Over the last few years, the board game scene in the Philippines has quietly grown into something really special. What used to be a niche hobby has turned into a vibrant community of cozy game cafes, local designers, and families looking for a meaningful way to disconnect from their phones. We’ve seen games about everything from Pinoy street food to local folklore, but a new release is taking things somewhere completely unexpected: the world of fine art.
A small group of art lovers and gamers recently gathered one quiet afternoon for a first look at Modern Art: Philippine Edition. An official, localized version of a classic auction game, it is a total labor of love put together through a collaborative effort by the Fundacion Sanso, Gaming Library, and ICArE (an organization that helps look after artists’ legacies). Essentially, they’ve found a way to turn the family dining table into a tiny, playable art gallery.
Family members and descendants of the featured creators—National Artists Larry Alcala, Abdulmari Imao, and Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, along with masters Raul Lebajo and Juvenal Sansó—were right there in the room.
The teams put a lot of thought into ensuring the components show genuine respect to the art. The box beautifully showcases the artists’ work, while the cards feature paintings set against clean white backgrounds so the colors really pop. They even utilized both vertical and horizontal layouts so no artwork gets awkwardly cropped or squished. To top it off, this Philippine version boasts two major bragging rights no other edition in the world has: it’s the only version globally to include actual 3D mini-sculptures based on Abdulmari Imao’s work to bid on, and it comes with a custom wooden gavel so you can slam the table and shout “Sold!” in style.
At its core, this board game is a gentle, fun way to break down the walls around fine art and reintroduce our culture to the next generation over snacks and coffee.
The museum preview was just an intimate taste of what’s to come, as Modern Art: Philippine Edition is officially set to be launched at the upcoming All aBOARD Expo. By bringing these legendary masters to the tabletop at Southeast Asia’s biggest board game event, it proves that our cultural heritage doesn’t always have to be locked away inside a physical museum. Sometimes, it belongs right at the center of the family table, bringing people together.
