SETTING THE STAGE
With eagerly anticipated new initiatives as well as a focus on the vibrant Thai art scene, Art Stage Singapore 2018 looks set to surpass previous editions.
Singapore Art Week returns this month from the 17th to the 28th. With more than 100 events around town, the annual affair provides inspiration on what to buy, which emerging artists to keep tabs on, which bluechip names continue to perform well, and which artwork could potentially outperform Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, the US$450 million (S$607 million) painting sold at Christie’s last November.
None of this would have been possible without Art Stage Singapore, the Week’s anchor event, now in its eighth year. This year, it runs from the 26th to the 28th at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, with a special focus on leading Thai artists and galleries.
Lorenzo Rudolf, Art Stage’s president, explains why Thailand is under the spotlight this year. “In the last one and a half years, a lot of new serious and professional art galleries have opened in Thailand, such as the Maiiam Museum of Contemporary Art by Jean Michel Beurdeley and his son, Eric Bunnag Booth. And 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.”
To keep things lively, several new initiatives are being put forward. First up is a special exhibition on Collectible Designs, a collaboration with online art gallery The Artling. Think contemporary furniture from local design heavyweights like Nathan Yong and home accessories by rising Lebanese talents Saccal Design House.
Explaining the rationale for the collaboration, The Artling founder Talenia Phua Gajardo says: “Art and design have an intrinsically natural relationship and our mission is ultimately