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ManilArt2025

The National Art Fair

ManilArt2025

The National Art Fair

Conneth Amido has been developing his artistic voice through several solo and group exhibitions, with “Chasing Stars” marking his third solo exhibit. He is known for experimenting with color, form, and materials, especially integrating playful surreal elements to evoke positivity and imagination in his audience. His works often provoke reflection—on aspiration, struggle, and the power of perseverance—while maintaining an approachable, joyful imagery that resonates widely.

In this new body of work Amido turns his signature pop-surreal language toward optimism — whimsical figures, buoyant colors, and playful sculptural details that invite viewers to remember the imaginative heart that quietly directs our striving.

Amido’s paintings and mixed-media pieces balance childlike wonder with a mature, disciplined craft. Softly exaggerated characters, star motifs and dreamlike landscapes become metaphors for aspiration: the small acts, brave detours, and stubborn hope that propel us toward personal goals. Across the gallery his pieces read like a visual pep talk — earnest, witty, and occasionally sly — asking us to chase our brightest impulses without losing sight of the tenderness that makes ambition humane.

Kaos Magick is an exhibit of mixed media works featuring sculptures, prints, paintings, and assemblages. Held at THE ARTOLOGIST, the show brings together recent pieces that explore the transformative power of chaos and the magic that arises through alchemy.

The artist takes objects often dismissed as clutter—fragments, cast-offs, forgotten things—and reimagines them through story, myth, and personal lore. These materials are transmuted into ethereal and sometimes haunting works that speak of memory, ritual, and the unseen forces that shape our lives. Kaos Magick invites viewers into a world where chaos is not destruction, but creation—where disorder becomes a source of wonder, and magic is made tangible.

This is Diana Aviado’s second solo exhibition, presented on the occasion of her 38th birthday. It is both a celebration and a invocation—an offering to friends, fellow artists, and kindred spirits who have witnessed her lifelong devotion to her world-building.

Diana Aviado

Multidisciplinary Artist & Printmaker

Diana Aviado is a second-generation Filipino artist working across printmaking, photography, assemblage, painting, and mixed media. Her career began in 2011 with a photography workshop under Wolfgang Belwinkle at Silverlens, followed by a two-person exhibition with her father, renowned printmaker Virgilio “Pandy” Aviado, at LRI Design Plaza. The show featured macro photography and digital artworks.

She held her first solo exhibition Secrets Beneath at The Crucible in 2014, presenting large-format macro photography prints. Since then, she has exhibited at Art Fair Philippines, Art in the Park, Sigwada Gallery, Kanto Gallery, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and Imahica Art Gallery (Inheritance, 2023). Her recent work includes mixed media paintings of mythological creatures with Folklore Philippines and experimental gelliprints.

Aviado is a member of the Association of Pinoyprintmakers and a founding member of the Hanan Initiative, an all-women printmaking collective. She has led workshops and live demos at MoCAF, Salcedo Auctions, Sansó Museum, Vargas Museum, CCP Pasinaya, and Kapitolyo Art Space.

She lives and works in Quezon City, where she cares for her family’s studio, Atelier Aviado. Her background in literature, theater, and education informs her interdisciplinary approach and ongoing mentorship practice.

Plan your visit at The Artologist until September 26, 2025 and explore the featured artworks of KAOS MAGICK exhibit.

Seta members with “Pop” tendencies will unveil a suite of paintings heralding the reemergence of and emphasis on figuration in their art. The birth and proliferation of the Pop Art Movement in the 1960s marked the onset of the post-modernist period in art history, which was a reaction against the “excesses” of the anti-figure Non-objective Abstraction.

This rediscovered affection for the figure didn’t mean, though, a return to Academism. Far from it. Because expectations of and excessive concern for such staples of academic art as bravura brushstrokes, a single source of light, harmonious color schemes, oftentimes idyllic settings, etc. are eschewed altogether in favor of non-traditional techniques in the application of paints, printed and digital motifs that saturate contemporary mass and social media, and characters that are nowhere near resembling the anatomically-correct figures of classical-realist art.

Pop Art therefore is all about breaking away from the usual images prevalent or the total absence of them in past art styles. Pop Art is also about experimentation on how to portray or present best and in a novel manner the contemporary and the kitschy, and the popular and the quirky.

Like what happened elsewhere, Pop Art had spawned here and segued into various variants that mimicked those abroad, and to which each of us exhibit participants professed being an adherent of. And that is a good thing, because Pop Art in its many forms further spices Philippine art with its fun and whimsical and very contemporary approach to artmaking.

An Exhibition on Labor, Escape, and the Endless Cycle of Survival

In a world that moves too fast, where the weight of labor leaves bodies aching and spirits worn, “Inhuman Session” delves into the unspoken rituals of rest and release. It is an intimate portrayal of the ordinary men and women—farmers, carpenters, painters, and drifters—who carve out moments of relief, sometimes in joy, sometimes in recklessness, but always in pursuit of something beyond the fatigue.

