Today we’re in our own neck of the woods: Pasay City! Just minutes away from where Honeycomb Manila is and we’re here to visit the SMX convention center. It’s time for ALT Philippines.
I actually didn’t go to last year’s ALT fair and I actually haven’t been since the first ALT Fair which was in 2020. I’ll later find out that there was no real show in between but more on that later. So it was really interesting to see how the fair had grown and changed.
ALT Philippines was formed by nine founding galleries (actually, ten) and it is an art fair. And as any art fair, it’s what you expect. There are paintings. There are sculptures. There are all sorts of different artists and art types and as soon as you come in through the door.
VINYL ON VINYL
Where we entered, we arrived immediately at Vinyl on Vinyl, a street art gallery based in Makati. TRNZ (Terence Eduarte) had quite a display of life-sized sculptures of his paintings. We’d seen similar work before from TRNZ, but not at this scale. Very interesting renditions and a chance to see his two dimensional canvas works pop out int three dimensions.
There were all sorts of different kinds of art and installation from all the different artists that Vinyl on Vinyl works with. You see some familiar names like Jellyfish Kisses, who built an interactive “memory bank” installation work with many different kinds of media, photos, sculpture, and even some video elements scattered throughout the venue.
Go inside that General Gallery area you see all the different artists they work with like Raise Hell (aka Reizel Go) and some of our favorite stuff from Reen Barrera. Reen showed some new paintings along with the collection of toys that he has coming out with mind style. The cool thing about this particular set of paintings is that it seemed like a new movement from Barrera. If you’re familiar with Reen’s work, it’s usually not this… mature. There’s historically a lot of playful childlike themes. But in this show, we saw another side. A lot more intense.
Because this is a new movement, it’s probably a good time to pick up work from Barrera, especially if you weren’t able to pick up some of his original works early on. This is almost like being able to get some early work again.
WEST GALLERY & INTEGRATED INSTALLATIONS
Another exhibitor that I thought had a great collection on display was West Gallery. Up front they had these massive works by Bjorn Calleja, an awesome street artist from Manila. Entering through their space, you see ther they had a very varied group of work to view, including some new 2024 paintings from Jigger Cruz.
Side by side with the galleries were intallations. Here’s one by Pete Jimenez where he took these large-volume cement bags and transformed them by laying them out ond stands, then connecting them through wires and lights. As the lights shine through the bags, we see his message: that light shining through would transform.
QUICK THOUGHTS SO FAR
We’re about halfway through at this point, and I want to pause to break down my thoughts at this point. My thought so far is that ALT Philippines was quite a thoughtful art fair. I’ve been to a lot of art fairs throughout my career and this is definitely one of the most thoughtful. It’s inevitable to make the comparison between ALT and Art Fair Philippines, which did see an improvement in 2024 (over previous years.) But the growth ALT has made in only a couple outings? I definitely see the improvement versus the original 2020 ALT Fair, right before the pandemic.
Let’s put it this way: you know how the “Artist Run Space” is like more thoughtful, more street-legit version of a gallery? Perhaps they’re not as good at business as as the established galleries are, but in terms of the material and who they’re able to work with? It usually is a lot more authentic and a lot more connected to society.
I think the gallery run art show is like that… where it is maybe not as great business or corporate-driven as other art fairs, but it does seem like it’s more connected to society. Not as connected as an artist run space but more connected for sure.
GALLERY DUEMILA
I do want to thank Gallery Duemila for inviting us to join them at the early VIP opening. Duemila is also from our area here in Bay, on Harrison Street. As one of the most respected, long-standing galleries in the Metro they had a lot of varied works. And they went into the bag for this one, showing a very eclectic collection. You had some exciting BenCab (Benedicto Cabrera, b. 1942) next to works that were very minimalist in nature. And next to that, you had some street art too. Sometimes you can go to an art show and there’s a lot of like scattershot random stuff just on display, and — while I’m sure that those artworks all have an audience — it’s not not uncommon to go to an art fair and maybe find works that you simply don’t know who it’s for.
And that’s what I mean when I say that the show is thoughtful. Even if art is not specifically for your personal persuasion, there’s stuff here that you’ll still be able to connect with. It’ll still be relevant to you. Duemila does an excellent job at making this connection, and this excites us for what else they have cooking during 2024.
WORTH IT OR NOT?
I got the chat with Gabby Dela Merced of Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery after I had walked the entire show floor and circled back to where they were. She told me a little bit about the history of ALT, and even though it says in some of their literature that it’s the third show, this is actually only the second. That one that we went to in 2020 was the first time and the last time that they’ve really done a big show like this. The jump from then to now in terms of layout and flow and installation and what the galleries brought to display? I’m really impressed.
Ticket prices at ALT Philippines cost only Php250. If you’re a student, it’s even less. I think that if you are looking at last week’s Art Fair Philippines show, and this week’s ALT Philippines show together, you’re really only looking at about Php1,000 for both shows. That’s a really good deal! That’s a solid way to spend your 1,000 pesos this week. That’s especially true if you’re just getting your feet wet with collecting and purchasing art, or if you’re not even in the market and are just looking to experience and appreciate.
Now that we’ve seen an art fair organized by art fair organizers, and here we see a art fair organized by galleries, I wonder if we’re going to get that last step: art fairs really organized by artists. It’s something to think about. What would that look like?
Photos By Nica Cosio. Video By Kayo Cosio and Nica Cosio.
