M. Verano, Ernie Patricio and Tara Soriano make up VMeme’s selection for the fair.

Other exhibitors are 1335 Mabini, 371 Art Space, Artery Manila, Artes Orientes, Art for Space, Art Galileia, Artologist, Big and Small, Galerie Anna, Galerie Artes, Galerie Francesca, Galerie Raphael, Galerie Y, Gallery Big, Gallery Nine, L’Arc en Ciel and Quattrocento.

ManilArt 2015 is supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Lifestyle Asia, and Bonafide Art Galleries Organization.

 For more details, visit www.manilart.com or check out ManilArt’s Facebook page.