Thursday 22 January 2015

Art Stage 2015

Went down to catch what I missed yesterday.

Another interesting thing to view is the Malaysian Figurative Art collective, F Klub presenting the works with the exhibition "Being Human". Their works  are right in the front, lining the entrance wall with their large format works. Quite a few have been sold. Artist in the collective include Shia Yin Ying, Bayu Utomo, Chong Ai Lei, Kow Leong Kiang.... Really happy to see figurative artists and their works.

Other works which I thought interesting.

TAMEN

M.F. Husain

Tomorrow is after dark at Gillman Barracks with many galleries having openings. Hope to be able to go down. 

Art Stage Singapore 2015

It's currently on till the 25th January 2015.

Loads of stuff to see. Personal take: a bit more edgy and more paintings. Still enough installations, sculptures and other stuff. The platforms are less now and now includes 5 special exhibitions and the SEA platform. The 5 exhibtions are the Russian special exhibition, Korean exhibition, Video stage, Malaysian and Andre Masson - Metamorphosis. With the lack of platforms you get the less of the 'hard to sell' / alternative work which adds more interest to the works on offer. But I guess you go to the instituition to see such art and thus you get more art for sale on view.

Only complaint is that the space for the SEA platform is the same, but there are less installations or bigger works and the platform seems a bit spaced out.

Anyway lots to see still. Too much to list and go through. But a few there have caught our eye so far. Will be back on thursday to continue the adventure.

Antonio Santin

Chiew Sien Kuan

Jane Lee

Jane Lee

Raffy T.Napay

Melissa Tan

Ian Woo

Lee Lee Nam

Nicola Verlato

Carol Sutton

Jason Montinola
 
Points for collectors: Definitely go. Don't be stupid and miss it unless you got more important matters. Don't buy never mind. But go look see.

Monday 19 January 2015

Melting Point - Ocean Wang

This exhibition is held from 17th January to 2nd February 2015 at Y2ARTS.

"Melting point" is the first solo exhibition by Ocean Wang. You can read a synopsis of the exhibition here on Alist and Y2Arts website.

Ocean Wang is a very good figurative painter. If you have seen her earlier blue porcelain or other figurative works, they are excellent. In this series, she tries to capture her memories in a fluid substance of her memories. Each little snippet of memory is excellently painted. But I feel that her attempt of hyper realism/ realistic painting of the fluid falls quite flat. The fluid looks like fluid if you stand more the 3-5 metres from the painting, any nearer like doesn't look good. The concept of the painting is also a bit too simple and obvious. If i were the gallerist I would have brutally told her that her water isn't good and that she should work on it more before putting it out. And I have no doubt that she will be able to do it, given her technical excellence. And if she can't do the water, she could have done some abstract brush strokes, but she isn't an abstract artist and it's not easy to be an abstract artist either. She should hang with some good abstract artists and talk to some of the conceptual guys too.  I think she sold two paintings on the opening day, the two were vertical pieces which emphasised the water. And the narrower canvas didn't show the problem she had coping with the negative space and placement of the small objects of her memory.

You can sense the disappointment here, only because you know that she can do much better.

Overflow

Roar of Rushing Water

Endless Travelling

Points for collectors: Not sure. Maybe not this series. But definitely one to watch.

Saturday 17 January 2015

Ataraxy - Ruben Pang

This exhibition is held from the 16th January to 8th of February 2015 and is held at ChanHampe Galleries.

Not much written up on his exhibition this time. But the official statement of the exhibition can be found on their Facebook event page and the Alist page.

For this exhibition, he has moved on to slightly more figurative work, in the sense that the figures are more obviously people, having obvious limbs and facial features. But the swishes and colour swirls are still distinctly his and the abstract style of his is still present. The influence of Francis Bacon is felt and the expression of his thoughts in these works are interesting and are slowly maturing. I think these works are very personal to him and a bit dark as though he is still hanging on or working through past baggage.

