Stewards of Art

These gallery owners, curators, and art collectors are the forces that keep our art market inclusive, respectable, and sustainable

- BAM ABELLON, LAURD SALEN, ALLIANZA PESQUERA and CELINE TRINIDAD

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.

Succeeding in that aspect, where visitors develop their own taste, is one of the greatest joys of being a gallery owner, she says. On top of that, she reveals that seeing exhibitions come into full bloom at her gallery— where she’s involved from the conceptualizing stage all the way to the execution—reminds her why she’s a gallery owner in the first place.

And having been an artist herself in the past, Fernandez gets to make informed decisions as a gallery owner. “You understand when you’re critiquing a work why you don’t like it or what is necessary for that work to be taken to a finished state,” she goes on to say.

Through it all, the excitement of her profession never stops because she always sees something new and approaches them with child-like glee. Now, Fernandez says that she looks forward to seeing more unexpected art exhibitions that would floor her and inspire her.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN