Jade Suayan AKA “SYN” has been active in the Manila street art and graffiti scene for several years now, but this is her first solo exhibition as part of Art Fair, the undisputed largest art fair in the Phillipines. Suayan’s exhibit — organized by Secret Fresh, gallery of globally esteemed street culture collector DJ Big Boy Cheng — one of Art Fair Philippines 2023’s largest displays.
Coming back in full force, Art Fair Philippines will see a return to the historically fun and unique parking structure location of Makati CBD’s The Link. Hopefully this brings back some of the electricy that the fair has built up over the years prior to the pandemic.
After a couple of years operating relatively low-key during the pandemic, May of 2022 saw the Philippine branch of Meeting of Styles back in full force. Probably what made the event feel special was simply being able to all be together as one community. While the Meeting Of Styles continued in smaller venues since 2019, that also meant that the participants were also limited. The return to what’s now become a culturally iconic location, the parking lot at LRT2 Anonas Station also signalled a return scale and a sort of homecoming for the entire group of artists & writers.
In this video, we unbox:
In what may be the most ironic art unveiling of the year, Manila City mayor Isko “Yorme” Moreno was joined by German Ambassador, Anke Reiffenstual earlier this week to unveil Berlin Wall Fragment number 22 at the Kartilya ng Katipunan park area. The wall fragment, covered in graffiti tags was installed in a protective glass casing and accompanied by an engraved metal placard to educate visitors to the park of the historical significance of the wall fragment.
Ten of Metro Manila’s finest contemporary art galleries have put together a fresh and new tent-pole event for the Philippine Art Month calendar. It’s called ALT Philippines, and they are saying that they want to “re-frame the art show.”
Set in SM Aura in Taguig City’s Fort Bonifacio area, the show opened today and we were there at the preview to see what they’ve brought out So have they been able to do something different? We visited the show, and here are some things we saw that made the visit worth the trip to SM Aura.
Read MoreJade Suayan has pulled out all the stops. It’s very rare to find an artist who can match their artistic vision with technical ability, and this is one of the things that makes this show so special.
Walking into the show requires you to bend your head, entering through a parking gate pylon into a concept exhibit where the entire room has been transformed into a purple parking garage.
Don’t Miss Archie Geotina’s Show at Provenance Gallery. True to his street art roots, Geotina has chosen wheat paste as the primary media for this exhibit. We say primary because the prints are actually bonded onto aluminum sheets which have been wrought to communicate even deeper messaging. Utilizing this medium he has become very familiar with as a young graffiti artist, the images serve as primary way of starting his dialogue.
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John Matos is a pioneering graffiti writer who began his career as a graffiti artist in the early to mid 1970’s. Most know him as Crash, and he’s a living legend. We caught up with Crash in Singapore, where he was a guest at Culture Cartel, a street cultures indoor festival at the F1 Pit Lane and launching his collaboration with Stash on Casio’s G-Shock.
Read MoreNike’s Hyper Court @ BGC has operated as the city’s hub for basketball and Nike training caps since 2017. At the end of 2019, it will end that over-two year run and return the property, which has been reclaimed for redevelopment by its landowners.
To celebrate the good work done at the location and to mark the closure of the Nike Hyper Court, the brand held two 3×3 tournaments. One for female, and one for female athletes. On that date, Adjima’s sister organization, #HoneycombArts was there to help commemorate the day with an installation dubbed “Victory. Challenges. Moments.”
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