SINGAPORE, 21 January 2019 – Gillman Barracks, Singapore’s premier visual arts destination, will host over 20 multi-disciplinary programmes by a diverse range of partners to engage varied audiences through innovative, compelling, and inspiring art experiences, making it the ultimate gateway to quality visual arts during Singapore Art Week (SAW) 2019.
Featuring a new boutique art fair S.E.A. Focus, signature open house event Art After Dark, the debut of
Adaptations – an exhibition that intersects art and technology, as well as new exhibition openings, everyone can look forward to an array of quality visual art, live music and F&B pop-ups as Gillman Barracks celebrates all things art in conjunction with SAW 2019.
Known for showcasing and encouraging discourse around Southeast Asian art, Gillman Barracks is the anchor venue for the inaugural edition of S.E.A. Focus, an initiative by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, supported by the National Arts Council (NAC).
Held from 24 to 27 January 2019, S.E.A. Focus will cast a spotlight on established and emerging Southeast Asian artists – featuring 26 leading galleries from Singapore and abroad, including Gillman
Barracks’ very own Chan + Hori Contemporary, Sullivan+Strumpf and Yavuz Gallery.
Organised with the aim to grow and nurture a deeper appreciation for the dynamic and rapidly evolving
modern and contemporary art scene within the region, S.E.A. Focus promises a comprehensive suite of programmes catering to broad audiences, including: #SEAcommunity, designed to deepen children’s appreciation of art; and #SEAspotlight, a series of talks by well-known artists, gallerists, and curators from the region.
Ms Linda de Mello, Director of Sector Development (Visual Arts), NAC, said: “Featuring a concentration of quality visual art programmes during SAW 2019, Gillman Barracks is one of the best places for Singaporeans and international visitors to experience the arts. With the debut of S.E.A. Focus, the new exhibitions presented by our resident galleries, as well as a SAW highlight, Adaptations by independent art space Supernormal, visitors have many exciting options when they visit. We encourage families and arts lovers to enjoy the thought-provoking new works by artists – emerging and established – from Singapore and Southeast Asia. As Gillman Barracks is a critical platform supporting the growth of our visual arts ecosystem, we are also thrilled to see the community come together to develop and present extensive programming that spans art forms and challenges mediums, in order to deepen art appreciation here.”
Art After Dark, Gillman Barracks’ flagship night-time open house event and perennial crowd-favourite, will return as part of SAW on 25 January 2019, featuring new exhibition openings by resident galleries such as Ota Fine Arts, ShanghART Singapore, and Yavuz Gallery.
Besides stimulating visual art experiences, visitors can also soak up live performances by established producer Intriguant, and musical stalwarts Vandetta aka Vanessa Fernandez and MAS1A. Completing the night’s offerings will be F&B pop-ups by Hopscotch, Super Simple and The 1925.
Art lovers can also immerse themselves in ongoing exhibitions throughout SAW at Gillman Barracks’ resident galleries, such as Mizuma Gallery’s Hopes & Dialogues in Rumah Kijang Mizuma, Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui’s (Trying to Remember a Tree (iii) – The world will surely collapse (ShanghART Singapore), and the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art’s Quadra Medicinale Singapore – the Asian premiere of works by the late Belgian artist Jef Geys.
This seminal work debuted at the 2009 Venice Biennale’s Belgian Pavilion, where visitors from around the world collaborated to document 12 street plants in their immediate environment, uncovering uncanny functional and medicinal properties of the oft-overlooked “weeds” in their environments.
On view will be four chapters of the project, which include a newly-created Singapore chapter containing Geys’ instructions and contributions by local collaborators Louise Neo and Teo Siyang.
Pop-up exhibitions like Richard Koh Fine Arts’ Midday Stanza will treat visitors to an immersive installation by Haffendi Anuar, in addition to exhibitions that span a variety of themes, such as Yavuz Gallery’s Alvin Ong, Supper Club redolent with black humour, and ShanghART’s Boedi Widjaja: Rivers and Lakes Tanah Dan Air featuring the artist’s Stone Telling series.
