Sunday 27 December 2015

Siapa Nama Kamu? Art in Singapore since the 19th Century

This exhibition is on at National Gallery Singapore from the 24th of November 2015 till dunno when (as of today). It is held at the 3 DBS Galleries on level two of the City Hall Wing (the landscape building as opposed to portrait building or the building nearer the St Andrew's Cathedral).



It was an interesting exhibition trying to tell the entire story in 3 Galleries. Starting from the late 1800s till present. Felt it did a good job without trying to pack in too much, remember Star Wars Episode I-III, where too much was packed into 3 episodes and it failed.

There was some criticism from friends that it was a bit too Nanyang-Centric, with many of Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen's on show. But I thought it was ok, as most people want to see the best artists when you go to a museum and their works are better than others and thus they hold a great place in history and thus should be allocated more air-time.

There was also enough Chinese ink on show to show the parallel development of the traditional ink and the 'Singapore' ink style. Though I didn't spot the Indian Artists, the Malay artists were also represented. The 'Sunday Group (Watercolourists)' of Lim Cheng Hoe and Chen Chong Swee (think Cheong Soo Pieng can also be counted as an occasional member) was represented, along with the 2nd generation artists like Gog Sing Hooi and Ong Kim Seng.

The works then progressed on to more 2nd generation artists some of whom are still alive, so the history of this period was quite well presented. Represented was the Equator Art Society with its 2nd generation artists including Ong Kim Seng, Koeh Sia Yong, Chua Mia Tee, Lee Boon Wang and Lim Yew Kuan; and the Modern Art Society's Ho Ho Ying. Then it goes on to the the Artists Village, mainly Tang Da Wu. And more familiar commercial gallery names like Ang Ah Tee, Tan Choh Tee, Thomas Yeo, Yeo Siak Goon, Anthony Poon and this chapter which is housed in Gallery 2 ends with Milenko Prvacki and an early Ian Woo piece.

However, the shift (in Gallery 3) from after the 90s to current was a bit abrupt, but that was the time when art in Singapore expanded out of paintings and sculptures. So I guess since this period isn't supposed to be NGS's expertise, but rather SAM's, so they just put out a snippet of the current contemporary artists (those which have been shown in biennale's). To us, it wasn't sufficiently representative of the art scene from the 90s to present. The usual ones the Art Gods in Singapore love at the moment (no, Charles Lim and Robert Zhao weren't there, but Ho Tzu Nyen was). But excellent pieces on show. installations, painting, videos... I pity Cheo Chai Hiang's rehash of 5x5 (Singapore River). Previously it was meant to be a drawing and I think last year or 2 years ago, it was shown at Sculpture Square as a projection. This time it was rehashed as 5'x5' (Inched Deep) and he had the pleasure of sawing into the wall and floor, must have been great fun for him. When I was there, only two boys noticed it and everybody else walked past or over/on it. But I thought that was interesting. (You can obviously tell we are biased towards contemporary art.)

Oh yes, I like the fact that they featured early photographs, but don't think at that time it would have been considered art. But the few post war photos (which I think can qualify as art) which they showed were good. Was a bit too crowded for me to take photos and name them. But just go and look at them, you will know.

Sculptures were also featured, but most weren't really impressive and most people walked by them with the eyes glued to the paintings mainly.

Didn't list down everything, just go and see for yourself. Think about the Curatorial aspect and how it answers the title. And yes for the individual works, please look at the art before reading the label if you have the time.

Overall a good job. Glad we have more art museums. Will go back on a weekday for more leisurely viewing. Still have the other galleries to write about and SAM's Time of Others and 5 Stars.

PSA (Public Service Announcement) - National Gallery Singapore membership

Just to inform everybody as a follow up to signing up for membership. Some info from my previous post here.

Just signed up for the membership. Everything was very smooth and quick. You get your spiffy Membership card while you wait for a few minutes. However, something which was not shared was NGS has partnered with SISTIC to provide the ticketing and because of this you automatically have a SISTIC account opened for you when you become a member.

Yikes! So I got this email saying "You have opened a new SISTIC account......please call +6563485555." So I did that immediately and the first question I got was "did you just join the National Gallery as a member...." And you can more or less get the rest of the conversation. I did suspect it had somethng to do with the NGS membership.

All this could be alleviated if the Ah-tee and mei-mei pushing the membership could have highlighted it to us. Didn't bother to read the fine print when signing up, so it might have been in the small print. If so sneaky sneaky, macam Sim Lim selling you unwanted things.


