Winding through spaces and styles at Art Fair PH 2026
It’s been more than a decade since the first Art Fair PH, which kicked off in the Link Carpark, and it has had many transformations since. From outdoor fairs under Ayala Triangle’s trees during the pandemic to last year’s return in the same green canopy, then under a spacious structure, the fair now occupies a converted office space in Circuit Makati.
The low ceilings, narrow elevators, and hidden alcoves evoke a sense of nostalgia as they echo the intimacy of those thrilling early fairs at the car park, but now with a new layout to explore.
Blue-chip galleries are, as always, in full force, but the real excitement is in the smaller galleries and the Projects section. 125 Projects, Gwen Bautista’s new Mandaluyong gallery, presents compact yet conceptually daring works by well-known Filipino and international artists. Each piece feels intentional, while also forward-thinking and audacious.
Digital art lovers should not miss TRNZ’s “The Keeper,” a collaboration with Fleet Studios. Featuring one of TRNZ’s instantly recognizable figures, he creates a world that shows the day-to-day life of a meticulously organized trophy room keeper. The short, poignant piece even drew a sniffle or two from me.
Meander through the Projects section
The majority of the Projects section on the 6th floor is like a breath of fresh air, laid out like a barrio or town plaza, according to the exhibition designs by Rita Nazareno and Gabby Lichauco of Nazareno/Lichauco.
Among the Projects are Max Balatbat’s “Kapilya,” which recreates a chapel curated by Norman Crisologo. The installation references Balatbat’s unusual youth in Caloocan’s “International Cabaret,” a brothel where he spent formative years among prostitutes and other children. The work is unsettling at first, with a hanging crucifix and a mechanism that creates movement. While the recorded sounds at first seem like eerie chanting, they later reveal themselves as recordings of chismis (“si ___ nabuntis”). Crisologo wryly remarks, “If you have no sins, you shouldn’t be scared.”
Other Projects highlights include Brenda Fajardo’s tarot-inspired artworks and Ged Merino’s sculptural installations reminiscent of a kulambo. The works of Solomon Saprid and Romeo Tabuena are also worth a careful look.
Works worth noticing
At P750 for a day pass, it helps to take a guided or self-paced tour to really focus on the art. As you navigate the staircases and nooks of the fair, these are some works worth noticing in the individual galleries and projects sections.
1. Juan Luna at the Ayala Museum Collection
When you first enter the fair, Juan Luna’s “Lady at the Racetrack,” part of the Ayala Museum collection on the fifth floor, immediately stands out. Painted in the 1880s, it captures Spanish aristocratic fashion at the Hippodromo de la Castellana. Given Circuit Makati’s racetrack history, the piece feels uncanny, as if bridging the past and present of the space itself.
2. Julia Cu Unjieng at Tahanan Pottery
Tahanan Pottery has long led the way in making ceramic arts more accessible, with visual artist Cu Unjieng presenting two ghostly yet charming ceramic figures. The taller figure has a removable mask and is based on a wooden idol from the Museum of Anthropology—an artifact stripped of context after being looted. It seems turn the work into a commentary on postcolonial history.
Meanwhile, the pair of smaller connected figures draws inspiration from kambal tuko anting-anting, celebrating anitos, a belief system slowly fading from contemporary memory.
3. Ampparito, “Esperanza de Vida” (Life Expectancy)
Further along the fifth floor is Spanish artist Ampparito’s presentation in Art Fair PH/Projects. His installation confronts mortality in a strikingly literal way. He handwrites every day leading up to December 2091, the likely maximum lifespan of any fairgoer, across papers taped onto the walls.
If you’re lucky, you can catch him still writing each date in a patient, almost meditative manner, with the sheer scale of the piece making the passage of time palpable.
4. Yeo Kaa, “Okay Next” with Ames Yavuz
Coming up to the sixth floor, you’re greeted with sound and color in Yeo Kaa’s individual presentation with international gallery Ames Yavuz. The floor is designed with her distinct figures, while the entrance walls are lined with small works in glass niches, and a central sculpture features Yeo Kaa’s signature figure seemingly emerging from another lying red body.
Larger-scale works also grace the exhibition that surveys a decade of the artist’s practice, pairing past and present in one room and hinting at a new chapter ahead.
5. Imelda Cajipe Endaya, “A Votary’s Art”
Get a chance to see works up close by this veritable artist. Known for works that cover social issues from a feminist perspective, her mixed-media paintings and installations combine lace, textiles, and found objects into a visual language both deeply personal and distinctly Filipina.
At the Projects section of the fair, her printmaking pieces add another layer, inviting viewers to inspect the texture and detail up close.
6. Valentin Renner, “From our Living Room to Yours” at Modeka
Curated by Cocoy Lumbao, this group presentation explores artists’ inner lives through the lens of their actual living spaces. German artist Valentin Renner contributes meticulous string works made from thousands of nails and locally sourced threads, exploring the tension between order and chaos.
The painstaking attention to materials shows organically made string that he went to great lengths to source from the Philippines and apply to wooden panels.
7. Artu Nepomuceno, “A Moment” at Fotomoto
At the group presentation “A Moment,” Fotomoto presents photography as an extension of life itself. The exhibition brings together works by photographers from diverse backgrounds and styles, offering a layered visual experience that reflects on presence and fleeting time. Artu Nepomuceno’s well-known series captures ballerinas at pause in the grand lobby of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, frozen in soft, dim lighting.
8. Lao Lianben at Leon Gallery
Lao Lianben is well known for his often monochromatic black and white works that show simple shadows and minimalist lines, all evoking a sense of stillness. Yet in this piece, executed in acrylic on burlap and wood panels, the striking bursts of bright red punctuate the calm of his oeuvre, creating visual drama that lingers in the viewer’s mind.
Slow wandering and observing closely
Despite the flurry of the fair format, Art Fair PH 2026 is best explored through slow wandering. Between elevators, staircases, and tucked-away corners, the fair shows how Filipino contemporary art thrives in spaces both big and small, intimate and grand.
While observing closely, moments may linger through the recording of whispered chismis in a chapel, meticulously threaded string, or the grandiose drama of a Luna painting, each offering a connection that extends well beyond the fair itself.
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