Art In The Park: The promise of an art community

It isn’t as if this is the only art event that brings together Pinoy artists, but it might have a claim on being the one art fair that is able to create a sense of community among artists and gallery owners, spectators and patrons. And no, I’m not waxing romantic about “Art In The Park, the affordable art fair” of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines, as I am now getting a sense of why this fair works year in year out, and how it can only work this year, too. 

 

Over merienda with the women behind “Art In The Park” and in conversation with some of the fair’s yearly participants, excitement was about the longer hours of the fair on the one hand, the reunion of sorts it has become on the other. But also it can only be about the booths that are pledging all their earnings to Lirio Salvador’s medical bills – that I hope organizers would charge less, maybe not at all, for the space they use in the fair, why not? In direct contrast to the sadness of that tragedy, talk turned to the art scene, and the “new” that will be in “Art In The Park” this year.

 

Which are products brought on by/made of/created with/made from paper, as is the imagining of Tina Fernandez for the Art Informal gallery booth, shooting off from their recent exhibit “Pulp Fiction: Works on Paper.” Excited about the prospect of artists playing with and from paper, Fernandez remains excited about the fair, even as through the years this has always meant the gallery taking a hit: putting up a booth and selling art at affordable prices means that participation in the art fair ultimately becomes a promotional activity for the gallery and its artists. A worthy activity still especially since through the years Fernandez has proven how the art fair is a way to touch base with future art collectors and a public that’s interested in art, but doesn’t know where to start.  

And “Art In The Park” might be the best place to start, really. Right here, galleries stand side by side with artist groups, established artist organizations are alongside young/new(er)/informal artist groups, older more established artists co-exist with contemporary art production. Here, every kind of art is possible: from paintings to sculptures, art products and prints, illustrations and books, and every other product from and which then becomes art might be seen. 

 

This year Charlie Co is flying in his life-size styrofore sculptures entitled “Three Checkmates” from Bacolod, a work that’s inspired by his painting with the same title. Leeroy New is bringing in his wearable art made of cheap toys, though this time rendering them as performance art with models and promo girls walking across the park in them outfits – a sight to behold for sure. 

 

But probably most refreshing is the presence and work of husband and wife team Jon and Tess Pettyjohn, potters based in Calamba, Laguna, the most unassuming artists one might encounter ever. Yet begin a conversation with them about pottery in the context of this nation, and you can only be deemed a student with much to learn about art versus function, about the artist-craftsman, about the edge of the fine arts, about art in nation in general, about humility and a sense of one’s place in the bigger scheme of things. Jon speaks of the evolving nuances/gestures/subtleties that inform the organic process of hi-fi ceramic pottery;Tess speaks of how Philippine artistic production in general has yet to be valued by governments of recent years, including the current one. I was just there as captive audience.  

This year, the Pettyjohns are bringing into their booth the work of potters from Sagada and Tagaytay, including Mia Casal and Joey de Castro, as every year they do bring to “Art In The Park” their years of commitment to their craft on the one hand, their belief in an art community on the other. 

 

Meanwhile, I can now rationalize my excitement over “Art In The Park,” even as I’m not one to be able to acquire art on the salary I keep. I realize now that last year I walked away from this affordable art fair, with more than enough reason to go back this year. Last year, I walked away from “Art In The Park” with classical music ringing in my ears, funny conversations with the few friends I keep in the art world, the giddiness of kids selling their works for the first time, a Manix Abrera book and a Farley del Rosario bag in my hands. The latter two were the affordable, getting lost in the fair’s booths provided the art, the experience of hanging out in the park and getting carried away by the excitement here providing one with a sense of community.

 

At least once a year, and through “Art In The Park” one feels part of an arts community that meets under a canopy of friendship and familiarity, and without neither, then at least with mutual respect and a common premise of art that’s of the here and now. We should all want that once in a while, no matter how fleeting.

 

Art In The Park, an affordable art fair, will be on February 18, 2012, 2 p.m. to 12 a.m., at the Jaime Velasquez Park, Salcedo Village, Makati City.