Friday 25 December 2015

Merry Christmas!

From all of us here at a Paintings at the Exhibition, have a Merry and Joyous Christmas and a Grrr....eat New Year ahead.

Anyway, Art Week and lots of fun things coming up in January. Penning it into my calendar. From Art fairs, openings, talks, art dinners and tours, there's loads to choose from and much scheduling to do.

Really thinking about doing a new feature, "Painting/work of the month" to spice up the blog. So keep following us!


Thanks for your support too!

Wednesday 23 December 2015

Umbra: An exhibition by Adeline Kueh and Susiarjo

This exhibition was held at Objectifs which is the Chapel where Sculpture Square used to be. It ran from the 3rd of December to 20th December 2015.

It was a show about Shadows and all the things that one can interpret about it, be it the physical space or inner soul.

Betty presented Projects onto fabric, photograph and an installation of found rocks which she decorated.

The photos were ok. The rocks were interesting but not very visually stunning. It was laid on the floor near the entrance to catch the lights and cast shadows. But the videos were very good and mesmerising. Was particularly very impressed with SeaScape, a projection onto glitter fabric. The other two video projections, Bouganville Serenade and Body of Light as it is filtered through Agate were visually enthralling and very good too.

Adeline presented a projection onto the wall of a shadow of something like a window frame which moved slowly. Not impressed. 6 photos were also shown of buildings and rooms, I assume to show the shadows, good photos but nothing to set it apart from other photographers. But her installation Old Friends, which looked like two buildings, one new and one older juxtaposed against one another. This one was visually pleasing and I like it very much. She also presented an installation of  'brass bells' suspended from a brass plate by red string. Very nice and interesting piece. But I just wished there was a bit more attention to detail; one can see the grubby fingerprints on the brass plate, maybe the installer or artist could have worn gloves when setting it up.

Sea Scape

Bouganville Serenade

Body of Light as it is Filtered Through Agate

Old Friends

So Near Yet So Far

Precious Sediments


Finger Prints

Finger Prints

Points for collectors: Adeline Kueh and Betty Susiarjo are part of the art teaching faculty in Singapore. Adeline has also been feature in the Singapore Eye awards. So their credentials are good. But not really sure of getting their works yet, cause multiple media artists tend to end up a jack of all trades and a master of none. But I guess for installations and photography the learning curve is less steep and shorter than in painting. So we would have to see how they develop before I can commit on which type of their works one should get. But currently Betty's video projection are really excellent. And I like the installations Adeline presented here. Not too convinced about her photos which got her noticed in the Singapore Eye.

Monday 21 December 2015

Yellow Ribbon community art exhibition - A New Horizon

This is held at the Singapore Art Museum from 11th December till the 27th of December 2015.

You should go and catch the works, especially the ceramic works.

Ahmad Abu Bakar is a great ceramist who mentored the artists creating the ceramic works. The ceramic works are A++ grade. Form, style, creativity - it's all there. If you want some good ceramics, it would be a good opportunity to adopt a few pieces from here.

Not exactly fine art but it reflects the skill of the teacher, Ahmad Abu Bakar, who has mentored the artists well.

Also managed to catch the other 2 exhibitions 'Time of Others' and '5 Stars'. Will try to write up on these two soon. It's going to be a crazy art month ahead so hope I don't get overwhelmed and can write about it.

Thanks!

Our Nature - Ay Tjoe Christine and Zai Kuning

This exhibition is on from 12th December to 30th January 2016 at Ota Fine Arts at Gillman Barracks.

Ay Tjoe Christine showed 3 works. Interesting and good but not my cup of tea.

Zai Kuning also showed paintings. Also interesting but nothing fantastic.

No harm if you missed it.

Ay Tjoe Christine's work

Ay Tjoe Christine's work

Ay Tjoe Christine's work

Zai Kuning's work

Zai Kuning's work

Zai Kuning's work

Points for collectors: Ay Tjoe Christine is famous enough to get a buy rating. But not sure about these pieces, seen other better ones though. Zai Kuning, I give a neutral rating for the paintings. Think his works in other media, i.e. installations are much better. 

Wednesday 16 December 2015

Thursday 10 December 2015

Singapore: Inside Out

This is a showcase of Singapore's creative talent that has been to Beijing, London and New York, before ending in Singapore as part of the year end SG50 Jubilee Celebrations.

It aims to show the world Singapore's various art talents, in all genres, not only visual arts. It ran from 27th November till 6th December 2015 over at a field by Tan Quee Lan street.

