ART IN THE PARK GIVES CHILL VIBES AFTER HECTIC 'ART MONTH'

With Art in the Park, it's all about the vibe. Yes, February is "art month" in Manila, a time when Makati is invaded by hordes of art lovers heading to Art Fair Philippines (this year, Ayala Triangle transformed into a tented art bazaar).

- SCOTT GARCEAU

But March is the mellower follow-up month, and Art in the Park—approaching its 20th anniversary next year—is here to give chill vibes.

From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday, March 23, the Jaime Velasquez Park in Makati City is where to hang out, listen to DJ sets and scope the newest emerging artists, with canvases typically stacked up and prices capped at P70,000.

One Art in the Park discovery was TRNZ (pronounced tee-ar-en-zee, or "Terrence," as we prefer to call him), who was picked up by curious collectors years ago at the outdoor event and has now shown at Art Fair, done a fashion collab with Bench, and is currently working on an animated film. His style is heavily '90s anime-influenced, and he says a lot of his sources come from his phone. "I will use the things I see from our neighborhood, like ukay-ukay places, and take pictures of the fabrics and clothes, and those are the stuff the figures are wearing in my paintings." He once paused in the middle of a badminton game with a friend to take a photo of a pile of shuttlecocks: that was the basis for a recent work to be shown at Art in the Park.

Another to look out for is contemporary mixed-media artist AR Manalo, whose layered monochrome pieces set in plastic boxes are what he calls "adult pop-up books," though he admits the pieces are created with his toddler daughter in mind. "She loves pop-up books now," he says. "Each new book for her is like an imagination-filled movie." Viewed from various angles, Manalo's work stands out, literally, with whimsical themes referencing historical prints and circus-like imagery.