Gillman this week - 25th September 2015

Went for Art After Dark last night,

1. Reverse Exotic- Lale Tara- 25th September 2015 to 7th November 2015 - Yavuz Gallery
- Something you should catch. Bascially she used a life size doll which is suppposed to be her doppleganger and posed it in different poses and put in different situations and positions and presented them in photographs.Very interesting works, I give it a buy rating.

2.In a Cowboy Town.... - Cheo Chai Hiang - 12th September 2015 - 25th October 2015 - Michael Janssen Gallery
- It's basically mulitple installations, think 11 installations of various objects, installations and neon signs. He is a conceptual artist and you really need to read around and find out more of his works to appreciate its meaning. But in a visual perception type of way, it's not really captivating and doesn't really capture the audience's attention with a lot of people just walking through. Maybe we aren't mature or intelligent enough to understand his works.

Penetrations - Vertical Submarine

This exhibition is held from 23rd September 2015 to 18th October 2015 at Chan Hampe Galleries.

Vertical Submarine is a collective that does work in various media. This time they presented multiple prints of old Hokkien sayings, an installation of a piano butchered with scores of arrows and a light box also with a Hokkien saying.

Interesting works. The prints were a mock up of old advertisements/ posters/ billboards with old hokkien sayings which, nowadays are used less often (but doesn't that happen with all langauges). Rather simple in delivery and banking on nostalgia. If you don't speak hokkien or have no hokkien blood, it won't stir anything in you. Unless you are tickled pink by coarse hokkien sayings like Pizza Queen.

But the most interesting was the light box about Superman and Ultraman, a contemporary treatment to an old saying.

Didn't see the point of the piano. But I guess it's a show stopper. I heard i's based on a quote from the book. But then again Vertical Submarine are good at installations.

Points for collectors: Buy rating for the collective, but not sure about the prints unless it resonates with you. Vertical Submarine has been around for a while and are noticed by the Museums. Justin Loke has recently been selected as an artist to watch in the Prudential Singapore Eye Awards 2015. However they got into some trouble for the 'Kill Stray Cats' project and has layed low for a while. So I think this is sort of a come back. So maybe they are trying to keep things simple this time.  I think they have sold the light box too which I think was nice. 

President's Young Talents 2015

This exhibition is at the Singapore Art Museum, running till 27 March 2016.

My favourite is Ong Kian Peng's Too Far, Too Near. The visual, audio and message are all integrated, and it's quite mesmerising to just stare at the mechanised movements, listen to the sound of tiny ball bearings sliding across a metal tray sounding so much like the sound of the waves on a seashore, and watch the footage. It's so well put together that you can't help but marvel at the amount of thought, effort and meticulousness that went into this. I could stand in that room for hours.

Speaking of meticulousness, Ang Song Ming's Days once again shows his extreme attention to detail and perfection. His music manuscript works are even better than the very good ones he did for Fost in Logical Progressions, and the video is compelling too.

I was however, quite disappointed with Loo Zihan's Of Public Interest: The Singapore Art Museum Resource Room. It's supposed to be an installation. I don't agree. I'm afraid I didn't see any artistic value, or even artistic value-add, in this. I'm sure others see the artistic value, and I would understand if they scoff at me for not being able to see what others may see, so I'm sorry if I offend anyone with my opinion. But I do appreciate the opportunity to have access to resources on art, from as early as the 1970s. It's a great place to browse and read the books and catalogues on the shelves, and they thoughtfully put a nice long table with chairs for you to immerse yourself among the literature and read, read, read. I could spend hours in here too, but only because of the resources, not because it's an art installation. Calling it an installation aroused such great indignation in me that I had to write this review instead of leaving it to the more objective and learned musings of 75grams.

Fairly neutral to the remaining installations. Overall, an interesting exhibition that will occupy a good few hours if you take the time to look and think.

Loo Zihan

Bani Haykal

Ang Song Ming

Ezzam Rahman

Ong Kian Peng

That's all from me. Bye.

Semi-Colon - Eunice Lim

This exhibition is held from 25th September 2015 to 31st October 2015 at Art Outreach over at Gillman barracks.

Art outreach is a non profit organisation whose role is to expose and educate people, esp school children, to the arts.

They have kindly allowed Lim to use the place.

She presented 2 big works, 2 medium works and 3 tiny works. The works are a continuation of her previous works. The works are about layers and these layers represent life experiences. And previously she did book cut outs, collages and sketches to represent these layers. This time she decided to capture the experiences in paint. One of the better paintings with the birds was an expansion of her previous work in her sketchbook series Catharsis.

If you watch the video presentation of her installing the works, she projected the works onto the wall with video and painted a mural to tie the works together. A very nice touch and the mural in itself is great art. And she has been painting a few murals too.

She is definitely a good artist but does not have the edgy-ness which she needs to set herself apart in the crowded art world.

Points for collectors: Buy rating. She is definitely improving and is a motivated artist. Hope she continues working hard and continues to evolve has an artist. She may not be in the Museum curator's radar as she does nice work and is not too radical. Neither is she in the main gallery system. But I think she has a mentor and friend in Instinc Artist Yeo Shih Yun, so hopefully she gets more gallery/air time and increases her visibility.

