In Silence - Ezzam Rahman, Zen Teh and others

This exhibition is held from 14th July to 4th September 2016 at Pearl Lam Galleries over at Gillman barracks.

Think this is the first time Pearl Lam Galleries is featuring young Singaporean artists. This show's theme was in relationship to Bali's Nyepi day.The artists featured are Golnaz Fathi, Jenny Holzer, Sayaka Ishizuka, Qian Jiahua, Melati Suryodarmo, Tao Hui, Zen Teh and Ezzam Rahman.

And we here at Paintings at the Exhibition, mainly featuring things local, will just talk about Ezzam Rahman and Zen Teh.

Ezzam Rahman showed more of his nasty skin works. This time he painted them and they didn't look so icky. It still looks good and interesting, even alluring in their receptacles. But then how long can he do his skin works? So he showed some photos which were interesting. Presented well with the skin works.

Zen Teh showed more of her concrete works, showing 3 pieces. Think one was shown during art stage. But this time they were hung 3 in a row on the wall. Impressive compared with just lying it on the floor. Think it has to do with the old Tanjong Pagar railway station and the green corridor. The concrete against the small strip of photograph inlayed into the concrete. She also showed a new piece Dual|Duel, three pieces of perspex cut into triangles, with a mirrored surface and the back of it a photo of water/sea. It has to do with Schizophrenia and mental health, and looking into the mirror you see fragment images, reflections of the sea and yourself. Very interesting work. Zen Teh is mainly a photographer, and I think she is not familiar and hasn't worked too much with these materials. You can see certain faults, stuff and issues that I have with it. Nothing wrong with the concepts. Pizza Queen loves it and would rate it a 10/10. But just that the work is let down by the quality of the finish.

Points for Collectors: Ezzam Rahman is a buy. He is loved by the art gods and is in the main stream. Zen Teh is a buy too. But we feel that she is overpriced, if not she would receive a strong buy. She is a relatively young artist, born 1988. The works are editioned and not piece unique. A point to support the price is that the material cost is higher and think that the concrete work has to be outsourced. So you decide. But she is definitely doing/ has done interesting works and has interesting concepts. i.e. her photographic scroll featured at Spot Art and works which she did during her residency in Thailand. We are definitely fans of hers.