This round of paintings is very different and not painted to please. And it's not surprising that he didn't sell out this time (although he did almost sell out at the time of writing, only 1 unsold and 2 on reserve, but price has something to do with it, will touch on this later). But at least he's moving on and doing something different. He is still young at only 25 years this year and still has many years ahead of him to improve and develop.

Well did I like the paintings? His older series were much easier to like and enjoy. Have a few personal peferences as how he should have done his figures, but I think he had a reason for doing so as in his thought process, the way he works the canvas and that I don't think any of the works are pre-planned with sketches. Let's see him continue painting and find his own answers to the problem. But what is great is that he still perseveres with painting and not get impatient and switch to easier mediums. And to answer the question, I find the subject matter a bit too dark. (Like how I thought his Angels series was a bit scary) So I can't say I like all the paintings in this series. But I do love a few of them. (Holding it Together and the one based on Rudyard Kiplings writings are my two favourite ones) But I admire what he is doing in this series and his artistic talent.

Now onto the price. Chan Hampe is very upfront with the price and prints the pricelist out for anyone to have a copy. Ruben's price is very high now. Give you an price of some artists:

1. Ruben ~ $0.81 / sqcm
2. Boo Sze Yang ~ $0.60 / sqcm
3. Ian Woo ~ $0.83 / sqcm
4. Jane Lee ~ $5.35 / sqcm (not exactly fair comparison because have to take into account the depth of the painting)
5. Denise Jillian Tan ~ $0.24 / sqcm
6. Ang Ah Tee ~ $4.44 / sqcm
7. Lim Tze Peng ~ $3+ / sqcm (new pieces of Chinese ink not the older pieces)

These are just a few artists that I can think of at the top of my head based on some art works and the recent prices I can recall. But these are rough figures, smaller paintings cost more per square cm, the medium, the style and other factors affect the price. But this is a rough guide. The prices of the artist is based on artist factors too, like age and in Singapore whether he/she has been awarded the cultural medallion. So we now understand why Ang Ah Tee and Lim Tze Peng are priced as such. Ian Woo and Boo SY are born in the 60's so they should be in that price bracket. Jane Lee is born in the sixties; however, she is selling well overseas and hence commanding a certain price point. In fact, I have heard that she wanted to price her pieces lower for her shows in Singapore so that she can improve her local collector base. DJT is older than Ruben but is still under 30, so the pricing is appropriate. So is Ruben's price justified?

I think it is a rapid rise in price and is a shock and deterrent to many of the local collectors and a ruder shock to art investors/ quick flippers. And might lead to jealousy and collectors viewing him with apprehension and suspicion, i.e. a good marketing engine driving his prices? But i guess if they can sell 70+% on opening night, the price is still not too high, i.e. supply and demand match up. Another reason I think the price has gone up is that Ruben is also selling well overseas. I think Primo Marella / Primae Noctis have sold his works overseas, i.e. Italy, Turkey and Switzerland. Further they have brought his works to Scope Miami 2014, Arteferia 2015 (Italy) and will be selling his works in Art Paris 2015. From the Art Paris website a Ruben Pang piece 122x150cm is quoted at 10k-15k Euros. So if they are selling at this price overseas, I don't think the prices locally can be too far off.


Screen Capture of Art Paris Website

Holding it Together

The Rudyard Kipling one

The Triad


Points for Collectors: STRONG BUY. Now with the increased prices, the demand is lowered and no need to rush too much. So try to get a piece of his.



Tuesday 13 January 2015

Art Week is almost upon us.

Interesting things to note with Art Week coming up.

A List by the National Art Council  has a good preview here.

But things to watch are

Exhibitions
1. Ataraxy - Ruben Pang at ChanHampe Galleries. (From 16th Jan 2015)
2. Melting Point - Ocean Wang at Y2Arts. (From 17th Jan 2015)
3.History of Java - Jimmy Ong at FOST gallery (From 15th Jan 2015)

Others
4. Art Stage 2015
5. Art Apart at Royal Pickering
6. 33Auction's auction on 23rd Jan 2015.
7. Art Supper 2015
8. Art in Motion
9 After Dark at Gillman Barracks

Too many things for me..... LOL.