Singapore’s positioning as a multi-cultural and business hub has given the organisers of Art Stage the strength to host the eighth edition of this popular art exhibition, which features contemporary art works from around Asia, particularly South-east Asia.
The event kicked off on Thursday (January 25) at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre and will continue till Sunday (January 28) during which thousands of visitors will get to see the offerings of 97 exhibitors from 38 cities. Last year the fair attracted about 33,000 connoisseurs.
The main aim of this year’s Art Stage is to provide a platform for South-east Asian artistes to display their creativity and set up a unified market for art companies from the region. On show are several top works from Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The official country focus has been placed on Thailand, whose thriving art scene is attracting increasing global attention. “One of the main goals of Art Stage is to promote the South-east Asian art world and to bring these national art scenes closer to each other as well as to the international world,” said Lorenzo Rudolf, president of Art Stage who founded the annual event in 2010.
“In the last one-and-a-half years, a lot of new serious and professional art galleries have opened in Thailand, such as the Maiim Museum of Contemporary Art by Jean Michel Beurdeley and his son Eric Bunnag Booth. We will also be having many other big collectors such as Petch Osathanugrah and Disaphol Chansiri, who will be opening their own museums in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Naturally, we have to pay tribute to this movement at the fair by featuring many Thai galleries and artists and planning spectacular museum-like projects with their leading local artists.”
There are some spectacular works by Thai artists on display. One striking effort is The Timeless Present Moment by Kamin Lertchaiprasert. It encapsulates his core aesthetic practice, where he reflects on the place of religion and the spiritual within contemporary aesthetics. Comprising a painting, an installation of 365 raku tea bowls and a sculpture of the artist, the three-part exhibition, presented by Numthong Gallery, is an explicit and realistic rendition of spiritual observance, revealing the ongoing process of the nature of life.
Another excellent Thai effort is Untitled Poems of Theodore Rousseau by Natee Utarit. It is a three-panel painting of the oak trees from the Forest of Fontainebleau. The exhibition, presented by Richard Koh Fine Art, paints the message of mother nature and simplicity in human thought.
The official theme stretching across Art Stage this year is Interactions — interaction between art from different countries, interaction between artistic disciplines in a lecture and discussion series and interaction between collectors and the public in curated visits to local collectors’ homes, including those of Teng Jee Hum, Michelangelo and Lourdes Samson and Richard Nijkerk.
There are also three special exhibitions: A collaboration with The Tiroche DeLeon Collection, an exclusive showcase by Colombian figurative artist and sculptor Fernando Botero and the works on paper of the late American artist Alexander Calder.
Art Stage Singapore 2018 is on from January 26 to January 28 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Level 1, Hall A – C, 1 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018971. For more details, visit: https://www.artstage.com
