Art Scene of Manila: Art in Details

As you step off the plane in the Philippines capital, you are greeted with pollution, poverty, and traffic jams at any time of the day. Yet, you would meet millions of smiling faces from walks of life in the harbor city. “ It’s a mess,” as described by artist and curator Manuel Ocampo. Despite the mess, every inch of the city has influenced his art. Under the crowds and gridlocks of Manila lies a history of colonization, imperialism, war, and revolution. In similar to the countries that are now free from colonization, Philippine contemporary art has emerged from and evolved in response to it the ever-changing political and socio-economic landscapes. The current art scene of Manila strives to promote the city as a global city and as a competitor among the Southeast Asian art markets. Despite this, the art scene is a mere reflection of the country’s culture. The layers of Spanish, American, and Japanese influences have made the Philippine culture heterogeneous, however, it is hard to describe the culture as a single identity without including the cultures mentioned. This multi-cross-cultural interaction that has been forced onto the Filipino culture has influenced the art scene of Manila to not have a single identity but a scene with multiple personalities.

Before examining the current art scene of Manila, it is necessary to examine how the art scene came to be. The most pivotal period in time in Philippines' art history that has greatly influenced the country’s contemporary art scene came within the first 20 years of the country’s independence. The presidency of Ferdinand Marcos was highlighted by declaring the country under martial law and corruption that increased poverty rates. Marcos along with his first lady Imelda strived to achieve a “great new society” but it rather caused cultural malaise. The pair opened major institutions in Manila such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. Both of these did not necessarily exhibit artworks by Filipino artists nor the popular style of art during the time. They did, however, showed artwork pertaining to western aesthetics such as abstraction. The justification for this action was to expose Filipinos to other cultures. Despite this, Marcos and Imelda’s patronage were highly criticized as an act of elitism and political propaganda. The acts of patronage as well as in accumulation with the rampant abuse of citizens have created a movement in the visual arts community that was critical of western aesthetics and the government. Often, those who were too critical were censored and had their exhibitions shut down. Artists at the time were observed to be staging Blitzkrieg demonstrations in front of the Cultural Center of the Philippines or walking out of galleries that supported the modernist aesthetic. The Marcos era created a tradition of political dissent among visual artists and well as emphasizing the lack of government assistance for artists. The relationship between artists and the government has been through politically driven projects such as public art installations. The era influenced the theme of solidarity and community with artists as art alliances and alternative spaces to create art continue to form. As time passes, it is still evident that there is hesitation towards completely embracing globalization in concern over the protection of artists.

For a brief period of time, much of the art scene was at shopping malls. The SM Art Center/Artwalk was a revolutionary institution that changed the art scene when it first opened 27 years ago. The center started the art gallery in the shopping mall trend in the Philippines. The center is an entire building in the shopping center in which galleries had their own storefront. As opposed to artists being exhibited in municipal art institutions, the shopping mall provided an opportunity for artwork to be seen through all walks of life without fear of potential censorship. As it gets closer to the year 2014, we begin to observe the evolution of the art scene as it moves away from shopping centers in an effort to reach even more people.

The current state of the Manila art scene lies heavily in the neighborhood of Makati. Makati is known as the business district of Manila, however, for the past couple of years, it has evolved into an artist hub. Makati surrounds the international airport. International guests would have to go through the district in order to reach Manila Bay and the heart of Metro Manila. It has become the richest municipal government and there are over 200 corporations that lie within city limits. Where there is wealth, there is an opportunity for the arts to flourish.

An example of this is with Ayala Land Inc. The corporation has been a patron of the arts in the community as it established art institutions such as the Ayala Museum. By 2014, the country was able to gain enough spotlight to have its first art fair called ArtFair Philippines in an Ayala institution, The Link. The location of the fair was a surprise to many as it is located in the parking structure of the building. This, along with the list of multinational sponsors, has indicated to reviewers that such an event has little government assistance. Despite the fair’s association with Ayala, the event was not organized and founded by an event planning organization by rather by art patrons. The patrons selected artists who are at different stages of their careers. The establishment of ArtFair Philippines has put the country on the scene of the global art market. Over the years, There have other means of promoting local Filipino artists that have developed that have been significant to promoting the city.

There are two prominent auction houses in the Philippines, Salcedo Auctions and the Leon Gallery, both of which remain in close proximity to each other in Makati. Opening at around the same time, auction houses originally sold historical artworks but have aimed to make both “contemporary and historical pieces of Filipino art accessible to the world”. Both have the intention to promote both local and international artists. Both show evidence of being a primary art market as opposed to a secondary market which in a way can be beneficial to the artist if they are the ones their artwork to the auction house. Despite the intention, both would have to cater to the global art market. Leon Gallery is the first to bring the concept of a “curated auction” to Manila. This concept has been widely used by the biggest auction houses such as Christie's as an attempt to “ attract a younger audience”. This tactic has been proven successful as the sales generated $134.6 million for Christie’s in 2014. Currently, in the art world, we see auction houses as market-driven as this makes the most money out of all the other parts of the art market. When placed in Manila, we can see the effort of the auction houses supporting local artists. As we move away from the auction houses to the lower tiers such as galleries, we are able to see more of restraint towards globalization.

The newer art galleries in Manila appear to remain within the limits of Makati as the older galleries appear to be outside that region. Despite the business tactic to have a gallery in Makati where the art scene is flourishing, we see galleries face the problem of either catering to the market and supporting the artist’s freedom of expression. Galleries such as ARTinformal and MO_Space and Art Informal are both artist-galleries. Art Informal has been known as “the least intimidating gallery “ as it was originally set in a house. This made the gallery accessible and created a comforting environment for all walks of life to become interested in becoming a collector. The tremendous success has allowed the gallery to participate in international are fairs such as Art Basel. We have galleries such as Finale Art File trying to find a balance between being market-driven as well as an artist-driven gallery. The gallery has established its own art auction house as well. As much as galleries want to be as artist-driven as possible, we can observe that it is essential for them to be market-driven in some ways as galleries are still businesses. It is necessary for them to create profit and revenue in order for the gallery to stay open. As we strip away the influences of the global art market, we can observe a greater sense of community and support between artists.

The visual arts have been an integral part of social-economic and political movements throughout the history of the Philippines. In alternative spaces, we see art alliances form for a purpose similar to those formed during the Marcos era. Often these artist-led initiatives do not last forever. The Green Papaya Art Projects remains to be the longest-running artist-led space in Manila since 2000. According to Roldan and Chương-Đài, the “independent initiative that supports and organizes actions and propositions that explore tactical approaches to the production, dissemination, research, and presentation of contemporary art in various and cross-disciplinary fields”. As stated by Norberto Roldan, this artist-led initiative is destined to close as organizations that purely support artists are bad business models. Since the establishment of The Green Papaya Art Projects, there have been other popular artist-run spaces and organizations that have developed such as the 98B COLLABoratory. These artist-led spaces where created because artists felt like there was a need for an alternative space in the city to create art.

At a glance, the art scene of Manila is one that has multiple personalities and contrasts. A city that strives to be a global city yet wants to support the artists. When examining the art scene in detail, the art scene is a spectrum of varying degrees of revenue The more market-driven an institution may be, the less likely the artists may be supported in ways such as the freedom to experiment. Despite this continuum, one aspect that has been a commonality throughout the art scene is the inclusion of the country’s culture. Despite some artworks that are more aesthetically pleasing to collectors in the market, Filipino artists will continue to create contemporary art that continues to speak realities and criticism towards what is unjust towards humanity.

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