Departure: A group exhibition by Milenko and his students

This exhibition is held from 31st May 2014 till 21st June 2014 at iPreciation at HPL house underneath the Hard Rock Cafe.

The exhibition is headlined by Milenko Prvacki who hand picked some of his best students. Luke Heng, Jeremy Sharma, Filip Gudovic and Hilmi Johandi.

Milenko Prvacki presented some works which was in his typical/ recognisable stye and all were recent works painted in 2014. This included paintings from a series Unsent Letters.

Hilmi Johandi presented two paintings from his 'painting cinema' series and a video art. This work is in the same vein as his current body of works and were excellent. But the subject matter may not resonate with everyone. I suspect that due to his prior commitment with Galerie Steph in 9 days time, he only showed 2 works.

Filip Gudovic showed 7 pieces. 3 big pieces and 4 smaller pieces. His 4 smaller pieces were excellent, in fact a few people have likened his work to Ian Woo's. (Maybe because of the choice of colour palette.) His 3 larger pieces were nice. Yes, nice and safe. He can do much better, here. I think because of the type of gallery he is presenting at, the pieces he submitted or that were selected by the curator were very safe and more commercially viable. That's my opinion and how I feel. Just take a look at what he submitted at a concurrent exhibition, 'King for a Day' at Equator Arts Project, that piece was much better I feel.

Filip Gudovic's Yellow Flag

Luke Heng presented 8 paintings from a new body of work. The naming of the works were an alphabet followed by a number. The alphabet represents the first layer of paint and the number represents the number of layers of paint above that. The two best pieces of the 8 were b/28 and p/48 and both were sold too. The b/28 was featured in the Businesstimes article. It was a nice yellow colour worked up from the blue base. The appealing thing of the painting was the colour and the linear vertical lines which added structure and weight to the painting. Further, there was a door/ gate effect as the centre of the painting had more red then the perimeter frame, so this painting gave you a feel of  Rothko's visual field painting. p/48 was equally excellent but in a different way. Through the 48 layers of paint over the purple(red/blue) to form a mainly red painting, you can see what the painter was thinking and trying to do with the colours. Working up the layers till he was satisfied. This painting also featured some gloss painting (unlike b/28) and more pouring and spreading of paint. No linear lines here. And because of the gloss the painting had much more dynamism and depth to it, even from different angles and distances. This painting was the first to catch Pizza Queen's trained eye, because for visual field paintings it is 'slow art' and you have to take your time, only with experience and training are you able to read slow art fast. Otherwise you'll be attracted to the superficially pretty piece which loses its appeal over time.

Luke Heng's p/48 

Jeremy Sharma showed more of the 'Grey Paintings' which he first showed in 2011 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and which he is also now showing at Galerie Michael Janssen. Here he had a part of tall ones which were sold and a couple of smaller ones for the 'lower level' collectors who wish to get an example of his series.

So from the paragraphs written, you can infer that you should go over mainly to check out Luke's work which I think is a brilliant progression from when he last showed at Quiet Mystics- Galerie Steph. Milenko's works were great too and I needn't have to say anything about it. Look at the smaller Filip Gudovic work and imagine them bigger, that's whats he's really capable of.

Online exhibtion catalogue.

Points for collectors: Go check out these emerging artists and consider getting their works to support them as they are most likely here to stay. Milenko and Helina Chan can't be very wrong.

King for a Day

Coming up at Equator Art Projects: King For a Day, 30 May - 22 June 2014

It's a group exhibition of young Singapore artists: Victoria Aravindhan, Kray Chen Ke Rui, Filip Gudovic, Godwin Koay, Lau Eng Seng, May Lim and Bach Zainol.

Each artist will take turns to show what they want, for two days, in the gallery's smaller room. They'll also have works in the main gallery.

Go to Equator Art's website to find out more about what inspired this - very interesting concept.

Affordable Art Fair has concluded

Managed to go down again and look through the art slowly. Way too crowded on the preview day. Must say if you take your time and assess the different works on show, you do see more and if you ask yourself the right questions while observing the art, you will learn more too.

