THE RISE OF SOUTH-EAST ASIAN ART

S.E.A. Focus, the world’s only boutique art fair dedicated exclusively to Southeast Asian art, debuts this January during Singapore Art Week. Y-jean Mun-delsalle sits down with the organisers

Before Art Basel Hong Kong in March and the first edition of Art SG – to be launched by the cofounders of Art HK, Tim Etchells and Angus Montgomery Arts – in November, art lovers in Singapore and the region will get their first taste of the brandnew S.E.A. Focus when the city-state plays host to the only boutique art fair focused entirely on Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art, taking place from 23 to 27 January.

Initiated by Singapore’s STPI –Creative Workshop & Gallery and organised by Emi Eu, executive director of STPI, and Audrey Yeo, founder of Yeo Workshop, this regional art fair at the Gillman Barracks visual arts enclave will act as a guide to deciphering the Southeast Asian art world, understanding its diversity, transformation and potential for development, and discovering its established and rising stars. It feeds into Singapore’s arts hub ambitions and the belief that there is untapped demand for Southeast Asian art in Asia. Singapore’s unique geographical location allows ease of access for Southeast Asian collectors, and artwork prices will be situated between those of Affordable Art Fair and Art Stage Singapore: from US$2,000 to US$200,000.

Ursula Sullivan of Sydney-based gallery Sullivan + Strumpf, which has a Gillman Barracks outpost, discloses, “Southeast Asia is an important art region and there is no other fair really giving it the attention it deserves. Without question, we wanted to be involved. We’ll be showing some great works by Jeremy Sharma, Dawn Ng and Kanchana Gupta at the fair, and will also have Australian artist, Lindy Lee, in our gallery.” Pearamon Tulavardhana, project coordinator of Gallery VER, which will present Thai artists Udomsak, Wantanee and Nuttapon, states, “As a Bangkok gallery that represents many local artists, we hope to encourage Southeast Asian artists. We have heard from our friends, whether artists, curators or gallerists, that most art fairs in this zone are run by foreigners or outsiders. Although there is nothing wrong with that, we still believe that locals can have a better understanding of art around Southeast Asia. Once we heard that S.E.A. Focus is a gathering of local people, we wanted to give our support to this fair and push forward Southeast Asian art.”

Over 54 artists from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and the US will be exhibited by 26 local and international galleries such as Artinformal, Art Seasons, Commonwealth & Council, Galerie Quynh, Richard Koh Fine Art, Ruci Art Space, The Columns Gallery, Tomio Koyama Gallery and 47 Canal.

Singapore’s Cheong Soo Pieng and Chua Ek Kay, Latiff Mohidin from Malaysia, and Vietnam’s Nguyen Trung are among the blue-chip veteran artists; contemporary masters Jane Lee, Kamin Lertchaiprasert and Agus Suwage, and emerging artists Julian “Togar” Abraham, Brisa Amir, Amy Lien and Enzo Camacho are among those to look out for.

Yeo cites two artists to watch: Handiwirman Saputra of Jakarta-based Nadi Gallery because he is one of Indonesia’s leading conceptual artists who creates elegant but surprising forms from sculpture and painting, and Manuel Ocampo of The Drawing Room, as he represented the Philippines at the Venice Biennale. Eu explains the fair’s approachable nature, “We didn’t want to make it so large that people would be intimidated. Often, when people visit a fair, it takes forever to go around, but this will be quite intimate and easy to navigate. It’s the right size for people to start on something.” Highlights will include collector home visits, special museum tours and a talks series discussing art fairs, artists’ cultural values, investing and collecting art.

While the Asia Contemporary Art Show may have pulled out of Singapore last year and Affordable Art Fair reduced its two editions to one, S.E.A. Focus has a good chance of succeeding because it is galleryoriented and gallery-led, with the organisers being gallerists themselves and aware of the needs of galleries in the region. Members of the Art Galleries Association, the leading national body representing the interests of gallery owners and operators in Singapore, had been discussing such a project for years, although preparations for this edition only started in March 2018, after obtaining a grant from the STB, EDB and NAC.

“Collectors can go to international art fairs and see international artists, but it’s at a regional type project where they’ll be able to discover something new. S.E.A. Focus really offers an indepth presentation of what’s going on in our region,” Eu notes.

Pham Phuong Cuc, gallery director of Hanoi-based CUC Gallery, says, “The reason we chose to participate is that the focus on Southeast Asian art and Singapore as a new art and cultural hub will be even more critical compared to the past. Vietnam recently has been experiencing many changes and developments in terms of the economy and cultural shifts. We can see the differences and similarities between Southeast Asian countries through art. So we hope through this art fair, for the first time, people can really see and understand where we stand and what we represent.”

Yeo concludes, “Sometimes Southeast Asian art can be exoticised, but young contemporary artists today are creating universal works, so regional fairs are a chance for people to update their knowledge on certain regions. We have been developing our own scene at home with the galleries, and also in Indonesia and the Philippines, they have been developing their own gallery scenes, so it’s really nice to have a platform like S.E.A. Focus where everyone can get together. It’s about networking and updating tastes and aesthetics, so it’s really exciting to be part of something that’s very current and to have our finger on the pulse of that.”