Singapore'S Strategy And Post Movement In Pursuit Of Southeast Asian Art Market

With the advent of the Lunar New Year Festival, the Chinatown of Lion City Singapore has long been decorated with lanterns and lanterns. Like the new year's fair, 20 galleries from 13 cities in Southeast Asia and around the world are gathered in this multicultural Garden Island to add different popularity to the Singapore Arts Week, which was held in January 2020.

In from January 16 to 19, 2020, the second S.E.A. Focus was held in the Visual Arts District, Singapore. This year, more than 35 selected artists in Southeast Asia or closely related to Southeast Asia have shown the artistic creativity and market vitality of Southeast Asian communities.

The second S.E.A.Focus live in Singapore. Liang Xin she

Top-down strength

It can not be said that the development of contemporary visual art in Singapore has changed rapidly in the past few years. In 2006, Singapore held the first Singapore Biennale. In 2011, it welcomed the debut of the art fair. In 2012, the Ji men barracks opened to the public as a collection of visual arts; the first Singapore Art Week was launched in 2013; in 2015, Singapore The National Gallery, which has been transformed for ten years, is known as the largest collection of modern art in Southeast Asia.

However, in recent years, Singapore, which has the ambition to become a global art hub, seems to have encountered a "bottleneck": the Affordable Art Fair, which was scheduled to be held two times a year, was reduced to once a year as a result of its exhibitors and sales. In 2017, the Singapore contemporary art exhibition drew its last curtain. In 2018, "art landing in Singapore" faced with the low level since its establishment, with only 84 galleries exhibiting. 2019's "art landing in Singapore" was announced a week before the opening of the exhibition, so that 45 of the 45 Gallery exhibitors were killed unawares. Compared with the "big action" of the earlier years, the performance in the later stage seems to be somewhat stamina.

In order to reverse the predicament, the Singapore government invested 420 million 800 thousand yuan (about 2 billion 150 million yuan) in the field of art and cultural heritage in 2017, and launched a new government plan to revitalize Singapore's literature, performance and visual arts industry. On the east side of the policy, the gallery of STPI-Creative Gallery, the AGAS Gallery of Singapore Art Gallery (hereinafter referred to as the "AGAS Association"), with the support of the National Art Council of Singapore, launched its first S.E.A. Focus in 2019.

Speaking in an interview with the former chairman of the AGAS Association, executive director of STPI gallery and the three position of the two S.E.A. Focus project director, the National Arts Council of Singapore plays a vital role in facilitating the project and promoting Singapore's cultural development. On the one hand, the government provided financial support to the project sponsor STPI Gallery in terms of venue and operation and maintenance, reducing the pressure of its annual operating budget by about 1/3. On the other hand, the government also raised funds and provided venues for S.E.A. Focus, and supported it as one of the core activities of Singapore Arts Week. Thanks to solid government resources, although S.E.A. is not big at every scale, the performance of Focus has always been lighter and better than that of other large local art fairs which have been struggling in recent years.

Adding jigsaw puzzle to Southeast Asia

S.E.A. Focus, as the name suggests, focuses on the South East Asia Art Fair. Speaking at the opening day, Grace Fu, Minister of culture, community and youth in Singapore, said: "visual arts have played an important role in the lives of Singaporeans, helping us to identify our national identity and national identity. S.E.A. Focus, as a new pillar of Singapore Arts Week, focuses on the works of galleries and artists in Southeast Asian countries, and promotes cultural exchange and dialogue, so that we can better discover, appreciate and understand Southeast Asian art, which coincides with the government's planning concept.

Emi explained to reporters that for many Westerners, Southeast Asia is just a holiday resort full of mysterious exotic customs, and they are not interested in understanding the development of contemporary art here. She said: "in the global contemporary art market, even if all Southeast Asian countries together as a whole, it occupies a small share. In the current art market, there is a lack of a solid platform dedicated to the promotion of Southeast Asian Art and galleries. In order to fill this gap, S.E.A. Focus came into being.