What also struck me is that there are 36 Singapore galleries exhibiting with AAF and this is a fraction of the galleries out there. Due to the government's push for Singapore as an arts hub, improving art education, the museums and introducing art culture as a way of life and of course with AAF's and other art fair presence, this has led to an art boom, not only in the interest in viewing art but also owning original art.

Hopefully this boom is sustainable but I feel that it's a bit saturated in terms of galleries and I wish the gallerists the best. And further with the number of art fairs in Singapore with visiting galleries, it gives more options to the buyer. But of these 36 galleries, I would list 9 as worth supporting.

So it would be interesting to see what happens in the Art Market side of the art world. The Museum and Academic side is doing fine with the guidance and helping hand of the government.

Without the obstructions caused by the madness of the preview day, another artist to mention is Ocean Wang who is represented by Y2Arts. She has a good body of work which was shown at AAF.

Conscious of His Making

New Beginnings

Points for Collectors: With the multitudes of galleries available in Singapore, especially after the fair, take note of the type of gallery you buy from. Those galleries that are more commercial might get you a good deal. But at times you also want to choose which gallery you want to support, as the gallery is important in the development of the artist's career. A good gauge of decent galleries are those which are part of Art Gallery Association of Singapore, but not all the good galleries are there, and not all the galleries that are part of the association are necessarily good. (Just wasted your time right?)

Affordable Art Fair - May 2014

Affordable Art Fair's first May edition is here, but it is shorter by a day than the November edition and runs from 23rd - 25th. Two full paddocks of galleries on the 2nd level and 1.5 paddocks on the 3rd level. Floor Plan. Paddocks are colour coded, blue, green, violet and pink. The 2B (blue) paddock is the first paddock in and is the most crowded.

Thought that having a second AAF was a good idea and yes, looking at preview day, I think it's going to be a successful one. AAF is definitely a good way to get into art as paintings are the main artworks for sale. AAF has a bit more commerical work / more understandable and palatable works. So make sure you know why you are buying art and which art would suit you. i.e. Tay Bak Chiang pieces which are presented by Forest Rain Gallery are from the bird and flower series, maybe they feel the addition of birds to a minimalist painting makes it easier to sell. So if you looking for something decorative for the house, then that series is a good buy.

Galleries you should check out.

1. 2B-10 Cape of Good Hope to check out Tung Yue Nang's works. A few sold already.

2. 2B-23 Quantum Contemporary Art - check out Alison Pullen's works. She paints onto magazine paper and uses the underlying print to good effect.

3. Look for the partner space where Yeo Shih Yun and KunYoung Chang did a collaboration of painting acrylic pigments onto films and pasting it onto 3 windows. The light of different times of the day has also an interesting effect on the work.

Really nice work by Yeo Shih Yun and KunYoung Chang

4. 3P-01 DegreeArt.com - Check out Rosemary Cook's bronze work. I think Sam, Zipper, Jaxon & snail, Curiosity, Chelsea morning and the great game are on show. Doesn't everyone love doggies!

Zipper

5. 2G-19 Envie D'art Gallery - Check out Yves Krief's work.

Meat Market

But if you have the time, go through all the galleries and go through the pieces slowly.

Points for Collectors: Going through the multitude of art pieces at AAF can be daunting. If it's your first time or you are a new collector, please do your research. If  you are not sure, you should be able to find a collector friend to ask to point you in the correct direction. The art world is a confusing place and in this day and age, there are tons of artists around, many of whom don't have longevity or are unable to promote themselves or get picked up or represented by a gallery that knows what they are doing.

Looking ahead

5 events that are coming up. I think I will be going to all. However, due to transportation and timings may have to miss no.3 because it's in town, open only during office hours for weekdays and for two hours on Saturday only.

