Best stalls and premium sales at Art SG in Singapore

The air was thick with anticipation as it was too late art sg The show finally opened its doors in Singapore on Wednesday. Collectors, curators, and dealers from all over the world flock to the city’s famous Marina Bay Sands convention center, eager to comb through the works of more than 160 national and international galleries.

“It’s been four years in the making,” said Mateo Borisevich, founder of Shanghai Gallery BANK, who signed up as an exhibitor in 2018 when the exhibition was first announced. “At first, we were a little hesitant about Singapore because it’s not the most dynamic city in terms of culture, and we don’t have a lot of collectors here, but all that seems to have changed. … Yesterday was explosive.”

A strong group of collectors from neighboring Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand arrived for the event, as well as buyers from Australia, mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and Europe. Having recently gathered at Frieze Seoul, many collectors see Art SG — organized by international exhibition group The Art Assembly — as a complementary and exciting destination for contemporary art in Asia.

Recently, Singapore has been seen as the next major art hub in Asia, with many seeing Art SG as a catalyst for the local and regional art market. In the past few months, the activity of auction houses such as Sotheby’s (which in 2022 held its first auction in Singapore after 15 years) and set Representatives of international exhibitions in Singapore They have been described as signs of the city’s growing importance in the global art market. The influx of wealth from wealthy collectors in Singapore is also seen as a promising development: In the first six months of 2022, average spending by Singapore collectors was $164,000, surpassing all of 2021 at $129,000, according to Art Basel and UBS Global Collection Survey.

But while many are optimistic about the city-state’s potential, others are taking a cautious approach. “We heard these same rhetoric about Singapore’s potential 10 years ago and it never came to fruition,” said Belgian collector Alain Servais, who is also in town for the Singapore Biennale, which ends in March. “It is too early to tell. The show has a chance with that but whether the market will follow it will have to wait and see.

Several dealers from international fairs tell Arty that they come to the fair to test the waters. While some reported a slow start to the exhibition, many exhibitors saw strong interest from local and Southeast Asian collectors. Within 10 minutes of the opening of the exhibition, based in New York Sundaram Tagore GalleryLtd., which has a location in Singapore’s Gillman Barracks art district, sold two works by a Korean artist Chun Kwang Young To a buyer residing in Singapore at $184,000 and $197,000 for a large painting by a Singaporean artist. Jane Lee to a local collector.

David Zwirner He also placed many works with Southeast Asian clients early in the exhibition, selling more than half of his booth, including two large paintings by Catherine Bernhardtas well as works by New RauchAnd Carol POVand others with a total value of more than $2.5 million. Other galleries like white cube Made many sales incl Anselm Kiefer canvas, Your golden hair, Margaret (1981) for €1.2 million ($1.3 million) to an Indonesian buyer.

Pace Gallery She has sold many works to international collectors, including works by Charming James Turrell installation for $950,000, and Lyman Maupin He sold four new works by a Malaysian-born, London-based artist Mandy Al Sayegh With a grand total of $335,000 to various collectors from Singapore and Southeast Asia. Gagosian He set two works by the late American artist Ashley Bickerton With the MACAN Museum in the home of the accredited artist in Indonesia. Although six-figure sales on opening day were limited, so far the showrooms are pleased with the footfall and appetite of regional collectors as well as younger, local buyers.

Here are six of the best Art SG booths, which will be on display through Sunday, January 15th.

BC04 booth

With works by Otto Ball, Chung Chang-sup, Raymond Gerke, Norio Imai, Kimsouga, Java Lamm, Tsuyoshi Maekawa, Yoko Nasaka, Renato Nicolodi, Kazuo Shiraga, Bosco Sodi, Jeff Verheyen

Dramatic sculptural works by avant-garde Japanese Gotai artists along with contemporary names from Hong Kong, Korea and Mexico dominate this booth from Belgium. Axel Vervoordt Gallery. Among the most striking Japanese female artists Tsuyoshi MaekawaHer Expressionist paintings wrapped in cut, crumpled, and rolled burlap, the Korean artist KimsogaButari Carved – Green Parrot Bundle of used Korean bed linen and clothing.

Another highlight is the Hong Kong artist Jaffa L‘s Hybrid peace (2022). Working with female workers laid off from local garment factories, Lam has transformed bits of recycled parachute fabric into a patchwork flag that reflects ideas of identity, memory, and the collective history fraught with her hometown.

