Art in the Park 2024 is happening: Here’s what to expect

Art in the Park is coming up real soon!

An event where art is made accessible and affordable, Art in the Park promises to be "really very unintimidating," organizer Trickie Lopa said.

“As a buyer and as an artist, it’s a way [where] you can do what you like and if people like it, they like it,” she told members of the media at a press event in Makati City on Tuesday.

“And even for the buyers, you don’t have to think about things so much, it’s really what captures your eye. And it doesn’t always have to be paintings or art [but] it can be functional stuff, the ceramics, the pottery,” Trickie added.

She noted the relaxed energy and setting of Art in the Park, which allows artists experiment with their pieces.

“It’s their way to play,” Trickie said.

Here are the exciting things happening at Art in the Park 2024:

The basics

Art in the Park is happening on March 17, Sunday. It will be at the Jaime Velasquez Park in Salcedo Village, Makati City from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Entrance to the fair is free for all.

For this 18th edition, the event will gather 60 exhibitors, composed of galleries, art collectives, independent art spaces, and student groups.

Prices of artworks at Art in the Park are also capped at P70,000.

Art in the Park continues to benefit the Museum Foundation of the Philippines in support of its projects and programs for the National Museum of the Philippines and its network.

Featured artists

Art in the Park will have three featured artists this year.

Demi Padua is considered among the most sought-after Filipino contemporary artists. His realistic paintings and mixed media pieces feature faces as the main focal point, with elements of abstract and figurative elements that result in collage-like works.

Demi has been exhibiting his works at Art in the Park since 2006.

He told the press that he is still working on his pieces for this coming edition but that he might create mixed-media art.

Abstract artist Clarence Chun is also joining this year. His pieces primarily tell stories about his connections and places he lived in like Leyte, Hawaii, and Antipolo, as well as his experiences as a first-generation immigrant.

He teased his Art in the Park pieces as similar to having a small solo show with his smaller-scale paintings. Clarence added that his works do not follow a certain theme, but that he is also inspired by his current favorite manga, current events, video games, books, and his personal observations.

The third featured artist is Pepe Delfin, another abstract artist who tells stories through geometric shapes, all about her personal experiences, mental health, observations, and relationships with people.

For Art in the Park, Pepe said that her work will focus on the theme of empathy, which she has been recently researching about.

“In my ideal world, I really feel like empathy can solve a lot of things. So I looked for how you can develop empathy in children, [how] to develop the imagination of children, and [how] you can take care of them at home, then they’ll become more empathic adults,” she said.

With this, Pepe’s exhibit will be in two parts. The first is “Life in the Great Indoors,” which are paintings about a child’s inner world, and is composed of toys like dollhouses and puppets.

Interactive mural

Another element of Art in the Park would be the exciting interactive art.

Pepe’s second part of her exhibit will feature an outdoor component of a person’s outer world. It will be a mural of an empty city. Fairgoers are then invited to put a sticker on the mural.

“In my works, humans are usually represented as dots because we’re all specks. And if you put a sticker there, it’s just you’re marking and finding your space in the space in the city,” Pepe said.

“And ideally if the mural gets filled with so many stickers, it’s just a snapshot of how we were that day. Like, we were all in the same space, we were all together, and we were all there, and we’re still here,” the artist added. “That’s it, we’re all just dots.”

Music, food, and vibes

Park visitors need not worry about food and drinks, as a variety of booths will be up at the fair from savory meals to cocktails.

The vibe at Art in the Park is also enhanced by music from OPM band Any Name’s Okay and guitarist Soulful Mood throughout the day.

— LA, GMA Integrated News