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This year’s Tubô Cebu Art Fair honors past mentors and today’s creative dreamers
CEBU, Philippines – The Tubô Cebu Art Fair— one of Visayas’ biggest art fairs — returned on its seventh anniversary with art celebrating the unique histories and legacies of creatives past and present.
“We chose this year to put a continued spotlight on Martino Abellana. Of course, he is acknowledged as the Dean of Cebuano Painters, and he is the name that we should all never forget,” fair director Allen Tan said at the event launch on Friday, August 29.
Born from Carcar City, Abellana is recognized for his contributions in mentoring generations of artists and the formation of several creative groups in Cebu.
According to Tan, a majority of the exhibiting artists present were taught by Abellana and continued his legacy of contributing to the art space. The pieces are being showcased at the Ayala Center Cebu in Cebu City from August 29 until August 31.
“The theme of this year’s fair is Provenance. It wants to ground the contemporary art of Cebu to a more solid understanding of its history and its beginning,” fair curator Jay Nathan Jore told Rappler.
Jore explained that the fair selected Cebu-based artists to interpret the meaning of this year’s theme through their work, adhering to specific creative criteria concerning materiality, process, and thematics.
Progeny
For visual artist and printmaker Gabi Nazareno, an individual’s legacy is not strictly biological.
At her booth, one can find Twin A and Twin B, two pieces that are part of a whole project entitled “Alternative Progeny.” To her, it is a direct response against societal views on mothership and expectations from female artists.
Nazareno, who has been doing print for more than eight years, believes that female artists are capable of being nurturing beyond childbearing through mentoring young artists and caring for one’s work.
“I wanted to claim my works as my children. They are my alternative progeny,” Nazareno told Rappler.
The artist has been teaching printmaking to young artists at University of the Philippines Cebu for three years.
In honor, in memory
For his entries for this year’s fair, painter Kenneth Gallardo took inspiration from the rice fields of Siquijor, the mangrove forests of Mandaue City, and the vast view of the sea from the town of Oslob in Cebu.
His textured artwork made with acrylic showcased brief moments from his travels with his wife, Annie Fe who is a prominent journalist known for her documentary and broadcast work.
In these paintings, Gallardo shared his view of the world and appreciation of the reality before him. The artist told Rappler that he was inspired to create his entries from his experience watching the grand fluvial parade of the annual Sinulog celebration.
“When you think about memory, you don’t remember the details at a hundred percent, so at least when you see those paintings, it could be something to spark [a memory],” Gallardo said.
He added that his work was also done in honor of fisherfolk and farmers who, he believes, deserve more value and support amid the hardships and inequalities they face.
– Rappler.com
