Photo by PINGGOT ZULUETA

It’s hard to imagine life without art. It’s as if living in a world devoid of colors and texture—a place where everything else is isolated into one lifeless gray bubble that dampens one’s spirits whenever it hovers around.

Without it, societies would not be intoxicated with beauty, would not be transfixed with passion, would not be awakened with epiphanies, and would not be shocked with arresting imagery captured in brushstrokes and drips of paint.

Since man first drew on cave walls thousands of years ago, art has evolved from one form to another; it has been executed in the most traditional ways to the most avant-garde. There are so many ways to describe art—no words can fully define or even attempt to totally grasp its otherworldly splendor—but we can always try.

In the Philippines, the number of art enthusiasts and art galleries is growing by the minute. The art scene in the country is thriving and breathing, so to speak. With this milestone come more opportunities for artists, especially the young ones who continuously bag top and respectable prizes at art auctions in the Southeast and beyond.

The recently concluded Manilart 09 at the NBC Tent is one perfect example of how art has become part of our lives and how it has invariably changed our cultural landscape—making it all the more rich and vivid.

Organized by the Bonafide Art Galleries Organization and the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts, it is the first-ever international art fair to be staged in the country, and it successfully gathered 40 galleries and 500 artworks in one roof. 
It brought together all the most excellent art the country has to offer, from pieces of  National Artists like Jose Joya, Bencab, Abdulmari Asia Imao, Federico Alcuaz, masters like Onib Olmedo, Ramon Orlina, Romulo Olazo, Jose Tence Ruiz, Phyllis Zaballero, Norma Belleza, Mario Parial, Juvenal Sansó to the younger yet equally talented artists such as Elmer Borlongan, Marcel Antonio, Jonathan Olazo, Camille dela Rosa, Ronaldo Ruiz, Plet Bolipata, Patty Eustaquio, Liv Romualdez Vinluan, whose dark opus fetched for P425,000 in the mini auction, to name a few.

If you missed the one-of-a-kind event, you can always muse about it through photographs or check out Manilart 09’s catalogue published by pioneering art magazine Contemporary Art Philippines. But nothing beats walking through the jam-packed aisles of NBC Tent, arms akimbo, and with SLRs on tow. Nothing tops the excitement felt palpably upon seeing every artist’s masterpiece hung on white-washed walls. There is no substitute for the real. Well, ‘til the next Manilart then!