The 20 galleries that came to the exhibition were praised by Emi as "the powerful representative of Southeast Asian Art Circles from 45 candidates." As soon as he stepped into the exhibition hall, the neugerriemschneider Gallery in Berlin, Germany, brought Thailand artists' Rirkrit Tiravanija interactive installations to the eye. A table chair with pillows and a tea table filled with artists' tea sets are placed in the middle of the booth. The three sides of the blue exhibition wall are printed with hand drawn drawings with silk net. Most of the contents are demonstrations and protests around the world. The audience will be invited to sit on the couch leisurely and lying down, enjoying the demonstration on the wall around the world while drinking tea, and opening up an emotional space in the alternate sensory impact.

Adjacent to the neugerriemschneider gallery is the Singapore FOST Gallery, which brings together two Singaporean artists. Compared to early creation based on fabric form, this FOST Gallery focuses on the mini art device that Grace Tan has begun in recent years - creating special geometric shapes with stacked stacking techniques. Through the subtle differentiation and reorganization of the internal texture of objects, we explore how to sublimate the body itself and its structure. The Wyn-Lyn Tan new metal oil painting is a continuation of the series of works that the artist has been exploring materialization and de materialization. By adding and reducing strokes and levels, we can leave the audience with instant and lasting thinking.

Mizuma Gallery, which has exhibition space in Tokyo, Singapore and New York, brings the oil paintings and sculptures produced by Singapore artist Ben Loong with industrial materials. Mizuma gallery space was first set up in Tokyo in 1994. Later, in order to further promote the work of Southeast Asian artists in the international art market, we came to Singapore to launch a new exhibition space in 2012. Gallery staff Marsha Tan told reporters that because last year coincided with other art fair collision period, missed the first S.E.A. Focus registration. But it also gave them a chance to wait for the S.E.A. Focus that was still new at that time. "Judging from the feedback from the first exhibitors, they agreed with each other, so we agreed that the second S.E.A. Focus would be the best opportunity for us to show our gallery."

At the end of the day of the VIP preview in January 15th, some galleries have been very successful. Sullivan+Strumpf Gallery, which has exhibition space in Sydney, Australia and Singapore, has been exhibiting for second years this year. They sold a number of stone inscriptions of the Singapore Dawn Ng "MONUMENT monument" (MONUMENT MOMENTO), ranging in price from 5000 US dollars to $25 thousand. "Although the art exhibition is small in scale, the quality is very high." The gallery owner, Ursula Sullivan, said: "Southeast Asian Art Gallery and its target collectors are brought together in a forward-looking and active way."

The Columns, a gallery from Seoul, Korea, has set up a solo exhibition for Philippines artist Eisa Jocson, who won the 2019 Hugo Asia Art Prize. Despite the remote location of The Columns near the export of art exhibition, the Becoming White, which has great impact on the eyeball, has successfully kept many people away. Several dark skinned Disney Snow White dolls lay on the ground staring at the big, silent eyes. The stump limbs were thrown away at the side of the doll. The white walls and slovenly clothes were everywhere. Eisa Jocson, an artist, says that just like the "joy" of Disney Park in Hongkong is built on the cost of many invisible workers, Filipino Filipino ethnic identity is like a never seen and recognized run in the movie. He wants to explore the relationship between the employer and the Philippine industry in Hongkong and the social population flow in the society. Dong Jo Chang, director of the The Columns Gallery, said there are still more wonderful works for the official opening meeting with the audience.

At the end of the interview, Emi expressed her hope for the second S.E.A. Focus. She hoped that the top-down effort could help the gallery and collectors to get a good deal, while those who were not buying and selling would hope that they could spend more time learning about the creation of a Southeast Asian artist. She said, "take away more knowledge about Southeast Asian artists. This is a luxury we can afford in Singapore."