Why This Website Exists

Hello, and welcome! I'm SEILA.

I'd like to share the story of what led me to start this website.

Until just before I entered elementary school in Japan, I lived in Manila, in the Philippines.

I remember residential neighborhoods shaped by Spanish and American influences. Even in quite ordinary households, having housekeepers was a familiar part of everyday life, and there were swimming pools — some shared with neighbors, some in private gardens. There was a certain brightness to it all, a sense of ease.

At the same time, the gap between the beautiful neighborhoods and the struggling ones was striking. Even as a child, I sensed, in some vague but unmistakable way, that this country carried deep economic challenges.

As an adult, meeting people of many generations through work and life, I noticed something: the Philippines is sometimes spoken of only through a narrow set of negative images. And every time, it left a small ache somewhere in my chest.

Of course, those images reflect part of the truth. But the rich, vibrant Philippines I know exists just as strongly, side by side with it.

I felt that same dissonance in the art world, too.

The data is a little dated now, but let me share something I learned from an art dealer I know. According to a report by Artprice, an art market research firm, the Philippines ranked 14th in the world in contemporary art auction sales by country in 2021–2022. It is a country producing many internationally recognized artists.

And yet, in Japan, information about the Philippine art scene remains scarce, and most of these wonderful artists are still unknown here.

NIN.DOT was born to close that distance.

SEILA

Sources: The Contemporary Art Market Report 2022 (Artprice)

According to Artprice's The Contemporary Art Market Report 2022 (covering July 2021–June 2022), the Philippines ranked 14th in the world by Contemporary art auction turnover.