This exhibition unearths the raw, cyclical nature of survival—where exhaustion is numbed by routine, where laughter is a brief escape, and where contentment can feel like both a comfort and a cage. The clinking of glasses at the end of a workday, the idle hours spent in conversation, the temporary relief that often blurs into something heavier—these moments are captured with unflinching honesty, revealing the beauty and quiet tragedy of those who simply want to live.

“Inhuman Session” is not just an exhibition; it is an invitation to step into these lives, to sit in their spaces, to listen, to feel, and to question. How do we define rest? When does routine become a prison? And in the end, is survival enough?

Each of us learns from the masters – those who have come before us and reached a level of success on the paths we choose. Learning from the best means gaining valuable insight and inspiration to be the best versions of ourselves as well.

In “Masters Redux,” Monnar pays homage to some of the iconic painters of history and their most beloved works – creations that undoubtedly provided influence to his own artistic journey. The goal isn’t to reproduce these pieces but to showcase Monnar’s style in reinterpreting these familiar masterpieces.

“When I was much younger, my father (Manuel Baldemor) would buy art books from the museums he visited,” Monnar shares. “To be honest, although I was fascinated by the works of the masters, I preferred cartoons and comic strips. I never thought I’d end up painting as well.”

“Masters Redux” is a treasure trove of rediscovery – collecting a veritable who’s who in art. Monnar’s first piece is his take on Salvador Dali’s “Persistence of Memory” (1931), a true cornerstone of Surrealism. From there, he runs the gamut of the classics – from the poignant “The Kiss” (1908) by Gustav Klimt, to Vincent Van Gogh’s epic “Starry Night” (1889), to the sprawling “Guernica” (1937) of Pablo Picasso, and more.

Throughout the collection, Monnar demonstrates his own mastery of acrylic use – complemented with the painstaking, patient fills of pen and ink – giving his personal, fresh imprint on the pieces. His signature pastel-colored background lights up each canvas to focus a true yet still metaphorical spotlight on the featured greats – mirroring a personal theme of constant evolution for Monnar’s work as well. – Kap Maceda Aguila

To receive an e-catalogue, please send us a message.

In his debut solo exhibit, GENESIS, Sheldon Villanueva offers an immersive journey into the spiritual and introspective dimensions of his artistry. Scheduled during Art Month in February 2025 at The Artologist, Edsa Shangri-La Plaza, this landmark showcase features Villanueva’s exquisite wood sculptures.

The Angel Series embodies Villanueva’s belief that ordinary people are divine messengers, angels permitted by God to traverse the earth, spreading peace, guidance and joy. These sculptures capture the serene, ethereal essence of angels while remaining rooted in human forms, bridging the celestial and the terrestrial. Through their grace, strength and quiet power, these pieces remind us of the sacred within the ordinary and of our shared potential to impact the world positively.

At the core of Genesis lies Villanueva’s conviction that creation is a sacred act with God as the ultimate artist-the original potter-who envisioned and sculpted the universe into existence. His sculptures celebrate this divine origin, reflecting humanity’s role as co-creators, endowed with the capacity to shape, inspire and transform the world.

Villanueva’s commitment to sustainability and respect for nature is woven deeply into his practice. Each sculpture is crafted from reclaimed and repurposed hardwood, a deliberate choice to honor and protect the earth’s resources. The natural cracks, textures and imperfections in the wood are embraced as storytellers of the material’s history-witnesses to the passage of time and testaments to resilience. These raw, unpolished elements mirror the artist’s own journey, offering a profound narrative of renewal, perseverance and transformation.

Genesis is more than an exhibition; it is a meditation on life, faith and the enduring connection between humanity, nature and the divine. Through this remarkable body of work Sheldon Villanueva inspires viewers to reflect on their role in the ongoing act of creation and to find beauty in the imperfections of their own stories.

“As We Fly” is a melancholic art exhibition that delves on the metaphor of flight to illustrate one’s journey on pursuit of a lifelong aspirations, highlighting the glimpse of cherished moments of happiness in spite of the highs and low experienced along the way, the savouring of the joyous instances that provides motivation and makes the journey worthwhile, the yearning for a milestones that yet to be achieved, and the resilience required to navigate obstacles.

The exhibition encapsulates the complexities of human ambition and the emotional landscape of striving toward one’s goals.

China Tolentino, born in 1997, is a contemporary Filipino artist based in Manila, known for her spherical composition that employs vibrant and bold use of colors and expressive brushwork that reflect her unique perspective and artistic versatility. Her pieces invite viewers to engage with the emotional depth and spontaneity inherent in her creative process. With her deep commitment on exploring the boundaries of visual expression, It makes her a notable figure as a contemporary artists.

Rex Cabaroc is a Filipino artist and educator based In Manila; He received his formal artistic training from the University of Santo Tomas. He is a photorealist artist using oil paint as his medium . He already did several projects like portraits and murals. Rex is very meticulous when it comes to choosing the right colour of the paint, the right brush and the right model for the composition and continuously experimenting.. His composition is a fusion of classical and cyberpunk genre with a vintage and melancholic atmosphere.