Managed to catch the Singapore edition. The three (fine artists/ visual artists) that caught my attention are: (didn't mention the current Art Gods' obligatory favourite Ho Tzu Nyen and his video)

The most interesting was Vertical Submarine's mirror image room, making one think about reality and oneself. Everyone was shunted into the room to enter the exhibition proper, as it was the first room, so I think the curator of the show also thought that it was the best too. Seems Vertical Submarine is making a comeback after the bad press of the 'Stray Cats'.



But the first art you see is actually Zul Mahmod's 'Alice did you hear that?'. This is typical Zul's sound installation work. Interesting work, but really wished it had a better aural quality, rhythm, tempo and sound quality. Full marks as a piece of visual art, but as sound art not sure if it's that good, i.e. try just listening to it and see whether it passes. So if he produced better sound, then it will be the bomb.


Robert Zhao did a shop of tourism, The Nature Shop, which is a collection of things (collected or created) related to Singapore and tourism and arranged in a shop format. The logo was obviously a take on/ play of the Singapore Tourism Board's logo. Overall, interesting but a shop idea is not very fresh. This installation could be readily attributed to Robert Zhao because of the way he approaches the subjects he wants to deal with. (Was there self promotion of his works too? He included a cat sculpture with the clipped ear into the shop, sort of similar to the ones he sold at Mizuma (refer to my earlier post). He should stick to his photos and other installations like the Eskimo Wolf Trap which are way much better.




Overall very good but I can't help sharing my thoughts about the works.

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Gillman Barracks the past weekend (5th -6th Dec 2015)

Aggregation - Chun Kwang Yong at Pearl Lam Gallery. Nice typical works of his. Does his work on Korean Mulberry paper, then ties it up and assembles it into a nice sculptural and structural form. You should catch it if you can.













You should also try to catch 7, the group exhibition at Shanghart. It runs from 21st November till 10th January 2016. It features works by Birdhead, Chen Xiaoyun, Liang Shaoji, Shao Yi, Wang Youshen, Xu Zhen/ MadeIn and Zhu Jia. Really good works this time. Not often impressed with Shanghart's offerings but this time it was good.








For Those who have been killed - Vincent Leow

This exhibition is held at Chan Hampe's Shophouse 5. It opened on the 3rd December 2015 with an open house on the 5th and the artist talk will be on the 12th of December 2015.

He presented 4 types of works dealing with the armed conflicts, terrorism, wars and other 'unnecessary' loss of lives. The first type was the words painted on canvas with different colours and backgrounds. The works dealing with different events like Peshawar Massacre and Gaza deaths. He showed 4 of this style of work. Another was 2 works of words on American army surplus stretchers, one had a bone (resin) and another wooden 'AK-47'. The words were quotes from people involved in these conflicts. He also presented a 'coffin' holding his old works of art and was presented against one of his revived paintings which he did in 1990 and managed to salvage. He reworked it and mounted it onto a new canvas. A juxtaposition of old/dead and new/alive. The last one was a collage of stuff he collected and this was done many years ago after a stint in Paris. Over the collage he painted the French flag over it. It seem a poignant reminder of the French shootings recently and how Facebook profiles were overlaid with the French flag in support of the French.

The works were well selected, thought through and gelled well with the theme. The stretcher works had the most impact and easily caught your eye.





Points for collectors: Buy rating. However the pieces were big and not for everyone. I guess he would have sold more if he did the stuff in a smaller format. Prices are fair for a prominent artist his age.

Friday 4 December 2015

This weekend; 5th December 2015

Ok. Many things on.

1. For those who have been killed, solo exhibition by Vincent Leow (one of the pioneers of contemporary art in Singapore). This will be on at Chan Hampe's Shophouse 5 tomorrow with an artist talk on the 12th of December

2. ChanHampe Gallery 3pm tomorrow, Lost City 3's artist talk- Tang Ling Nah, CK Kum, Geraldine Kang and Hong Sek Chern.

3. Flaneur Gallery - Socio-criticism and fictional spaces by Wayne Lim and Ezekiel Wong Kel Win at the gallery till 13th December.

4. Objectifs, Chapel Gallery- Umbra by Adeline Kueh and Susiarjo curated by Ian Woo from 4th to 20th December 2015.

5. Triple Two Art Space at Queen Street - Creatively crafted ceramics - paintings, photos and ceramics by Francis Poon, Wendy Lim, Esther Ng and Noc Vvyne Lim.

6. Still have to go down to STPI to catch Do Ho Suh before it closes on the 2th January 2016.

Wah... very busy again.