Post-Art Affair

By Emcee Go

On a rainy evening last Thursday, the first ever The Visayas Art Fair opened with fanfare, attended by art collectors, political personalities headed by Governor Gwen Garcia and Mayor Mike Rama, and big a crowd of Cebuanos.  The well attended 4-day event at the Montebello Hotel was an initiative of the Cebu Design Week (CDW) Inc., in collaboration with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas, the Sacred Heart School for Boys Batch 1985 Foundation and the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation.

Ronald Ventura’s obra was the opening wall of the exhibit.

Celebrated artist Ronald Ventura at the Cuevas Retrospective.

A separate hall was created purposely to house art galleries from Cebu, Manila and Bacolod. Qube Gallery headlined with an impressive body of work by Cebuano artist Anton Quisumbing and Sio Montera.  Quisumbing, noted for his metallic sculpture of churches, showed his latest collection with flat renditions of his otherwise 3D works, a series of architecturally defined lines that evoke his many churches.  On one side of Qube was a booth with paintings done by UP Fine Arts students while on the other side stood a huge painting done by Bacolod-based Charlie Co, titled Lukbo (reportedly priced at 4M). Project Orange, the Bacolod based collective, was well represented, as well as from Manila, among them Metro Gallery where a Dino Gabito painting of a monotone drape was sold early on.  Brisk sales were done as art lovers mingled with a surge of curious crowd who were there mainly for their IG feeds.

A trio of masters (left to right): landscapes by Fernando Amorsolo, Martino Abellana and Romulo Galicano from a private collection

Across the hall beyond the main driveway, in the central lobby, quietly facing the food stall of Tinderbox and Chocolates, a display wall featuring a Fernando Amorsolo, Martino Abellana and Romulo Galicano stood unguarded behind a large canvas of Ronald Ventura. Collectively, these 4 painting would be the Mona Lisa of the exhibit.  The elusive Mr. Ventura famously sold an artwork titled “Party Animal” at Christie’s Live Auction in Hong Kong for a cool 120 million pesos recently.

Melo Esguerra, Laurie Boquiren, Qube Gallery’s Mariz Holopainen and Charlie Co against Charlie’s red clown painting.

Late in the afternoon, an open auction of art pieces was going on — with jaw dropping figures of several zeros casually being thrown around, including another Gabito canvas that allegedly banged for 2M. Looking at the auction list, one wag was prompted to comment — I don’t know any of these art collectors, all names with 2 or 3 letters!

Congressman Toff de Venecia, architect Buck Sia, Esperanza Garcia and Butch Carungay

Other activities were on hand. The finalists of Miss Cebu 2022 were presented during a fashion show that featured the locally woven hablon creations of Dexter Alazas.  Another fashion show by FIDA students got rained on and had to transfer indoors. Both were staged to perhaps attract the otherwise uninclined art audience, a laudable enough reason. Seen downing several goblets of celebratory Moët was CDW’s Butch Carungay, together with Congressman Toff de Venecia who was on hand to talk about his creative industry initiatives in Congress, and Isa Garcia, perhaps eyeing more artwork for her dad Winston Garcia’s old masters.

The last, and best attraction of the Cebu Art Fair, at least in the opinion of this magazine, was the impressive pavilion housing the Tito Cuevas retrospective.  The modernist Cebuano artist operated for many decades at his humble home near the Cebu Capitol. Cuevas passed away in 2012. This would be the first time his body of work is displayed, and the scope and breath of his genius is impressive, largely undiscovered except to his avid collectors. In this exhibit, 2 paintings of  self portrait was a fun and irreverent play of colors and multiple heads with different expressions, part of the artist collection now belonging to his family. The 36 x 36 canvases are currently priced at P990,000. A large part of the Cuevas exhibit is owned by art-lover Michael Dino and his wife Christine.  Dino has been buying the Cuevas for some time, and now his more than 20 artworks anchors this retrospective.  “This is his last work and remains unfinished”, Christine Dino explained when asked why the huge splash of orange and yellow canvas was in prominent position.

Noted art collector Michael Dino and wife Christine has been collecting Cuevas for a long time.

Michael Dino is in a unique position to pull off this feat.  As the Presidential Advisor in Cebu, he has at his disposal the many government agencies needed to help.  Add to that his genuine love of collecting art, and access to the city’s only estate hotel, Montebello. “It was a collective effort,” he answered when we congratulated him. “Have you seen the wall of our next project,” he further tells us.  This would be CICAD, the exciting new chapter of Michael Dino’s passion with art. But that would have to be another story.