Mindanao Art Fair is returning this year with more than 500 artists and almost 1,000 artworks.
The exhibit officially opens to the public from September 24, 2023 until October 1, 2023 at SM Lanang Premier.
Now on its fifth year, the Mindanao Art 2023 is considered the biggest gathering of artists on the island spearheaded by Lawig-Diwa Inc. in partnership with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts-National Committee on Art Galleries (NCCA-NCAG).
The said fair will showcase artworks, murals, and installations at The Atrium, North Wing Grounds, North Wing 2nd Level, and the third level of SM Lanang.
Carrying the theme “Mindanao Art in Glitch: Resonating and Reverberating,” the exhibit aims to explore the glitch or fault that prevents something from being successful or working as well as it should.
Mindanao artist Rey Mudjahid “Kublai” Ponce Millan said on Tuesday that through the exhibition they are trying to communicate the society about the “glitch” in Mindanaoan art.
“When art is everywhere and all it takes is to claim to be one to become one, what stands between artists and success? A glitch. It’s confusing, confounding, enraging, and depressing as questions short-circuiting the brain are yielding no answers. While the skilled and talented hands are belittled by the deluge of works put together and labeled as art. But just recognizing the glitch beckons us to a deeper search and knowing and this is where we take flight. As one,” said Millan.
He said they have been doing exhibitions for the past years and they have noticed that Mindanaon artworks are lacking in presenting Mindanao to the Philippines and the rest of the world.
“We have been doing it again and again and we have noticed that yung mga artworks natin may kulang kasi we are trying to present Mindanao to the Philippines and the rest of the world. We wanted our artists not just to paint on their studios but to go out there. We wanted our audience to find meaning in the various artworks that we’ll be presenting to them,” Millan said during the P.E.P Talk media forum at SM Lanang Premier.
The 1st Mindanao Art Fair started in 2019 as an advocacy of Millan in recognition of the need for Mindanao artists to step up and become key players in the Philippine art scene while ensuring that they remain rooted in their identity as Mindanaoans. The ultimate vision is for Mindanao visual art to evolve as a distinct genre contributing to an equally distinct Philippine visual art.
From the 10 groups that exhibited in the first fair at the Gaisano Mall of Davao and a one-day art conference featuring well-known Filipino visual artists with association and roots in Mindanao, the gathering grew to 16 art groups and one featured artist in 2020 at the Mapua Malayan Colleges Mindanao.
The Mindanao Art 2021 was staged amid the pandemic and still gathered more than 300 artists from 35 galleries from all over Mindanao at the Poblacion Market Central. Additionally, Mindanao Art 2021 also featured a fashion show which was a collaboration between fashion designers and visual artists in Davao City.
Mindanao Art 2022 had more than four hundred artists from 32 galleries with almost a thousand paintings, artworks, and installations displayed at The Club at Northtown in Cabantian, Davao City.
Part of this year’s fair will be a satellite exhibit by artists from Sandog Artists Tagum, Guhit Kamay Young Artists of Panabo and Deped Lunang at the Poblacion Market Central entitled “Abundang Gasa” from September 24 to October 1, 2023.
A total of 32 galleries (30 from the 5 administrative regions of Mindanao and 2 from Manila) are confirmed to participate in the Mindanao Art exhibit this year.
Among the participants are the 18 groups from Davao Region: Abong Bughaw (Davao City), Beta Studio (Davao City), Bulawanong Dibuhista (Nabunturan, Davao de Oro), Datu Bago Gallery Café (Davao City), Davao del Sur League of Artists and Aesthetic Builders (Digos City, Davao del Sur), DavNor Artists Circle (Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte), Dibuho Art Dabaw (Digos City, Davao de Sur), DS Foundation for the Differently-Abled Inc. (Davao City), Gallerie Raphael (Davao City), Gallery Down South (Davao City), GAMA Art Group (Davao City), Jing Cayacay Rabat Art Gallery (Mati City, Davao Oriental), Kalapati Art Group (Davao City), Kasing Art Lab (Davao City), La Herencia Davao Art Space (Davao City), Lila Bloc (Davao City), Patikan Mindanao (Davao City) and Piguras Contemporary (Davao City).