1. Affordable Art Fair at F1 Pit Building - 23rd to 25th May 2014

2. Departure at Ipreciation - Milenko and students - Jeremy Sharma, Hilmi Johandi, Luke Heng, Filip Gudovic from 31st May 2014 to 21st June 2014.

3. Dusk to Dawn - Hilmi Johandi at OCBC Chulia Centre branch by Galerie Steph from 9th June 2014 to 27th June 2014.

4. Silence by Tung Yue Nang at Cape of Good Hope Gallery from 20th to 30th June 2014.

5. Beautiful Stories: Chapter 1 by Eric Chan at Chan Hampe Galleries from the 6th of June 2014 to 6th July 2014.

Let you know more as things come up.

Flyer for Tung Yue Nang's show

Museum of Modern Art

Visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York recently. I deliberately went to Level 4 to take a closer look at specific artists like Pollock, Rothko and other influential artists to try to understand their works better, and why they are acknowledged to have made such an impact on the art scene.

Rothko's No.10 and No.3/No.13

While I didn't have the out-of-this-world experience that others talk about, it was quite thrilling to peer closely at each piece and see details that you wouldn't otherwise see in books or the internet. I could look at each piece from a side angle, close up, or from a distance, and it was fun to register the different effects with each view.

For example, a close-up of Rothko's famous piece below shows interesting variances in what might otherwise appear as a solid block of colour.

Close-Up of Rothko's famous piece

Another example below. This piece by Ad Reinhardt looks just like a black canvas. But when you look at it closely, you'll notice that it's really made up of blocks, creating a grid-like effect. According to the write-up, it's"intended to be neither symbolic nor referential but purely optical".

Abstract Painting by Ad Reinhardt

Here's a huge bright red piece by Barnett Newman, called Vir Heroicus Sublimis, Latin for "man, herioc and sublime". One's first instinct is to stand back to look at it, but his instruction was to do precisely the opposite.

Vir Heroicus Sublimis by Barnett Newman

Another Rothko, called Slow Swirls at the Edge of the Sea

I also had to see Jackson Pollock. Here are two of his works.

According to the write-up, Pollock painted this from above, with the canvas lying flat on the floor, because he felt more at ease on the floor. "I feel nearer, more a part of the painting since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting."

Franz Kline, Chief

I liked this miniature reproduction from Marcel Duchamp's Boite en Valise (or Box in a Valise), each of which contained his works in miniature.  

Marcel Duchamp

And here's Woman, I, by Willem de Kooning. Read about it in Rudolf Arnheim's Art and Visual Perception, so it was nice to recognise it and see the real thing :-).

Willem de Kooning's Woman, I, and Painting 

Couldn't leave without taking a look at Andy Warhol. 

Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans

Andy Warhol's Gold Marilyn Monroe, silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas

By the way, MOMA's website is wonderful. If you key in the artist you're looking for, it'll show you the works they have, and if they're on display, what floor they're on. 

No collector tips, as it's THE Museum of Modern Art. All in all, a highly rewarding visit with loads to learn. Definitely worth multiple visits. 

Palimpsest by Phi Phi Oanh

Phi Phi Oanh is presenting her Palimpsest Series at Fost Gallery in Gillman Barracks from 9th May 2014 till 29th June 2014. This series was from 2011 to 2013, you can read more about it here. She also presented Specula at the 2013 Singapore Biennale. Specula was a sort of a predecessor to Palimpsest and both were about Lacquer work.

Phi Phi Oanh's main interest in her works now is the study of traditional/ cultural Vietnamese art materials and has led her to use and study lacquer painting.


Initially when you go into the gallery what you mainly see is the projected images of her works, which in itself are very nice pieces. And that's all you take away if you just pop in and out of the darkened gallery (to allow for the projection of the slides).

Art work comprising of Stand, Projector and Boxes

However each piece of art work isn't only the slides but also includes the heavy metal stand and base, the projector and the box to store the slides. And all are tied into the theme. The slides are painted with lacquer paint with different sizes of slides for the different projectors. The effect of lacquer paint projected with light onto a surface/silk screen is very different from when it is used as a pigment on a 'canvas'.

