Featuring 6 MoCAF Art Bazaar artists you should follow.

Written by Chesca Santiago
August 8, 2023

For the avid merch collector, there’s no place more dangerous than an art bazaar. Merchant tables stand side by side like a minefield—the coolest stickers, prints, and whatnots, out to trigger a (delightful) spending spree.

The MoCAF Art Bazaar is the best example of this.

Last 1 July 2023 at Xception, Makati City, I dropped by the MoCAF Art Bazaar, the first pocket event launched by the Modern and Contemporary Art Festival (MoCAF). Selling nothing over Php 5,000, the bazaar promised to be an affordable platform dedicated to young creatives and art enthusiasts. Its tables boasted a curious mix of merchandise, with ceramics, fine art, jewelry, NFT artworks, and – my favorite as a laptop-carrying, water bottle-wielding Gen Z – stickers.

*I’ve yet to finish sticking my Art Bazaar haul onto their rightful places. So far, I’ve put stickers by Roger Mond, Jemima Grace, Ana, and awkward but able inside my art journal.*

The sticker selection at the bazaar was just *chef’s kiss*. Distorted faces in punk colors, collages of famous Hollywood faces, midcentury-style inspirational art—together they showcased a diverse set of styles from an equally diverse set of creatives. As a way to justify my haul, I’m sharing with you six of the artists from the Bazaar who made my favorite stickers—and why you need their merch for your next laptop and water bottle revamp.

awkward but able

Anyone who has scrolled through the #artph community would know Cyrill Acuña, the illustrator behind awkward but able. In a style which he has described as ‘campy” and kitschy,” Cyrill captures the mundanity of Filipino life and renders it with a peculiar twist. There is an apparent attentiveness to his works that are filled with color and detail—each one a perceptively quirky tale of the nuances of the day-to-day.

*Cyrill Acuña with his booth at the MoCAF Art Bazaar. And that’s on pop and kitsch! Image courtesy of MoCAF.*

On his prints, stickers, postcards, calendars, and fans, we see a Polly Pocket compact playset opening into a boy and a girl hanging laundry with a panungkit. A Sonny Angel wearing the Filipino dessert skrambol as headgear. A crowded UV Express driven by the most focused cat. For all their eccentric sentimentality, Cyrill’s illustrations are guaranteed to leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Catch awkward but able at the Bili Bili fair on August 19 at Cubao Expo. Follow him online at @awkwardbutable and awkwardbutable.com for updates about his future works.

Maru Haus

The owner of design studio Maru Haus, graphic designer Martine is known for the sleek lines and simple geometry of her midcentury-inspired stickers and prints. Her love for this art style was a serendipitous find. Martine first chanced upon midcentury-style apartments while searching for inspiration for her room renovation at the peak of COVID-19 community quarantines.

*Martine’s print stand at the MoCAF Art Bazaar. I never thought hotdogs and pancakes can be this inspirational. Image courtesy of MoCAF.*

She has since taken the style into her own ingenious hands, transforming it into stickers and prints that range from postcards to large framed pieces. Yet whichever the format, Martine’s works are explorations of the psyche—thoughts, emotions, and experiences navigated through flora, fauna, and everyday objects. What emerges is a meditative encounter through bold colors and textures, with the occasional inspirational hotdog and pancake.

Score Maru Haus’ merch at Papercon on September 9. Follow her on Instagram (@maruhaus) and Facebook (Maru Haus PH) for regular updates.

Jemima Grace

Long interested in stars and astronomy, Malabon-based artist Jemima Grace conveys her passion for the cosmos through art. She first found her inspiration among aliens, but eventually, she has learned to translate her love for the universe through her own motifs.

Today, in works that come in neon hues from all quadrants of the color wheel, Jemima illustrates human figures with her trademark star eyes and heart eyes. With the fieriest reds, pinks, blues, and yellows, Jemima’s stickers and prints are cosmic explosions—here to show you an otherworldly battle in the universe.

Follow Jemima on Instagram at @jemima_grace_ shop and @umiiyakakohngayuntt (IG) for updates on future releases.

paperkath

Kath – the artist behind paperkath – creates collage artworks, prints, and stickers. Her interest with collage began in childhood, when economic circumstances prompted her to value and collect paper, scraps, receipts, newspaper, and fabrics. Kath explains that this habit would inspire her to “collide creation, expression, and illusion,” with her imagination, bringing her to “new places, new faces, new creatures through cut and paste.”

*Kath’s collage stickers and prints at the MoCAF Art Bazaar. Image courtesy of the artist.*

Kath has since used the medium to explore various styles. Inspired by retro pop culture, she currently experiments with faces and landscapes, fusing them together to create surreal images.

You can catch Kath’s collage stickers at Art to Cart on October 14 at Centris. Follow @paperkath_ and @paperkath_collage on Instagram for future updates.

JYUUCIE MART

Joules from JYUUCIE MART is fairly new to the merchandise-selling scene. They sell keychains and prints, but mostly create stickers inspired by fruit labels often stuck on grocery produce.

“I collect fruit stickers as a hobby. I love seeing how brands compress their logos and taglines into colorful little stickers,” shares Joules. No wonder, as their shop name suggests, JYUUCIE MART’s stickers are sweet and juicy treats in little oval-shaped goodies.

*Joules with her merchandise at the MoCAF Art Bazaar. Check out that fruit sticker-inspired peach keychain! Image courtesy of MoCAF.*

Follow JYUUCIE MART on Twitter @staranikatbp and @jyuucie and on Instagram at @jyuucie.art.

Hyperbolic Time Chamber

Visual artist Roger Mond has exhibited his canvas works across various galleries. But through his studio, which he refers to as a hyperbolic time chamber, he also creates stickers, tote bags, augmented reality-integrated keychains, and other merchandise out of his bizarrely contorted original characters.

At the MoCAF Art Bazaar, Roger Mond set up with the platform CART Studio. From them, I was able to score my favorite sticker from my entire haul—a warped severed head from Hyperbolic Time Chamber with three eyes, two noses, and two mouths erupting in anger as intense as their palette choice.

Follow the artist on his Instagram, @hyperbolic_time_chamber3000 and @roger_mond.

I was initially planning to buy just a handful of stickers from the MoCAF Art Bazaar. But after several rounds of going back and forth, here’s what I got. Credit to my self-restraint—it could have been a bigger (but more delightful) financial disaster.

Every couple of weeks or so, the metro welcomes another art bazaar or sticker convention—each time featuring more creatives and merchandise. Offering Polly Pockets, geometric pancakes, aliens, surreal collages, fruit stickers, severed heads—the 20 handpicked participating artists of the MoCAF Art Bazaar proved the diversity of our local creative scene with their delightful showcase. Should they mount another edition, I’m surely signing up for another merch haul.

Unpacking my MoCAF Art Bazaar sticker haul