Discourse round Singapore’s place on this planet normally begins with its rapid Southeast Asian neighbours and ends with its former colonisers plus wider Asian area. Refreshingly then, for the 2024 version of Singapore Artwork Week (SAW), two main exhibitions thoughtfully look at conversations and parallels between Singapore, Southeast Asia and the World South.
At Nationwide Gallery Singapore (NGS), Tropical delves into the trendy historical past of Southeast Asia and Latin America and challenges their shared colonial narratives. These areas, as posited by Syed Hussein Alatas’s 1977 textual content The Fantasy of the Lazy Native, comprise greater than bananas and parrots. Seven years within the making, this present brings collectively some 200 works by over 70 artists. It tugs on quite a few threads, together with makes use of of textile and embroidery and the similarities between Indonesia’s anti-colonial Modernism to Diego Rivera’s statements on class. Together with Tropical, NGS is at present operating the second of its collection on early regional video artwork, See Me See You (till 4 February).
African ties to Southeast Asia are explored in Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics (18-30 January). Held throughout a number of venues on the Gillman Barracks gallery hub, it’s organised by Zoé Whitley and assistant curator Clara Che Wei Peh, on the invitation of native curatorial non-profit The Institutum. The present will see greater than 100 artists from the 2 continents contemplate interconnected narratives about id, migration and diaspora.
The 2 exhibitions present a robust conceptual framework for a very energetic twelfth version of SAW, centred across the flagship honest Artwork SG (18-21 January). This yr, SAW has a report variety of occasions and exhibitions—greater than 150. A smaller boutique regional honest, S.E.A. Focus (20-28 January), launched in 2019, additionally returns this yr, and can present a curated showcase of regional artists, like FX Harsono and Yee I-Lann, introduced by 22 galleries.
S.E.A. Focus is once more being held on the transport facility turned artwork venue Tanjong Pagar Distripark, which can be the short-term venue of the Singapore Artwork Museum (SAM), whereas its principal downtown heritage venue is being reconstructed. SAM this yr welcomes again the native multimedia star Ho Tze Nyuan with the mid-career survey Time & the Tiger (till 2 March 2024). Close by, Gajah Gallery presents a present about colonial-era physique language in Southeast Asia (till 24 February).
Singapore has made headlines for attracting rich émigrés from Hong Kong and mainland China, and this yr sees quite a few sellers, curators, collectors and media from better China visiting Singapore for the primary time, or the primary time in a few years, to research the thrill. The Beijing collector Li Fan (also referred to as Lee Fan) on 16 January opened a brand new non-public establishment in Singapore, the Whale Museum, at present exhibiting artwork by Huang Yuxing and Ouyang Chun.
A handful of unbiased and artist-run areas have additionally been based lately, amongst them Comma House, which continues a collection of symposiums on artwork and sustainability on 19 and 21 January. Angie Seah’s solo challenge A Room of One’s Personal continues till 8 February at Starch.
Gillman Barracks brings again its standard Artwork After Darkish late-open evenings on 20 and 27 January. There, Richard Koh Fantastic Artwork exhibits a political solo present by the Myanmar dissident artist Htien Lin, titled Reincarnation (till 27 January), which displays upon his latest time as a political prisoner after opposing his nation’s navy junta.
The gallery Yeo Workshop is exhibiting new work by Filippo Sciascia (till 11 February). Its founder Audrey Yeo is at present the president of the Singapore Artwork Gallery Affiliation, which has been strengthening the co-ordination of SAW and studying from different artwork weeks round Asia. “There have been nice engagements round city,” Yeo says, with collaborations with entities like Valentino, Soho Home, the Yenn and Alan Lo Basis and the Mandala Membership. “Our geographical location and stability of politics means Singapore will at all times be a spot that draws an attention-grabbing mixture of high quality worldwide expatriates who’re eager and earnest about cultural trade and interactions, and I personally have been impressed by the rising collector scene right here.”