Sample of a projected slide(reminds me of H&E staining)

The projector is lacquered and the projectors are lacquered differently with different patterns, like a basket-weave pattern or middle eastern inspired patterns. The projectors are old projectors which she has salvaged and refinished, lacquered and changed the light source from the hot incandescent bulb to a cool LED light source. (re-wired to 240v for Singapore!) So no 2 projectors are the same. Even the boxes to store the slides are also lacquered and I think she would have lacquered the metal stand too.

Basket-weave Pattern

Do read her website, as she explains her work concisely and succinctly. (Better than what I can say.)

Very interesting concept and ways to express her study of this medium. Good works without any disconnect between the artist statement/concept and works.

Points for Collectors: Good artist with a good body of work.
Buy rating if you have the space. Or you can always rent space from Helutrans, only about $400 a month.

Another interesting exhibition by Stephanie Fong of FOST Gallery.

Materialised Time by Latent Spaces

This exhibition Materialised Time is curated by Chun Kai Feng. It will run from 17th May to 15th June 2014.

It's a brilliantly curated exhibition with good pieces displayed and even the Curator's Text as part of the exhibition hand out is well written. You can read what the exhibition is about from the Latent Spaces website. Am impressed because these independent exhibitions are often a waste of time or the only interesting thing there is the headliner of the exhibition or it's mainly by artists for artists themselves. But kudos to Latent Spaces who want to plug the space between artists and the public (and art enthusiasts like us).

It features 5 artists Jeremy Sharma, Ang Soo Koon, Chun Kai Feng, Chun Kai Qun and Joao Jasco Paiva. All brilliant artists who have been widely exhibited.

Chun Kai Feng is showing one piece which is in the centre of the room, showing two fences attached at right angles to each other. It juxtaposes the new and old, with one made of stainless steel which doesn't corrode with time and the other a steel one that has aged with patina.

Jeremy Sharma is showing 4 pieces which are smaller study pieces of  the two series which he showed at Mode Change. Must say these pieces are very appealing. And two of the pieces he experimented with 3-D printing. As he told the curator, the hand is imprecise so why not use a machine to make precise art, like industrial/ factory produced items. Looking at these pieces you get a deeper understanding of Jeremy's thought and physical processes of his art which are as important as the final finished pieces of the series. In fact these pieces are much nicer and there is a good connection with his thoughts and his works.

Jeremy Sharma's Works

Chun Kai Qun presented 3 pieces. One was a video which was from his ongoing Still Alive? series. It was brilliant and passed the 1 minute rule. Best one I have seen in a while. He also did an installation of raffia string and newspaper (classified ads) which I thought was really nice.

Chun Kai Qun's The Paper, Some Paper

Joao Jasco Paiva sent one of his works from Hong Kong. It was from his Lumberyard Array Series. I thought it was a good piece. The curator knows the artist so he sent over a good piece.

Lumberyard Array #7 in the foreground and Ang Soo Koon's Balls at the back

Ang Soo Koon's two pieces were a silicone basketball and a silicone football titled "I only exist because you think of me".

So you should go over to the exhibition and have a look then talk to the Latent Spaces crew like Chun Kai Feng or Elizabeth Gan who can enlighten your understanding of the pieces and the exhibition as a whole.

Super Exhibition!

Points for collectors: Really good to go and see the pieces. Understand that this is the way exhibitions should be held and this is the current trend in arts scene/exhibtions. In fact a lot of curators can learn from Chun Kai Feng.

Nothing for sale though.

Note: Parking at Haw Par Villa costs $5 per entry, might as well catch the Ten Courts of Hell while you are there. Pizza Queen's Favourite.

