OPINION: An embarrassment of riches: Pinoy participation in Art Formosa fails to impress

The featured artworks fell far short of the rich Philippine talent that should have been showcased.

In an art festival that touted the Philippines and its two-hundred-year artistic history as a major component, the delegation failed to step up.

Art Formosa opened its doors on September 25, 2026, at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park for a festival boasting a country-specific feature on the Philippines. The intentions were real; the hype was there. Unfortunately, neither the artists nor the galleries delivered.

For all the buzz that came out of the press machinery, the art on display didn’t do justice to the staggering wealth of Philippine artistry that could have—and should have—been tapped. None of the masters like Amorsolo, Zobel, or Ocampo—legends mentioned in the giant wall text greeting arrivals at the fair—were accounted for. Figures who have brought international acclaim, like Pacita Abad or BenCab, were nowhere to be found, despite plenty of their works arguably being accessible if one were simply to exert some effort and dig.

Even those Pinoys who have already been building a presence in Taiwan, like red-hot Leeroy New and his phantasmagorical sculptures that have made their mark in Taoyuan and Taipei, or abstractionist Sio Montero, who took his graduate studies in Taiwan, weren’t seen.

Instead, what was on offer?

For contemporary gallery Vinyl on Vinyl, it was a barely-there booth with small works by Rene Barrera, Bitto, and Sarah Conanan. While Bitto already has a huge mural at the creative park and Barrera has been featured several times at Art Taipei, more dramatic, large-scale works by these artists—like Barrera’s giant twin sculptures at Pinto Museum—could have been deployed at the Formosa fair. That would have been impact galore.

Mugna Gallery from Dumaguete brought a wealth of regional talent, with names like Kitty Taniguchi and Hershey Castro headlining its booth. Perhaps it was expensive to ship large works, as small, interestingly shaped canvases filled the walls, but imagine what wonders could have been achieved if even one of Taniguchi’s immense canvases had been spotlit.

VMeme Contemporary was another booth that sought to represent the country, but it chose to showcase cartoon prints by Tarantadong Kalbo—something already seen at the MOCAF fair this year—and kiddie pop toys by Toym Imao, son of National Artist Abdulmari Imao. What a letdown. Curled-up cats with a golden parol on top—not exactly groundbreaking. Wouldn’t this opportunity have been better utilized by university students? Yet another Imao, Kahlo, presented yet more cats as a counterpoint to Toym Imao’s own felines.

Fil-Am Alaya Esguerra provided refreshing sari-sari store shelving in her series Small Things Far From Home, with paintings that called to mind Carlo Tanseco’s enormous canned-goods series. Esguerra’s canvases offered true glimpses of Pinoy life, a quality one could say also applies to Tarantadong Kalbo’s adorable character.

At the end of the day, were our expectations too high?

Not if one considers that Snoopy and Doraemon proved far more attractive than the Philippine contingent. Those booths drew the crowds, underscoring the point that to compete on the international scene, one cannot rely on lofty academic credentials or self-serving pats on the back.

Our country can offer so much better.

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