FC09 booth

With works by Baran Ejlal and Monis Ejlal

This jewel box for a booth from the Shrine Empire gallery in New Delhi is full of powerful miniature paintings set in evocative wooden frames. Self-taught Indian artist Examine the homage She worked with her brother, historian Monis Ijlal, on the series “Shahid Maad” (2021) for nearly 10 years.

As they traveled to the old quarters of Bhopal, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kolkata and Banaras in India, the Ijlal family spoke to individuals including marginalized sex workers and Dalits (a caste of people formerly known as “untouchables”) and recorded the accounts of their personal and collective losses. Drawing directly on images of historic architectural sites, she brings to life the harrowing testimonies of ordinary individuals.

Baran creates a fantasy world filled with fictional characters, including a raven-winged woman meant to be a restorer of order and a two-headed tyrant who symbolizes those who abuse power. The lyrical woodframes made by Monis include elements such as boats and animals that amplify the paintings’ narratives.

BB02

With works by Bingyi, Zheng Chongbin, Li Huasheng Li Jin, Peng Kanglong, Su Huang-Sheng, Hung Fai, and Wai Pong-yu

This booth is from a gallery in Beijing and New York ink studio Celebrates a group of eight fiercely creative contemporary ink artists. Chinese artist BenjiThe gorgeous abstract ink paintings that appear on the booth’s exterior are not to be missed. In a similar tradition to land artists of the 1960s and 1970s, she creates these works in the Taihang Mountains of China, splashing ink and water onto paper and collaborating with the site’s topography as well as weather and gravity to achieve unexpected results.

Around the corner is a huge collage work, Uncover the shadows of the loser (2019), by the veteran illustrator based in San Francisco Cheng Chong Bin. Consisting of fine Xuan paper pasted over aluminum frames, it is made using an unusual combination of white acrylic paint and ink. Abandoning expressionist brushstrokes, he lets materials dictate the work, forming spontaneous streams and pools that culminate in a painting full of movement and drama.

Booth 1C03

With works by Busui Ajaw, Xu Bing, Ching Ho Cheng, Michael Lin, Lin Ke, Michael Najjar, Tawatchai Puntusawasdi, Tang Song, and Sun Yitian

Artist based in Chiang Mai Tawatchai Puntusawasdi‘s nasty (2016) is the centerpiece of this carefully curated exhibition from Shanghai Gallery BANK. The colossal egg-shaped sculpture, made of riveted aluminum sheet, depicts the personification of the Earth’s shadow on the Moon. Made using complex mathematical calculations and diagrams – seen in a diagram-like adjacent drawing – the work appears both ancient and futuristic.

The other sculpture forms a natural dialogue with the close-up Quickly (2017) by a German photographer Michael Carpenter, which depicts the world’s largest radio telescope in China, a 500-meter-span spherical metal structure built to detect extraterrestrial signals. Bordering on surrealism, the work shows the giant curved techno-content found in a remote valley, seamlessly fused with the few star-like specks at the top of the work, the distant galaxies imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

FC03 booth

With the works of Cinta Tantra

This blue-carpeted single show of the world Kristin Hilligerdy Gallery It is an oasis of calm amidst the crowded stalls filled with the cacophony of business. While the British ballet artist Tantric feel Known for her vibrant palette of often hues like stunning pinks, lush greens, and sharp yellows, these palettes from 2022 are filled with muted swaths of Prussian blue with moon-like golden circles.

The elegant Tantra series of geometric panels is inspired by an intimate moonlit scene in the musical The King and Ibased on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam. Tantra describes her process as meditative, something that is rooted in her Balinese background, and says creating a sense of balance in the compositions was key.

BC05 booth

With works by Anthony Caro, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Katsura Funakoshi, Nom Gabo, Alan Green, David Hockney, Leon Kossoff, Kazimir Malevich, David Nash, Suzanne Traister, Theo van Doesburg and François Morellet

London gallery Anle Gowda Fine Arts He presented an amazing display of the work of a British sculptor David Nash on the outside of the cab. Working closely with nature, Nash uses trees that have fallen naturally, have been felled for safety purposes, or have been felled due to disease. His organic sculptures range from sharp-edged velvety black oak work on a matching black mantel to precariously cut redwood carvings that evoke intricate natural rock formations.