For younger audiences, Playeum Children’s Centre for Creativity will present workshops via the Seeing Art Through Play series, where young families can bond over art by building a portable camera at Camera Obscura! and creating shapes with everyday materials at Press & Pull a Cloud.
A joint initiative by the National Arts Council, the Singapore Tourism Board and the Singapore
Economic Development Board, Singapore Art Week reinforces Singapore’s position as Asia’s leading visual arts destination. In its seventh edition in 2019, the nine-day celebration of the visual arts takes place in venues across Singapore, from galleries and museums to art precincts and non-profit spaces.
Reaching out to both Singapore residents and international visitors to promote art appreciation, Singapore Art Week offers a myriad of quality art experiences which span the visual arts, from traditional to modern to contemporary practices. Audiences can look forward to art fairs, gallery openings, exhibitions, lifestyle events, public art walks, and enriching discussions on art
and culture. Singapore Art Week also aims to galvanise the arts sector to launch innovative art
and lifestyle concepts and events in conjunction with art events during this period.
Set in a former military barracks dating back to 1936 and surrounded by lush tropical greenery, the Gillman Barracks visual arts cluster was launched in September 2012. Jointly developed by government agencies, the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the National Arts Council (NAC) and the JTC Corporation (JTC), Gillman Barracks’ vision is to be Asia’s destination for the presentation and discussion of international and Southeast Asian art.
Gillman Barracks is now home to leading international and home-grown galleries, national research centre NTU Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Singapore, and art organisation Playeum’s Children’s Centre for Creativity. The art businesses and organisations are complemented by an array of cafes, bars and restaurants.
Today, Gillman Barracks is a place for art lovers, art collectors, and those curious about art. The cluster is one of the focal points of Singapore’s arts landscape, and contributes to the development of visual art in the region and beyond. For more info on Gillman Barracks, please visit: gillmanbarracks.com.
Singapore Art Week 2019 Happenings at Gillman Barracks
*Accurate as of January 21, 2019:
Midday Stanza
23 January – 16 February 2019
Richard Koh Fine Art
47 Malan Road, #01-26 Singapore 109444
Tuesday to Saturday: 10am – 7pm
Free admission
Haffendi Anuar’s Midday Stanza is an immersive installation that incorporates various sculptures and objects, that stems from the artist’s interest in the landscape and cityscape.
Light and Rock: A Site-specific Installation by Jong Oh
23-27 January 2019
Richard Koh Fine Art
22 Lock Road, #01-35 Singapore 109444
Point extends to line, and lines connects to eventually create a geometric shape that float in the air or off the wall. Moving around the structures is a disorienting experience: are the faces of the shapes solid? How do they float? Contemporary conceptual sculptor Jong Oh’s minimalist site-specific installations have been receiving critical attention from curators and collectors alike for their innovative role in redefining what is possible for Minimal art today.
Streaming Mountain
23-27 January 2019
Richard Koh Fine Art
47 Malan Road, #01-26 Singapore 109444
Abstract notions of violence and the flesh are prevalent in Yeoh Choo Kuan’s practice and he has methodically investigated these abstractions in his previous two solo shows at Richard Koh Fine Art; In the Flesh in 2014 & Live Leak in 2017. Streaming Mountain is a culmination of these two previous exhibitions as both had emotionally primed the artist to rekindle and re- understand his admiration toward “Diyu” illustrations. “Diyu” is typically depicted as a subterranean maze with various courts to which souls are taken after death to atone for their sins committed on earth.
Devices, a solo exhibition by Chris Chong Chan Fui
23 January – 3 March 2019
Chan + Hori Contemporary
6 Lock Rd, Singapore 108934
Tuesday to Friday: 11am – 7pm
Saturday and Sunday: 12pm – 6pm (closed Monday and Public Holidays)
Free admission
In his solo exhibition Devices, Malaysian artist Chris Chong Chan Fui questions society’s uncanny
but seemingly normalised relationships between natural and man-made constructs of and in the
everyday.
