Affordable Art Fair November 2018

This fair was held from 16th to 18th November 2018 at the Pit Building.

Saw some nice things. Saw some new things. Saw some of the same. Saw some old things. Saw a lot of things.

Denise Jillian Tan

Denise Jillian Tan

Denise Jillian Tan

Yeoh Shih Yun

Andy Yang

Ocean Wang 

Liu Ling

Joanne Pang

Liu Ling

Uncanny Geometries - Joshua Yang

This exhibition was held from 3rd November to 6th December 2018 over at Grey Projects.

Joshua Yang is 1/3 of the art collective Vertical Submarine. He is known for his line drawings specifically objects drawn with mostly 1 single line or a few lines at most.

He showed 7 new drawings here. The ones that sold are the ones of watch movements which were aesthetically nice and relatable. Other ones were architectural which were based on cathedrals or important historical structures. There was one of chinese porcelain and another of a symbol.

Joshua Yang is a good artist. He is able to use his skill of line drawings and do different things with it. Think working with Grey Projects, namely Jason Wee, he has progressed and improved a lot. He showed with them in 2016 and 2014 too.

Points for collectors: Strong Buy rating. Vertical Submarine is well recognised in the main stream art circuit. Joshua Yang is known too but recently hasn't been with the main stream galleries so has dropped off in terms of exposure. But working with Grey Projects and Jason Wee is as good too. 

Flower Flights - Chen Yanyun

This exhibition is held from 7th November to 4th January 2019 over at Art Porter's Gallery.

Chen YanYun showed a follow on of her floral works which she first showed in 2016. She does floral works very nicely and we have seen her works before in the 2016 edition of Vada Untapped. From that series we liked her peony works. She is very skilled and technically good with her graphite. She draws with graphite and paints with the charcoal too.

 Nice works with some better than the others. But we still love her figures and the President Young Talent works better. But nothing wrong with the works, not perfect and can improve. But very good already.

Points for Collectors: Buy rating for Chen Yanyun. Wouldn't get anything from this set but she did sell quite a few pieces.

President's Young Talent 2018

This exhibition is on from 4th October 2018 to 27th January 2019 over at SAM's 8Q gallery.

The 5 selected artists are Debbie Ding, Hilmi Johandi, WeiXin Quek Chong, Chen Yanyun and Zarina Muhammad.

Debbie Ding showed Soil Works. It had to do with soil and its relationship to Singapore. And she set up her works to appear like research stations. Interesting play on the concept but aesthetically could be better.

Hilmi Johandi showed An Exposition. Think it's his continued research on amusement parks of the past. The place is set up like an amusement park. But with a lot of void spaces and you can feel the loneliness of the place, much like abandoned ghost towns. Nothing too fantastic about the installations. Paintings were hung to complement, juxtapose or oppose the objects. Nice idea. But the paintings could have been more powerful since his main media is painting.

Chen Yanyun showed The Scars that Write Us. The works really showed her skill. She is a brilliant charcoal / graphite artist. As mentioned in an earlier post, we really like her nudes and figure portraiture. And as expected, she delivered with the drawing of figures on steel plates. The soldering/ melting of metal onto the steel to represent keloids was aesthetically great too.

WeiXin Quek Chong showed sft crsh ctrl. She showed materials presented in a vague manner or in which they weren't meant to be. She being a printmaker showed some photos and prints too. It was meant to stimulate us tactilely and also to jog the brain to associate or dissociate the expected tactility and what we see and perceive from what is expected or learnt previously. And if that wasn't enough, the sound in the gallery was also meant to stimulate us, like the crinkling of plastic.

Zarina Muhammad showed Pragmatic Prayers for the Kala at the Threshold. This is about mythology, rituals and things that people of old used to practise. Some found / acquired works and some works which were made by the artist. Interesting but nothing too outstanding or refreshing.

Points for collectors: Zarina Muhammad and Debbie Ding really not sure. Haven't seen anything by them that is collectible. Chen YanYun and WeiXin Quek Chong - strong buys. Hilmi Johandi - Buy rating. Love his older works but not sure about where he's going with his current practice.

President's Young Talent Winner 2018

Congratulations to WeiXin Quek Chong on winning this year's award!

Congratulations to Chen YanYun for winning the People's Choice Award!

Will blog about it soon. Still trying to catch up with all the exhibitions but will go about it chronologically.