Thursday 31 January 2019

Passing - Vincent Leow

This exhibition was from 11th January to 26th January 2019 over at Ipreciation at HPL house.

The show included works from as early as 2007 and all the way to 2018.

He was once the enfant terrible of the Singapore art scene doing garish and upsetting works in the early days when things were more conservative and during a time when there weren't many artists around. Think there was also a Singapore flag piece which is a big no-no. And as recent as last year got into the headlines when his work had to be removed from the Esplanade because it had hints of bestiality. So he has definitely earned his place in the annals of Singapore art history.

In this show, he showed a variety of works, paintings, word works, prints and sculptures. He is trained first as a sculptor, and thus his painterly and drawing skill loses out. He was in the Middle East for a while and during that time the works were dealing with issues there, which is not really relatable to us. And now that the shock factor thing is gone, he must really try hard with his works to impress buyers and deal with more relevant issues in a sophisticated way. So no more 'OMG' works but rather 'Wow' works to bring him up a notch.










Points for collectors: Vincent Leow neutral rating for the works. Buy because of his position in art history. As said by someone, if one is collecting Singapore Art, you can't leave certain artists out. Given his age and qualifications his price is expectedly high and you can't fault him for it. But does the secondary market support it? Dunno... cause it's been a while, there was an auction piece in 2007 and it was his sculpture of Andy (his usual recurring dog with human face) . And two other paintings in 2007 and 1999. Think there was also an attempt or actual private sale by a collector I think Bedmar through the help of the Art Apart Lady a few years back (art world not transparent, unlike housing price in Singapore where you can check the URA website to kaypoh how much your neighbour bought or sold their place for)


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