MoCAF 2024 Highlights: Shining a Spotlight on Filipino Art

The Modern and Contemporary Art Festival, also known as MoCAF 2024, took over the Marquis Events Place at Bonifacio Global City last weekend. The 3-day event treated the public to a taste of the local art scene in all its varying methods and movements. 

The festival provided local galleries a venue to showcase some of their best works. Individual artists, both emerging and established, were also given room to present their art to a wider audience. In addition to the exhibits, the event featured discussions on various art-related topics, including plagiarism and art pricing.

Discovering New Artists

MoCAF 2024 allotted portions of the event space to emerging local artists showcasing pieces you wouldn’t otherwise see in a gallery. MoCAF Discoveries curated multiple paintings by different artists, presenting a variety of styles, including one which literally breaks out of its frame. A good number had a distinct cartoony style reminiscent of the Flash animation era. Others crafted more somber watercolors or sketches portraying loneliness.

When we call the MoCAF Discoveries interesting, it’s not just necessarily that it’s spotlighting new artists: it’s also the fact that overall, despite presenting around 40 artists in this section, it manages to look like a cohesively-styled exhibit in conversation with each other. Many of them appear to have similar inspiration points, and yet their end-product diverges. It really displays the uniqueness of every artist.

MoCAF Discoveries stands out for spotlighting around 40 new artists in a cohesive, even conversational exhibit. The works seem to share similar inspirations, and yet the final output are all markedly different, which also to serves to highlight each artist’s uniqueness.

Juvenal Sanso Retrospective

MoCAF devoted certain sections to retrospectives. Entering the ballroom allows one to see the works of multi-awarded painter and printmaker Juvenal Sanso. The works, which portray brightly-colored landscapes of different eras, adorn the walls of the exhibit alongside everyday objects like vinyl players and glass cups. 

While some of Sanso’s landscape-focused works may feel understated, others burst with energy, vividly portraying the world’s contrasts and the unique beauty of nature.

Contemporary Art in MoCAF

“Contemporary art” begets discussion of a broad collection of movements and art styles, and MoCAF 2024 delivered a smorgasbord of contrasting influences. Many artworks creatively referenced popular culture, paying homage to iconic figures like Richie Rich, the Joker, Voltes V, and the Simpsons. These pieces celebrate the nostalgia and charm of these omnipresent characters, often invoking a sense of whimsy and familiarity.

Others harken back towards movements such as pop art or the Renaissance in playing with works inspired by such movements. 

Experimentation and Showmanship

Interesting experimentation abounded within some of the gallery exhibits. Tactile artwork from Le Ngok, for example, experimented with shredded fabrics to create mixed media creations. Works by Marge Organo or Michael Cacnio played with different sculptural formats as a way of portraying contemporary society today. 

Some galleries and artists also mounted creative presentations of already-creative works. “Echoes of Enchantment” by Wrenn, for example, immerses us in the artworks and sculptures by creating an environment surrounding the works. Dominic Rubio’s “Old Manila Village” puts us in the center of the artist’s rendition of the past. 

VeryGood Gallery’s presentation also provided a glimpse into the processes of the artists, showing their sketches and works-in-progress. Their De Lata section in the XTN tent also gave this aura of a supermarket shelf, even if the shelves are all filled with contemporary references painted in cans.

The Push and Pull of Modernity

When we learn about art and art movements in class, we tend to see it in isolation. Many times movements happen concurrently and we still see them as separate from each other. 

MoCAF 2024, however, grants us the perspective of how movements tend to work alongside and against each other. It piles up these unique artworks in one place, and it gives us the opportunity to really assess them as if they’re in conversation with each other. Art exists not in a vacuum, and this year’s contemporary art festival showcases that perspective best.

Related reading: Contemporary Arts in the Philippines: An Introduction

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