S.E.A. Focus
24 – 27 January 2019
Gillman Barracks Pavilion (Carpark B)
Thursday: 3pm – 9pm, Friday: 3pm – 10pm,
Saturday: 11am – 7pm, Sunday: 11am – 7pm
Ticketed
S.E.A. Focus, an initiative by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, is a newly launched platform that aims to foster deeper appreciation and increase demand for Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art. The inaugural edition takes the form of a curated boutique art fair featuring presentations by 26 leading local and international galleries within a special pop-up structure in Gillman Barracks.
Audience with an Artist
24 January 2019, 7pm – 9pm
Singapore Arts Club
47 Malan Road, Singapore 109444
Free admission
To introduce the visual arts to fresh audiences in an engaging, personal way, Singapore Arts Club will invite two contemporary artists and a moderator of different generations with rather different practices to engage in dialogue that extends beyond the art industry with new audiences. Pioneer artist Ho Tzu Nyen and artist Stephanie Jane Burt will be present for this edition of Audience with an Artist.
Residencies OPEN
25 January 2019, 7pm – 11pm (Art After Dark)
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
37 and 38 Malan Road, Singapore 109452 and 109441
Free admission
NTU CCA Singapore’s Residencies OPEN will offer visitors an opportunity to explore the studios and see works-in-progress by its Artists-in-Residence. This edition of Residencies OPEN will feature open studio sessions by artists Francisco Camacho Herrera (Colombia), Daniel Hui, John Low, Tan Kai Syng (all from Singapore), Susanne Kriemann (Germany), Soyo Lee (South Korea) and John Torres (Philippines) and a special project, Semangat Kejiranan: everybody loves good neighbours, by multidisciplinary artist Izat Arif.
Semangat Kejiranan: Everybody loves good neighbours
15 December 2018 – 24 March 2019
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
The Vitrine, Block 43 Malan Rd, Singapore 109443
12pm – 7pm
Interested in the contiguities and frictions between the natural and urban environment, Izat Arif has conducted experiential and erratic fieldwork in various landscapes in Singapore observing plants, soil, insects, and traces of human presence. The investigation is presented in The Vitrine as a form of a provisional “cabinet of essential items,” which contains a selection of the artist’s notes and drawings, research tools, and findings.
The Third Paradise by Michelangelo Pistoletto
21 January – 10 February 2019
Partners & Mucciaccia
6 Lock Rd, Singapore 108934
Tuesday to Saturday: 10am – 8pm
Monday: 3pm – 6pm
Free admission
21st Jan, 11am: Unveiling of installation at Nanyang Technological University, School of Art,
Design and Media. 81 Nanyang Drive, ART-B1-5c, Singapore 637458
22nd Jan, 6.30pm: Panel dialogue between artist and noble laureate Ben Feringa, SCIENCE
MEETS ART: HOW TO SHAPE THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
The Third Paradise – Between obverse and reverse refers to a new series of works by the artist that explores the relation of the two sides of the mirror – the reflective and the opaque – and the development of the form. This research begins with the art piece “Fronte e retro, alto e basso – Trittico” which presents the symbol of the Third Paradise formed by four semi- circular mirrors – two obverse and two reverse.
Solo Exhibition by Lindy Lee
25 January – 24 February 2019
Sullivan+Strumpf
5 Lock Rd, Singapore 108933
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am – 7pm
Sunday: 11am – 6pm
Free admission
Sullivan+Strumpf presents celebrated Australian artist Lindy Lee’s first solo exhibition in
Singapore. Lee’s practice explores her Chinese ancestry through Taoism and Ch’an (Zen)
Buddhism – philosophies that see humanity and nature as inextricably linked.