This weekend - Materialised Time at Latent Spaces Haw Par Villa

From this weekend till June 15th 2014, at the Haw Par Villa where Latent Spaces will be till October 2014,will be the exhibition Materialised Time. Haw Par Villa is run by the Singapore Tourism Board and for its 50th Anniversary / to revamp Haw Par Villa, it has released some of the space for use. Latent Spaces is a curatorial group that aims to adopt idle spaces in Singapore and reinvent them as platforms for experimental art and social entrepreneurship.

Showing at this exhibition will be Jeremy Sharma, Ang Soo Koon and Chun Kai Feng amongst others.

So try to catch it if you can; sounds interesting.

By Numbers - HyungMin Moon

By Numbers by the Korean Artist Moon HyungMin will be on at Space CottonSeed Gallery at Gillman Barracks from the 9th of May 2014 till 22nd June 2014.

On display are canvases made up of 100 by 100 grids, of which the 10000 small squares are painted. The colour of the squares are determined by a formula which he developed and represents the ten most common words from different America magazines. And he will painstakingly fill up the grid squares with the relevant paint colour(ten per painting, representing the ten most common words). A better write up can be found on the galleries website.

The results are pixelated canvases, which are interesting conceptually. But unfortunately, the painting is based on a formula and the resulting images, which I thought weren't that very visually gorgeous.

So it would be more of a conceptual painting rather then a painting to please. But its still hard work to meticulously fill up the 10000 squares.

Points for collectors: Interesting work. Contemporary art is moving towards conceptual art. Maybe because a lot of paintings have been done and the artist are striving for something new and unique. Or maybe (I think) its because really good painters are few and far between. Just look at the museums, there are only a handful of 'masters' for the past centuries and throughout the world.
Possible Buy rating. 

Mode Change - Jeremy Sharma

Mode Change by Jeremy Sharma is on now at Galerie Michael Janssen Singapore till the 13th of June 2014. 

Two types of works are shown here. 

1. Grey/Green monochromatic painting with different areas of working on the paint to give different visual aspects much like a visual field abstract. But conceptually it was more about capturing time in dripping paint.

2. Polyurethane/ High density Polystrene  Foam (blue or white) cut by industrial methods, to show contours/ relief in a 3-D fashion. (Part of the Terra Sensa series, of which he also showed at Art Stage Singapore 2014 and the Singapore Biennale 2013). Conceptually it's about representing the Electromagnetic pulses of dying stars.

The two styles of paintings are meant to contradict each other for the observer to switch between the two modes.Hence, this exhibition is meant to be more conceptual where the viewer observes the different modes of painting and how art is sculptural, painting or a mix of both and the use of  technology in art. If you read other interviews and write-ups on the net about his works, you will realise Jeremy Sharma though more of a painter wants to shift towards conceptual art works and he wants to say something with his art rather then have the focus of entertaining.

Good write up here in the Business times, his thought/statements about his works and what he wants to achieve with his works are rather interesting. 

You should go and catch the show; two bodies of works shown together.

Points for collectors: Buy if you like it. Personally a bit disappointed with the works though people are raving about the works. 

Jeremy Sharma will also be showing a few works at Ipreciation at the end of May as part of the group exhibition with Milenko Prvacki. Hopefully there will be some nicer works there. I am rooting for Jeremy Sharma.

Convergence by Asia Art Collective

This exhibition by Asia Art Collective features 6 artists, Fan Chang Tien, Liu Guo, Fan Shao Hua, Gui Zhao Hai, Lim Leong Seng and Aaron Gan.

Thought it was an interesting exhibition of nicely selected works. The exhibition catalogue is available on its  website.

The main reason to go for this exhibition is to catch Fan Shao Hua's works, unfortunately (depending how you see it) the better works have been sold. So you better hurry down soon before the works go into someone's vault. Asia Art Collective will be representing Fan Shao Hua for his ink and media works which is very good for this young gallery.

If you are really into Classical Chinese Art, Fan Chang Tien's works there should satisfy you.

So catch it soon before it ends this Sunday 11th May.

Fan Shao Hua

Points for Collectors: Good Works. Prices of the art works indicated with the painting title. 
Fan Shao Hua - Buy Rating.