These gallery owners, curators, and art collectors are the forces that keep our art market inclusive, respectable, and sustainable
This is an excerpt from MEGA’s June 2023 People feature story 1.
TINA FERNANDEZ (ARTINFORMAL)
Tina Fernandez opened up her gallery, Artinformal, in 2004. And what she and other expert artists in their respective fields aimed to do with this gallery was to educate the viewing public. According to her and their observations at the time, most people wanted to buy art but didn’t know or understand what they liked. Because of this, they put up a space for established artists to teach others the process of art-making. This gives them a greater appreciation for the work that happens behind the scenes. “We teach people how to buy with their eyes and not with their ears,” Fernandez adds.
LORI JUVIDA (ART CUBE GALLERY)
Long before Lori Juvida established Art Cube Gallery in 2012 to showcase the best works of contemporary artists, she, in her own words, had her eyes set exclusively on the works of masters. Then, her husband Louie Ojeda (now deceased) opened her eyes and introduced her to contemporary art that eventually led to her turning point.
“My late husband nudged me to go to art exhibitions featuring the works of young and emerging young artists,” she says, recalling her introduction to what her gallery is now known for. “And with his help, we started collecting their works. Some of the contemporary artists whose works we collected when they were still young have now emerged as the new batch of waiting-in-the-wings masters. Some of them have works that even command prices higher than the works of some of the masters.”
BUBBLES BERMUDEZ AND RICCARDO CORSINI (MODEKA ART)
Bubbles Bermudez and Riccardo Corsini, the founders and managing partners of Modeka Art, were in the middle of their third show since they opened in December 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. They were stunned like everybody else, but they soon saw the silver lining.
“It really gave us an opportunity to try different things,” says Corsini. “I think we’ve been lucky also because we got in a moment where the industry was also changing. Artists welcomed us, we created a rapport with our collectors.”
TRICKIE LOPA (ART FAIR PHILIPPINES)
Trickie Lopa has always been interested in art, but it was when she co-founded art fair Art in the Park in 2006, together with Lisa Ongpin-Periquet and Dindin Araneta, that she got into it, deeply and passionately. Lopa says. “That allowed me to get to know artists and galleries.” She took a step further from being an art events organizer by becoming an art blogger to address the need for coverage of the art scene.
“Unless you were an insider, you wouldn’t know where to look if you wanted to see or discuss art,” she recalls. Her blog, Manila Art Blogger, had a good run from 2008 to 2012.
The following year, 2013, Lopa and her cohorts established Art Fair Philippines with the mission “to expand the audience for the visual arts, especially that of contemporary art.” Ten years later, that mission has been accomplished.
JIA ESTRELLA (J STUDIO)
Jia Estrella, a gallery owner and art auctioneer, is brimming with passion for her work at J Studio. Though she herself had grown up with a creative streak—having attended many drawing and painting classes in the past—it wasn’t until she began collecting art that she indulged in her passion.
Interestingly, Estrella took up interior design in college and went into furniture design for her first job. After a 16-year-long career in fashion, she retired in 2008 and began going to galleries to collect art and meet like-minded individuals. Estrella seemingly lives and breathes art, and she sees it evolving everywhere, too. This mindset can be tied back to past work, where she would salvage and transform old pieces of furniture in her studio. In 2013, this same studio became the exhibition space we know today.
RICHIE AND KAREN LERMA (SALCEDO AUCTIONS)
Richie and Karen Lerma married in 2003, and established Salcedo Auctions in 2010 as a conflation of their passion for art: she loves jewelry design and he had already made a name for himself in the academe and other cultural institutions. When Salcedo Auctions began to take off, the Lermas became strongly associated with the art scene.
“We’re in the business of trust,” Richie says. “There is trust in the involved personalities—who are the people who founded it, the people behind the organization? I think that’s where Salcedo Auctions takes its primacy: the identities that are attached to it.”
JAIME PONCE DE LEON (LEON GALLERY)
In the 10 years that Jaime Ponce de Leon has been running auctions through Leon Gallery, which he put up in 2010, there have been many pieces, such as the Amorsolos, he wished he could keep for himself. “But price was always the issue,” he admits, “I couldn’t.”
What Jaime could do willingly, wholeheartedly, is to give art collectors the conf idence to pursue their passion in acquiring pieces and expanding their acquisitions. That is what he considers the best part of his work.
KEVIN AND ROSE ANNE BELMONTE
There’s an old adage that says opposites attract, and for couple Kevin and Rose Anne Belmonte, that could not be more true. Despite their diametrical differences in artistic preference, they have found a way to complement each other and create a collection of art that beautifully blends their individual tastes.
At f irst glance, the Belmonte home is f illed with artworks that convey dark themes, courtesy of paintings by National Artist Ang Kiukok and Ronald Ventura. But look a little more closely, and one would find the happier and brighter corners, such as the one lit up by the big yellow dog sculpture with green polka dots by Yayoi Kusama, a ref lection of Rose Anne’s taste—and love for dogs.
JOSE MORENO
It all started with posters of the works of pop artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein hanging on the walls of his college dorm room. “I didn’t have money, but I liked contemporary art,” recalls Jose Moreno, financial investor, founder of experience provider start-up Lark Experiences, and art collector. “All posters of all of these contemporary artists had bright, bold, big colors. I always felt good around that aesthetic.”
He admits, though, that this disposition for vivid hues may have been his unconscious way of exploring the art space his own way as his mother is an avid collector of the works of masters—both local and international.
JULIUS AND CHRISTINE BABAO
For most people, the names Julius and Christine Babao have always been synonymous with the word “news”—it’s unavoidable since they’ve been working as journalists for decades. But beyond reports and headlines, the Babaos have also made a name for themselves as famed collectors, who have amassed an impressive number of artwork from various artists, both established and emerging.
“Art has always been an essential part of my life,” Julius tells MEGA during a house tour. “Whenever young art collectors ask me for advice, I always tell them to not always consider the monetary investment value of an artwork, but rather the mental and emotional effect it has on you.”
He adds, “It’s like being in love with a person. When you see an art that you like and you can’t sleep thinking about buying it, that only means you’ve connected with it.”
Read the more about the passion and motivation of these art aficionados in MEGA’s June 2023 issue, now available on Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio.
Text BAM ABELLON, LAURD SALEN, CELINE TRINIDAD, and ALLIE PESQUERA
Photography KIERAN PUNAY (Babao, Estrella, De Leon, Bermudez and Corsini), JONES PALTENG (Lermas, Belmontes, and Moreno) and JOSEPH PASCUAL (Fernandez)
Creative Direction JONES PALTENG
Video Production REGINA ACERON
Videography LORENZO CORRO
Shoot Coordination LAURD SALEN
Sittings Editors BAM ABELLON
Additional Photos CASA BELLA and JUDE MACASINAG
