Tuesday 30 January 2018

Interesting Reads

Hi all!

Just read an article on South China Morning Post about Art Stage,"Singapore Art Scene losing ground to HK and SEA, says Art Stage Singapore Founder." Interesting, you read about it and decide. A lot of reasons for the 'demise' of Art Stage. My main peeve was that Art Stage wanted to just make money by getting more galleries and loosen up the curation and criteria and allowed in too many galleries which shouldn't have been allowed in otherwise and reduced the quality. Not talking about price points but quality. Think that was a short term gain and didn't take the long term view. Maybe he anticipated pulling out when the government funding/ grants go down to a trickle. Other people have other things to say and you can read more on the internet. Overall Art Stage did a good job and served its purpose well. Art Week is a big thing now. And a lot of galleries are doing satellite fairs to save the 50k for a decent size booth, i.e. Ikkan Art at Helutrans, Shared Co-ordinates (Eduardo Malingue, ROH project, Silverlens and Fost gallery). NGS is also taking the lead with Lights at Night. The seed of art culture/appreciation has been planted and hopefully cultural advancement/being cultured will eventually be as important as being financially wealthy. Something which was necessarily sacrificed in the earlier development of the country.

Another link. All the art fairs this year. You can plan your travels or business trips to match these fairs. Business and pleasure or just pure pleasure.

Saturday 27 January 2018

Art Stage 2018

Art Stage this year is on from the 26th to 28th January 2018 over at Marina Bay Sands.

This year it's held in the exhibition halls A-C rather then D-F. Smaller fair with less galleries.

But I like how they have set up the fair to deal with less galleries turning up.

Still good works on show. But less art by Singapore artists and even less galleries with physical spaces here willing to do the fair.

That's something else to talk about.

Anyway on to the art, here are some which we found interesting:



























Do catch the fair if you can. 

Monday 22 January 2018

The Foster Emporium - Tan Wyn-Lyn - Fost Gallery

This exhibition is held from 26th January to 25th March 2018 over at Fost Gallery.

Really like what the Galleries are doing. Breaking out of the white cube. Think Art Stage is shrinking, perhaps because a lot of the galleries are taking things into their own hands without the need to pay the expensive art fair fee. Good or bad? Not sure yet.

Anyway Art Week should prove to be quite interesting with many things popping up. Di Sini festival by Chan+Hori. Gillman Barracks and the Civic District coming alive. Too many things going on. Can't cover everything especially if you aren't on leave.

Anyway back to Foster Emporium. The gallery has been transformed into an Emporium and is retailing Art and Design, and many items produced by artists or independent makers or craftsmen. To use a word that has been used too loosely, artisanal.

Anyway to stick to the art, it's mainly works from the FOST stable. Artists which we associate with FOST, Jimmy Ong, John Clang, Ang Song Ming, Izziyana Suhaimi, Heman Chong, Bovey Lee.....

I respect these artists who have signed on with FOST or any artist that has committed to a gallery. And I think it should be the way. Flying solo is not easy for an artist unless they want to handle the business end of things and they know what they are doing. And being promiscuous gallery-wise is not a good thing either.

Most of the works you have seen before.

But Tan Wyn-Lyn showed some new works. It was her signature style of painting but on small blocks of wood and placed onto a mirrored pedestal. The works were really nice. And the works go really well as a group. I understand they were sold individually, but I really feel that they should go as a group. Really like where she is going with her works. The one at Shared Coordinates at Arts House was really good too. She has really improved from her last solo and the works shown at Art Basel HK last year.

Artwork of the month awardee!





Point for collectors: Strong buy rating. She's a passionate and involved artist. 

Sunday 21 January 2018

Moving Mountains - Boo Sze Yang,Tay Bak Chiang and Chiew Sian Kuan

This exhibition is held from 17th January 2018 to 4th February 2018 at Artsembly at Esplanade.

It's an artist run space and the three are presenting their works there.

Boo Sze Yang as done something new. From the brown monochromatic works seen at Ipreciation he has now done monochromatic works in black on paper and linen. Interesting abstract geometric landscape works. Nice to see something fresh.

Tay Bak Chiang has done more of the same thing. You'll recognise it when you see it.

Chiew Sian Kuan showed two interesting wood sculptures. Nice works.

Tay Bak Chiang

Boo Sze Yang

Boo Sze Yang

Chiew Sian Kuan

Chiew Sian Kuan

Boo Sze Yang

Points for collectors: Boo Sze Yang given a buy rating. Chiew Sian Kuan does nice sculptures but not sure of the market for his works. And he has to improve his visibility. Mentioned his name to some gallerists/ gallerina / gallerino and received blank stares. Tay Bak Chiang hold first. Too many similar works in the market.

Shared Coordinates - Various

This exhibition is held from 20th January to 28th January 2018 over at the Arts House in the Civic District.

This was a group show by 4 galleries, SilverLens (Manila), ROH Project (Jakarta), FOST gallery (Singapore) and Edouard Malingue (HK).

We focus on FOST and her Singaporean artists.

Nice works from the local artists which she represents.

Heman Chong

Ang Song Ming

Tan Wyn-Lyn and Grace Tan

Ang Song Ming

Points for collectors: Buy rating for all the artists. Grace Tan maybe soft buy rating but interesting works.

Folkloristics - Various including Zeh Teh

This exhibition is held from 18th January 2018 to 25th February 2018 at Mizuma gallery at Gillman Barracks.

This exhibition features quite a few artists. But we shall focus on Zeh Teh who presented an installation of pebbles, marble slabs, painted wall and a print of waves.

The image was made of many many images of the same location superimposed on top of one another.

And there were 2 stools from which to view the work.

Interesting and lovely work. Stools were an unnecessary gimmick.





Points for collectors: Zeh Teh given a buy rating. 

Saturday 20 January 2018

Wah lao too many things going on

Really too many things going on.

Just managed to catch up on a few posts and still more to catch up with. Really busy this week and have to miss certain events. Guess I will have to rely on the internet and social media to update me on those I missed.

Anyway happy art week. Art stage will be next week and hope you manage to buy something.

Happy hunting and good luck!



RAID - Various

This exhibition is held from 13th January to 3rd February 2018 over at the Tiong Bahru Air Raid Shelter.

It is organised by Zulkhairi Zulkiflee and Daniel Chong and also features Ivan David Ng, Tay Ining, Vanessa Lim, Jacqueline Sim, Pooja Kanade and Nhawfal Juma'at.

Really nice works which responded really well to the the environment/ location.

You must really catch this exhibition before it closes. General feedback is that most people enjoyed it really much.

Amongst these artists are some are our favourite of this cohort.

Now they just need to get into the mainstream gallery or commercial scene.