Paintings at the Exhibitions : Ataraxy

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.