Women’s Work: Contemporary Art From Asia and the Middle East
18 January – 2 March 2019
Sundaram Tagore Gallery
5 Lock Rd, Singapore 108933
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am – 7pm
Free admission
Sundaram Tagore Singapore presents Women’s Work: Contemporary Art From Asia and the Middle East, an exhibition that brings together five innovative women from across Asia and the Middle East who challenge conventional norms. Artists include Jane Lee, Lalla Essaydi, Miya Ando, Golnaz Fathi and Kamolpan Chotvichai.
Alvin Ong, Supper Club
25 January – 17 February 2019
Yavuz Gallery
9 Lock Rd, #02-23, Singapore 108937
Tuesday to Saturday: 11am – 7pm, Sunday: 1pm – 5pm
Free admission
London-based Singaporean artist Alvin Ong’s first solo exhibition explores the body’s appetites through allusive paintings redolent with black humour.
Art After Dark x Singapore Art Week 2019
25 January 2019
Various locations within Gillman Barracks
7pm till late
Free admission
Gillman Barracks’ flagship signature event, Art After Dark, returns once again with new exhibitions and exciting programmes by its resident galleries. From stimulating visual arts to electrifying live performances, old and new fans alike can look forward to another exciting evening of art activities and programmes from 7pm till late.
Conversation: Ben Loong X Zulkifli Lee with Josef Ng
27 January 2019, 3pm – 5pm
Pearl Lam Galleries
9 Lock Rd, Singapore 108937
Free admission
Pearl Lam Galleries presents Conversation: Ben Loong X Zulkifli Lee with Josef Ng. Offering insights into the artists’ personal histories, cultural influences and future directions of their practice, the talk will also consider the artists’ material engagements in the larger context of contemporary Southeast Asian art practices and methodologies.
Seeing Art Through Play
26 and 27 January 2019, 11am – 5pm
Playeum (Children’s Centre for Creativity)
47 Malan Road, Singapore 109444
Ticketed
Camera Obscura!
11am – 1pm (Age 7-12)
Press & Pull a Cloud
2.30pm, 4pm (Age 5-10)
Families and children can build a portable camera with everyday materials in Camera Obscura. In Press & Pull a Cloud, participants will be astounded by the endless possibilities they can create using everyday materials like string and paint.
Adaptations
17 January – 9 February 2019
Gillman Barracks, Lock Rd, Singapore 108937
Blk 1 #01-01, Blk 9 #03-21
Tuesday to Saturday: 12pm – 7pm, Sunday: 12pm – 4pm
Closed Mondays and Public Holidays
Free admission
Organised and curated by independent art space Supernormal and artist-educator Ong Kian Peng, Adaptations is the first-ever showcase of its kind to address the intersection between contemporary art and technology.
The featured artists, Andreas Schlegel, Murasaki Penguin, Ong Kian Peng, Debbie Ding, Melissa Tan, Darren Ng, Jodi Cheung, Adar Ng, Tristan Lim, Eugene Tan and Lu Huijin hail from varied backgrounds of practice such as sound, sculpture and new media. Their group exhibition will showcase diverse practices which include video art, device art, computational art as well as hybrid practices combining digital and traditional media. Combining an intriguing lineup of artist talks and guided tours, practical workshops and performances, this exhibition aims to highlight the expanded potential of technology within the contemporary art genre.
Sugar Man
25 January 2019
Gillman Barracks, Lock Rd, Singapore 108937
7.30pm
Free admission
The story of Sugar Man is a story of self-fulfilling prophecy. A man who time travelled to today and who sees a reflection of the world he came from – a globalized, post-internet world; a spectacle of social and political corruption. He gleefully tells an enthralling tale of a man who struggles in life and whose ultimate survival in a much-disillusioned world is much more heroic than anything we could imagine but ultimately, the would-be hero is just another pawn in the bigger scheme of things; controlled and manipulated; falling into the grand deception of human perception.
