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Wazzup Pilipinas!?
The nation's premier art fair returns with a revolutionary vision that shatters the invisible walls between creative disciplines
In a world increasingly defined by rigid categories and algorithmic boxes, ManilART 2025 arrives this October with a radical proposition: what if creativity refused to be contained? What if the boundaries between painting and fashion, sculpture and cuisine, tradition and innovation were not walls to respect but veils to pierce through?
From October 15 to 19, the SMX Aura Convention Center in Taguig City will transform into a pulsing epicenter of artistic rebellion and reimagination. This is ManilART's 17th edition, but it feels less like an anniversary and more like a manifesto. The theme—"Across Forms, Beyond Borders"—isn't just clever branding. It's a declaration of independence from the tyranny of artistic silos.
When Fashion Dreams in Paint, When Sculptures Speak in Textiles
Picture this: a fashion designer standing before a centuries-old painting, absorbing its colors, its movement, its soul. Months later, fabric flows down a runway, carrying that same essence transformed. A sculptor runs their hands across intricate textile patterns, and suddenly metal and stone begin to echo the mathematics of weaving. Digital artists peer into physical media and pull forth entirely new languages.
This is the cyclical magic that ManilART 2025 celebrates—the recognition that inspiration doesn't move in straight lines but in spirals and circles, crossing temporal borders as easily as disciplinary ones. Ideas planted in one era bloom unexpectedly in another. Techniques perfected in one medium suddenly illuminate possibilities in something entirely different.
The featured exhibits this year read like love letters between art forms. They're proof that creativity is fundamentally promiscuous, endlessly curious, and gloriously unfaithful to any single discipline.
Beyond the Canvas: Where Minds Collide
But ManilART has never been content to simply hang art on walls and call it a day. This year's edition doubles down on its commitment to being a living, breathing forum for ideas. The fair's expanded program of talks, panels, and workshops transforms the convention center into an intellectual marketplace as vibrant as its visual counterpart.
One particularly intriguing feature promises to gather global Filipinos from wildly diverse creative sectors—chefs and poets, visual artists and writers—for a conversation about how Filipino creativity translates, transforms, and triumphs across borders. It's a timely meditation in an age of diaspora, asking: what remains essentially Filipino when our creativity crosses oceans? How does distance sharpen or soften our cultural voice?
The Unexpected Marriage of Coconut and Canvas
Then there's the partnership that nobody saw coming but everyone should have: ManilART 2025 has joined forces with Coco Kusina, Philippine Coconut Kitchen, to explore the tantalizing intersection of visual art and heritage cuisine.
At first blush, it might seem gimmicky. But dig deeper and the logic becomes inescapable. What is food if not edible sculpture? What is plating if not composition? What are traditional recipes if not living archives, passed down through generations like masterworks in a museum? The collaboration isn't just about putting art near food—it's about recognizing that culture itself is the canvas, and every form of creative expression is another brushstroke.
Using local and artisanal ingredients, this partnership becomes a meditation on rootedness and innovation, on how tradition and experimentation can not only coexist but actively nourish each other.
A Nation of Galleries Opens Its Doors
The exhibitor roster for ManilART 2025 reads like a who's who of Philippine art spaces, a testament to the fair's continued role as the country's artistic heartbeat. From the Annual Sculpture Review to Village Art Gallery, from established institutions like Galleria Nicolas to emerging spaces like Art Toys PH, the breadth of participation speaks to ManilART's unifying power.
These aren't just vendors at a trade show. They're the custodians of Philippine visual culture, the risk-takers who give artists walls and audiences, the bridge-builders between creation and collection.
The Art Revolution Goes Regional
In perhaps its boldest move yet, ManilART 2025 extends far beyond the Metro Manila bubble. Co-presented with the City of Taguig, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, and the ManilART Foundation, this year's fair anchors Museums and Galleries Month in October while sparking satellite exhibitions across the country.
The crown jewel of this regional expansion is the partnership with the inaugural San Pablo Art Circuit (SaPAC). Ten venues scattered around San Pablo City—from the Art Barn at Casa San Pablo to the Villa Escudero Museum—will host a month-long "Artstravaganza" that celebrates the region's natural and built heritage alongside contemporary visual art.
This isn't cultural tourism. It's cultural democracy—an insistence that world-class art experiences shouldn't require a Metro Manila address. It's a recognition that artistic vitality exists everywhere, waiting to be activated and celebrated.
The Infrastructure of Inspiration
Behind every great art fair lies an ecosystem of support, and ManilART 2025's roster of partners reveals the diverse coalition required to make creativity accessible. From CocoKusina to Museo Orlina Tagaytay, from BDO to MOD Coffee, from Purefoods Deli to Future Studios—these partnerships aren't just sponsorships. They're investments in the belief that art matters, that culture isn't luxury but necessity, that beauty and meaning deserve platforms as sophisticated as commerce or technology.
An Invitation, Not a Museum Visit
As ManilART 2025 approaches, it's worth remembering what makes an art fair different from a museum. Museums preserve. Fairs provoke. Museums ask you to respect the past. Fairs dare you to imagine the future.
"Across Forms, Beyond Borders" isn't just describing the art on display. It's describing the experience itself—a five-day immersion where a painting might send you to a fashion show, where a sculpture might drive you to a restaurant, where a conversation about literature might transform how you see a photograph.
In an age of increasing fragmentation, where algorithms push us deeper into ever-narrower niches, ManilART 2025 offers something increasingly rare: an invitation to range widely, to make unexpected connections, to remember that human creativity at its best has always refused to stay in its lane.
The boundaries are imaginary. The inspiration is infinite. The doors open October 15.
ManilART 2025
October 15–19, 2025
SMX Aura Convention Center, Taguig City
Tickets: Ticketbooth.ph
Group tours and school visits: manilartsecretariat@gmail.com
Follow: @manilartfair (Instagram) | ManilART (Facebook)
Visit: www.manilartfair.com
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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This is such an inspiring article! It’s amazing to see how events like this celebrate creativity and talent across the Philippines, giving artists a powerful platform to share their work. The passion and innovation reflected in these exhibitions really highlight how art connects people beyond boundaries. I truly admire the effort and organization behind initiatives like this — they bring so much value to the local art scene. On a different note, I recently came across something called best game in world, and it reminded me how creativity fuels both art and entertainment in unique ways. Great read — really uplifting!
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