Sensory overload is par for the course at Art Fair Philippines 2019.
Saturation point is reached long before one gets to see everything.
How many times can you get your mind blown before the circuits in your visual cortex get fried?
During the vernissage/media preview alone, we found overstimulated art lovers attempting to revive themselves between exhibits with espressos, a glass of wine, or something stronger from a friendly gallery owner’s private stash.
Or, like artist Jose Tence Ruiz, finding safe haven in Christina Quisumbing Ramilo’s “Forest for the Trees,” a recreation of a library in wood, complete with real silence.
There’s a lot going on:
A sub-theme seems to be art during the Marcos era, with abstractionist Jose V. Ayala Jr. back from obscurity, the late great Ray Albano’s graphic work for the Cultural Center of the Philippines, David Medalla’s participatory “A Stitch in Time,” and Mauro Malang Santos’ portraits of women.
Then there’s Colombian painter Fernando Botero, photographs by Neal Oshima, MM Yu, Denise Weldon and Tom Epperson, Liv Vinluan’s fabric art, BenCab, and painters and sculptors too numerous to mention.
Whether your cup of absinthe is conceptual art, social realism, pop surrealism, abstraction, installation, cutting-edge Asian art or any of the myriad variations of contemporary art, there’ll be something to float your bateau.
Suffice it to say, see you next year.
Today is the last day of Art Fair, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., at The Link car park in Ayala Center, Makati City. Tickets are sold onsite at P350.
