Art in Manila This Season: The Shows to See Before They Close

Closing in October

Five shows close by 18 October.

Behind the Lens: Cultural and Border Crossings at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) closes on 11 October. It brings together photographs by the National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose, George Gascon, Romeo Gacad and Xyza Cruz Bacani, from the 1950s to the 2000s. In the same building, Traverse: Creativity in Motion, this year's Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) exhibition, shows nearly 100 paintings, sculptures and mixed media works until 18 October. Metrobank's announcement says MADE is free and open to the public; The M has moved to paid e-tickets for its own shows, so check its website before you go.

A short walk away on Bonifacio High Street, Time Exposed: Hiroshi Sugimoto's Seascapes by the Japanese photographer fills the Main Gallery at MO_Space, with Considering Time Exposed, a group response by Poklong Anading, Katrina Bello, Celine Lee, Gary-Ross Pastrana, Gerardo Tan, Miguel Uy and MM Yu, in Gallery 2. Both close on 18 October.

Also ending 18 October is Orion in Sight at the Ateneo Art Gallery in Katipunan, the first museum show by TalaAnyo, a group of seven artist-led initiatives. Founders including Elmer Borlongan, Plet Bolipata and Emmanuel Garibay made a monumental painting together for it. From Makati, allow an hour or more each way.

• The M: Tuesday to Friday 11AM to 6PM, weekends 10AM to 6PM, closed Mondays. MK Tan Centre, 30th Street, BGC.
• MO_Space: open daily, 10AM to 7PM. Third floor, MOs Design, 9th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street.

Gallery month: ManilART and the Chino Roces circuit

ManilART '26 runs 14 to 18 October at SMX Aura Convention Center in Taguig. Its 18th edition is called Where the Line Begins, and it is a banner event of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) for gallery month, with satellite exhibitions around Taguig through October. Tickets are sold through Ticketbooth.ph, so check prices there before you go.

On the Makati side, Finale Art File in the La Fuerza compound on Chino Roces changes all three rooms on 8 October. Linds Lee, Zoe Policarpio and Dwight Ong take the Tall Gallery, the Upstairs Gallery and the Video Room until 31 October. Finale is open Monday to Saturday, 10AM to 7PM, so plan a Saturday rather than a Sunday. Silverlens, Vinyl on Vinyl, Artinformal and The Drawing Room are all within a short walk or drive along the same road.

If you would rather buy than browse, the BGC Art Mart sets up at Alveo Central Plaza, BGC Arts Center, on 17 to 18 and 24 to 25 October, with original prints, ceramics, handmade crafts and edible art from artists selected by the Bonifacio Art Foundation.

Olafur Eliasson at MCAD, until 15 November

The season's big international show is Olafur Eliasson: Your Curious Journey at MCAD Manila, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in Malate. Manila is the final stop of a tour that went through Singapore, Auckland, Taipei and Jakarta; after this, the works go back to the artist's studio in Berlin.

You walk through the work rather than look at it. In Beauty (1993), a spotlight and fine water spray make a rainbow that shifts as you move. Yellow corridor (1997) bathes a passage in single-frequency yellow light that changes how your eyes read colour. There is also Moss wall (1994), a vertical field of reindeer moss, and the glacier melt series, 30 photographs from 1999 and 2019 that record how the ice has changed.

• When: until 15 November. Tuesday to Saturday 10AM to 6PM, Sunday 10AM to 2PM. Closed Mondays and holidays.
• Tickets: admission is free. The museum encourages visitors to book a slot on its website (10AM, 11:30AM, 1PM, 2:30PM or 4PM, Tuesday to Saturday).
• Good to know: larger bags and backpacks stay with the guard at the entrance. The show has flashing and coloured lights, dark spaces and a moss wall with a natural scent, so read the museum's advisory if light or scent sensitivity is a concern.
• Getting there: Malate is south of the city centre; from Makati or BGC, allow 45 minutes or more on a weekday.

For a deeper dive, MCAD runs Transient Landscapes, a two-day climate symposium with conservationists and artists, on 15 and 16 October (registration fee applies).

Turning Tides at the Ayala Museum, into February

At the Ayala Museum in Makati, Turning Tides: Maritime Encounters and Exchanges of Power looks again at two battles, Mactan in 1521 and La Naval de Manila in 1646, and at the Filipinos who took part in them. Curator Jei Ente brings together two Fernando Amorsolo paintings, The First Baptism and The Traders, an ivory and gold rosary recovered from the San Diego shipwreck, scale models of a Spanish galleon, a caravel and precolonial boats, and interactive pieces, including a Battle of Mactan video game. It runs until 14 February 2027 in the third floor Main Gallery.

Also in the museum, Reuniting the Surigao Treasure runs until 30 May 2027.

• Tickets: booked online in two-hour entry slots between 11AM and 7PM. Third floor only is ₱350 (local rate) or ₱250 with a valid discount ID; all floors is ₱500 (local rate). Foreign visitor rates are ₱500 and ₱850.
• Getting there: The museum is in Greenbelt Park, a short walk from Legazpi Village.

Into November and December

Finale Art File turns over again for 7 to 30 November, with Tiffany Lafuente, Ryan Jara and Neil Pasilan. MO_Space opens its next pair on 24 October, Kiri Dalena in the Main Gallery and Alan Cabalfin in Gallery 2, and lists another exhibition for 28 November to 27 December. Most December gallery shows have not been announced yet, and we will add them to our listings as they are confirmed.

If you visit the Ayala Museum between 27 November and 6 December, the Designers' Holiday Bazaar runs across Glorietta and the museum, so you can do Christmas shopping on the same trip.

How we chose: every show here was confirmed on the museum's or gallery's own website, or by a news outlet quoting the organiser, on 3 October 2026.