The Maningning Miclat Art Foundation, Inc. (MMAFI) announces the holding of the 2026 Maningning Miclat Art Competition for artists 28 years old and younger, and will accept entries online from July 10 to 20, 2026.
Entries may be done in oil, watercolor, pen and ink, acrylic, brush and ink, or mixed media, with the theme “Ningning sa Dilim.” The minimum size on the shortest side is 60 cm (24 in) and the maximum on the longest side is 90 cm (36 in).
Maningning with her 1992 AAP grand prize-winning painting, ‘Trouble in Paradise’
Entries must be original and dated between 2025 and 2026. Preliminary submission of entries is online at maningningart@gmail.com. Image files must be high-quality, high-definition, and in JPG format. Artist name, artwork title, dimension, medium, and year of the artwork must be included. Passport photo, biodata, birth certificate, and entry form must be attached in email. File name format is [title]_[size in cm]_[year].JPG (Example: TroubleInParadise_60cmx90cm_2026.JPG).
Artists of shortlisted entries will be informed via email on August 15, 2026. Actual artwork of shortlisted paintings must be submitted with a notarized entry form to the Art Circle Gallery, University of the Philippines Alumni Center, University of the Philippines Campus, Diliman, Q.C. on September 14 and 15, 11 am to 5 pm.
Maningning Miclat, for whom the Award is named, was a poet of three languages, a prize-winning visual artist, published essayist and author, and translator/interpreter. She passed at age 28 in 2000.
Miclat books
In her honor, MMAFI, formed in 2001, has been organizing activities aimed at encouraging creativity and recognizing, awarding, and nurturing outstanding and talented young poets and artists 28 years old and younger, the same age Maningning was when she passed on. Alternately, poetry and painting competitions are held, poetry during odd-numbered years and painting during even numbered years.
Grand winner in the art competition will be awarded P28,000 cash prize and a Julie Lluch sculpture trophy. The grand winner and the second and third Prize will receive copies of the books Voice from the Underworld (Maningning C. Miclat), Fairground: A Literary Feast (edited by Gémino H. Abad and Alma Cruz Miclat), Soul Searchers & Dreamers: Artists’ Profiles and Soul Searchers and Dreamers, Volume II (Alma Cruz Miclat), #Rajisms (Maharadya Miclat-Janssen), Mario I. Miclat’s memorial set of his last three books—Kailan Diwata at 70+ na Tula, Hundred Flowers, Hundred Philosophies, and 21 West 4th Street, Ningning at Liwanag: Antolohiya ng 10 Nagwagi sa Gawad Maningning Miclat sa Tula [2003-2021], and a coffeetable book edition of Mario I. Miclat’s Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions with an introduction by National Artist Virgilio S. Almario. The last book, longlisted in the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009, was first published by Anvil Publishing in September 2010 with reprint in January 2011. The 15th Anniversary edition of the book was published by Erehwon Artworld Corporation.
For more information on the rules of the contest and other concerns, visit Maningning Miclat, Artist Page on Facebook. The names of the winners and members of the Board of Judges shall be announced at the Maningning Miclat Art Awards on Sept. 19, 2026.
