THE country’s longest-running annual visual arts fair, ManilART returns tomorrow for its 17th year, featuring an expansion into and intersection between various art forms.
This year’s fair carries the theme Across Forms, Beyond Borders. Set to run from October 15 to 19 at the SMX Aura Convention Center, Taguig City, ManilART 2025 highlights how creativity transcends categories, from fashion to functional design, from digital media to cuisine. The theme also ‘reflects the way ideas evolve and resurface, reinterpreted across time and form, weaving connections between the visual arts and other creative expressions.’
‘ManilART 2025 celebrates the cyclical nature of inspiration, and how creative themes across disciplines and generations constantly reinterpret themselves in new forms,’ said Amy Loste, ManilART founder president, during last week’s press conference. ‘[The fair] becomes not only a showcase of art but also a dialogue between forms where every piece, medium, and discipline reflects a shared, ever-evolving cultural story in the Philippines.’
ManilART 2025 presents several notable collaborations with prominent practitioners in other artistic fields. The fair’s project with Coco Kusina Philippine Coconut Kitchen, for instance, explores the interplay between visual art and heritage cuisine, featuring local and artisanal flavors and ingredients. The partnership showcases how culture itself is a shared canvas, with food, art and tradition enriching the Filipino experience.
What’s more, there are exhibits featuring fashion collections born from paintings, sculptures that echo textile design, and digital works that reinterpret physical media. This year’s roster of exhibitors includes the Annual Sculpture Review, Araw Gallery, Art Corner PH, Art For Space Gallery PH, Art Toys PH, Artalyer, Artes Orientes, AT Art Gallery, Daloy Likha Art Gallery, Drybrush Gallery, Florentino Gallery, Galleria Nicolas, Galerie Bañez, Galerie Du Soleil, Galerie Jose, Galerie Raphael, Gallery Nine, Historia Art, La Galeria De Maria, Legacy Art Gallery, Life ‘n Arts Gallery, M Galerie, NAMI Art Gallery, OMVI Art Gallery, Pugad Ni Art, Renaissance Art Gallery, Rojo Galerie, The Artologist Gallery, VAM International Art Gallery, and Village Art Gallery.
Beyond the exhibitions, ManilART 25 strengthens its commitment to education and cultural discourse through talks, panels and workshops. Features include a discussion with global Filipinos from across cultural sectors, including cuisine, literature, and the visual arts, expanding conversations on how Filipino creativity resonates worldwide.
The five-day fair also coincides with satellite shows across the country, extending its reach to regional audiences. For this year’s edition, ManilART partners with the inaugural San Pablo Art Circuit (SaPAC), an initiative of artistic and cultural venues in and around San Pablo City in Laguna. The showcase will take over 10 venues to feature visual artists and local traditions in a month-long ‘Artstravaganza’ this October. Participants include the Art Barn at Casa San Pablo, Art Corridor, Color Commune at Sining Labuyo, Fule-Malvar Heritage Mansion, the Lake House, Paraiso de Avedad Gallery, Studio 88, Sulyap Cafe Gallery and Museum, Verbena Gallery of Patis Tesoro, and Villa Escudero Museum.
Aside from being the longest-running project of its kind in the Philippines, ManilART is also positioned as the country’s national art fair, being the banner project of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts’ annual celebration of Museums and Galleries Month every October.