In the weeks after Art Stage and Art Week, we have reviews or thoughts on Art Stage on the net. And these have been popping up on FB with shares from various artists and their comments on it.
You can read some articles here :-
Business World Weekender
Hyperallergic
Didn't really seem positive.
Anyway I think Art Week was a good job. More than enough events and activities and not enough time to cover all. So in terms of quantity more then enough.
In terms of quality I think it was ok. Think Galleries should have pushed more Singapore artists to peak at Art Week. But Chan Hampe, Fost and STPI did good with Ruben Pang (although not really a full exhibition), Chun Kai Qun and Amanda Heng respectively.
The organisers / NAC did enough to publicise it with the pamphlets/ brochures of the events.
Art Stage was ok. But I think with the poor economic climate there were less galleries, not something that is within their control. The layout of Art Stage was a bit off. The SEA Forum was a bit disorganised and for the collectors show (AKA the one Helutrans would normally do at Helutrans itself) , the way the pieces were shown did a disservice to the pieces. So a good curator is really important, not just an art historian (i.e. can assemble very intellectual shows) but a curator with a good eye and visual perception to assemble a show which is visually pleasing too.
Also I am personally not a person for change, so I really think Art Stage should keep more things fixed year to year and builld a heritage, legacy or events which one would associate with the Art Stage brand. Every year they are doing new things which is great. But a few could be kept for tradition or at least give it a 3 year cycle.
Anyway, February is Philippines month with Art Fair Philippines then Art Basel HK in March.
So let's see how the 2 perform.
Really hope SEA art can gain a better foothold in the world. Just need the galleries to reimagine and reinvent the art to the world. Anyway there are new companies like Art Agenda SEA (set up by ex-christie's person) that fill the secondary market gap, which I felt was lacking in Singapore. Sundaram Tagore Gallery also has an ex-christie's staff who does it.
Really hope the demand for Singapore artists also goes up, but that has a lot to do with the entry price points. The young Malaysian and Indonesian artists are well priced compared to young SG artists. Probably the cost of living and the exchange rate has to do with it. But also stated in previous posts, the artists in Singapore are rarely full time and if they are full time they are successful and commanding a high price. So their peers who aren't full time artists (stable income from other sources) are priced (and sometimes choose to price themselve) similar to them. Like I enquired about art works from this group born in 60s and they are asking a ridiculous price and I don't think they are even selling at that price.
