Tubô Cebu Art Fair 2026: Where Visayan Art Finds Its Resonance

More than an exhibition of individual works, Resonance asks what happens when art travels beyond the artist who created it; when an image, gesture, material, memory, or idea encounters another person and continues to reverberate.

As Tubô approaches its 10th year, the theme reflects the fair’s continuing investment in the relationships that sustain Cebu’s art community. According to fair curator Prof. Jay Nathan Jore, Resonance considers art as something that grows through connection. That is, every artwork, conversation, and shared experience can carry an idea forward, transforming it as it moves through people and communities.

That emphasis on connection is central to Tubô’s identity. Established in 2018, the annual fair was created to promote cultural consciousness and creativity while providing a platform where artists, collectors, and audiences from Southern Philippines can interact and participate in the region’s growing art scene. Organized by the Arts Council of Cebu Foundation, Inc., Tubô has also sought to make Visayan art more visible within the broader national cultural landscape.

Four Artists, Four Frequencies

At the heart of this year’s fair are featured artists Pierre Famador, Felix Catarata, Eric  Callangan, and Jan Sunday, whose practices offer distinct ways of thinking about place, identity, memory, and contemporary life.

Their inclusion in Resonance highlights one of the fair’s central propositions: that there is no single voice defining Visayan contemporary art. Instead, the region’s artistic landscape is composed of different practices and perspectives that intersect, respond to, and sometimes challenge one another.

For Tubô, this plurality is essential. The fair has consistently presented itself not simply as a marketplace but as a space for dialogue where artists and audiences can encounter the breadth of creative practices emerging throughout Visayas. Its previous programs have brought together hundreds of regional artists from Cebu, Ormoc, Iloilo, and other parts of the Southern Philippines.

A Signature Collection of Visayan Voices

The theme of Resonance extends into Tubô’s Signature Collection, which brings together artists from across Visayas to explore the theme from different artistic and cultural perspectives.

Rather than treating “Visayan art” as a single aesthetic category, the collection foregrounds the diversity of the region itself. Cebu, Negros, Panay, Leyte, and the islands in between carry distinct histories, languages, communities, and creative traditions. Their convergence within one collection creates an opportunity to consider how these differences speak to one another.

This regional emphasis is fundamental to Tubô’s mission, exhibiting it as a platform for art from throughout Visayas, bringing together different dialects, cultures, personalities, and artistic backgrounds.

Art That Continues Beyond the Gallery

The idea of resonance also speaks to the role of an art fair itself.

An artwork does not end when it leaves the artist’s studio. It changes when it enters an exhibition, when a collector takes it home, when a viewer interprets it differently from its creator, or when a conversation sparked by the work continues long after the fair closes.

This approach echoes Tubô’s broader efforts to create an art community rather than simply an annual commercial event. Its programming has included exhibitions, talks, collaborations, city-wide art activities, and initiatives that connect artists with wider communities. The fair has also emphasized accessible participation in art collecting, aiming to make regional art available not only to established collectors but also to emerging audiences.

Recent Tubô projects demonstrate this interest in connecting contemporary practice with community, heritage, and everyday life. HABING SILONG, for instance, reimagines the Cebuano banig weaving tradition through upcycling plastic sachets as a large-scale contemporary installation.