Few exhibitions for you to catch

1. The Blue of Distance - Tan Wyn-Lyn at FOST Gallery 4th September to 25th October 2015
- works of Landscape.

2. Dear Painter at Sundaram Tagore - also 4th September to 25th October 2015
- Catch it to see Jane Lee's work. Very typical work of hers. Chun Kai Qun's video of waiting for Taxi. Chun Kai Feng's metal works. Jeremy Sharma did a really nice surface of the moon, a continuation of the the foam works. But I think he used metal to bond to the surface. Best work of the series so far. Warren Khong's work of light reflection from the back of the painting to the wall was interesting. But the lay out here wasn't too good. In fact the one at the MFA grad show, same concept, was much better. Martin Constable's video work was very good too.

3. NOISE 2015 exhibition at Ion Orchard B4. - 16th September to 11th October 2015.
- interesting to see the works. But most of the works were prints of the original. But a good mix of media, i.e. illustrations, digital art, paintings, drawings, photographs...
There was an interesting installation by a select few artists to recreate their studios, and the viewer is invited to peek at them through small holes.

Slacking off recently

Hi all, apologies for slacking off recently. Have been to alot of exhibitions recently and haven't mentioned them. And also haven't been actively giving out heads up to upcoming exhibitions.

Here's a token.
Instinc will be showing at One Raffles Place from 14th to 25th September 2015, Remembering LKY.
Dear Painter at Sundaram Tagore (4th Sept to 25th Oct)
The Blue of Distance - Tan Wyn Lyn at FOST Gallery (4th Sept to 25th Oct)
Common Ground - Chan Hampe Galleries (15th Aug to 13th Sept)
President's Young Talent - Singapore Art Museum (20th Aug to 31st Jan)
Singapore Watercolour Society 46th Annual Exhibition - MICA (5th to 13th Sept)

There you go!

AAF Young Talent Programme - Wong Kel Win, Zhang FuMing and Khin Thethtar Latt

This exhibition runs from 2nd September to 22nd September 2015 at Ion Art Gallery.

This year the show is much better. Last year was a bit disappointing. Not to say that Hilmi Johandi wasn't good but he was busy with other shows and didn't present his better works last year.

Anyway this year features:
1. Zhang FuMing. He has a good visual eye and understands the visual lanaguage well. He presented WoodCut Prints and Charcoal drawings. The woodcut prints were excellent. Not too detailed but just nice to give it a contemporary feel. Really good balanced composition which was not static but dynamic. His charcoal drawings could have been better. He draws well, the hands and feet in the drawings were very good anatomically.

2. Khin Thethtar Latt presented photographs and a video to complete the body of work. Was ok. Nothing fresh. Decent photos. Has to find something to set the works apart from the rest.

3. Wong Kel Win. This guy is good. Last year at the AAF, when I saw his small drawings, was kinda disappointed. He saw some social issues and used the drawings to present them. Was rather simple in delivery of the content. But this time he raised the bar. He expanded on it and produced three big 2.5x1.6 metre works, 6 looping gifs and a huge installation.

The three drawings used the same figures. But they were really excellently executed. Most artists lose their way with bigger format works, but not him. In fact these three works are really fresh and to me are the showstoppers.

But to most the showstopper was the installation. It brings his figures to life, be it only the lower half. And the use of the lion dance fabric allows the work to connect with most people, especially those not in the art world. So it draws people in.

And the Gifs are an interesting expansion to his works. Showing that he is a multi-faceted artist, fundamentally a good drawer, painter (not shown here but in other works), digital artist and installation artist. A lot of digital artists can't use a pen or brush to save their lives. His attention to detail is meticulous, even the wires for the tablets were taped up, kind of reminds me of Jane Lee who is also a stickler for detail.

Kel Win's Installation

Six Gifs on the wall

2.5m tall work

FuMing's Woodcut

FuMing's Drawings

2.5m tall work

2.5m tall work

Artist attention to detail, even the wires and plugs were taped up.

Points for collectors: Buy for Kel Win and Fu Ming. However, I won't personnally won't buy from this platform. But if they sign on with a good gallery who will groom them, then I would pull the trigger. For Khin, neutral rating. 

29.03.15 - Boo Sze Yang

This exhibition ran from 31st July 2015 to 22nd August 2015 at Ipreciation.

Forgot to write about it, that's why the past tense.

My thoughts about the pieces, was that it was very well done. Painted from the heart and expressed the sadness really well. Initially from the JPEGs on the net, you think it's another of those pieces where the artistsjust drips and runs the paint for effect. But I must say the control of the drip and its usage is excellent.

Must say well done to Boo Sze Yang. Think he managed to sell a few, could have sold a few more but the sombre mood you get from the painting puts off some people.

Points for collectors: Strong buy. I think he's sticking with Ipreciation for now. His price has gone up a bit in the past years, but he is still priced lower then Ian Woo (around the same age bracket).