We attended the recent award announcement for the Young Contemporaries 2010 at the National Art Gallery and would like to congratulate the winners again! BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Haslin Ismail, Tan Nan See, Diana Ibrahim & Helmi Azam!

Tan Nan See, Rupa Malaysia : Jewellery

Haslin Ismail, The Way It All Works

We’ve just returned from a whirlwind trip in Singapore to join the frenzy of Art Stage 2011.

The Singaporeans and their consultants certainly pulled out all the stops, and pretty much pulled off a very ambitious plan in 8 months. What the fair lacked in punch, it made up for in range – there was a lot to take in and there was a nice safe balance of works from East/West/big-time/emerging. We thought a lot more could have been done about the project booths and the vernissage could have been more wow but as Asian art fairs go, it was pretty alright.

We were more impressed by the island-wide effort to make an art weekend of it. Visitors we met in the elevator said they were having “a great party”.

For drama, there was the entry to Collectors’ Stage at ArtSpace@HeluTrans. The show was an important effort, but as patriotic Southeast Asians we really thought a lot of super pieces (and collections) had been missed.

‘Desperately Seeking Paradise’ by Rashid Rana
in the ‘Collector’s Stage’ at ArtSpace@HeluTrans

‘Sofa’ & ‘Pose No. 1, 2 & 3′ by Handiwirman Saputra
in the ‘Collector’s Stage’ at Singapore Art Museum

Roberto Chabet : To be continued
at Institute of Contemporary Art (at LaSalle College of the Arts)

Manuel Ocampo : The Painter’s Equipment
at VWFA @ ArtSpace@HeluTrans

The Pinoys were also out in full force – one-man shows by Roberto Chabet, Ben Cabrera and Manuel Ocampo punctuated the weekend. “Roberto Chabet: To be continued…” at the ICA kicked off a year of exhibitions and projects to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of this seminal conceptual artist’s first show – if you’re going down to Singapore this is the one exhibition you must go and see. Bad boy Ocampo’s “The Painter’s Equipment” at VWFA Singapore was also a refreshing surprise. We didn’t manage much else, popped into Tokyo Cool at 8Q, missed all the talks and the Open House Marine Parade art tour which just looked too frighteningly popular.

Of Art Stage itself, our votes went to (in no particular order):

Best-looking booths:

12 (Malaysia)
Platform 3 (Indonesia)
Chan Hampe Gallery (Singapore)
Mori Yu Gallery (Japan)
Gallery Tagboat (Japan)

Project Booth by 12 (Malaysia)

Platform 3 (Indonesia)

Where we would shop:

Arario Gallery
ARK Galerie
Art-U Room and Numthong Gallery
Collectors Contemporary
ftc. Berlin
Nadi Gallery
Mam Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art
Shrine Empire Gallery

ARK Galerie (Indonesia)

Art-U Room (Japan) and Numthong Gallery (Thailand)

If money was no object, we would buy:

Wim Delvoye, D11 Scale Mode at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
Natee Utarit, The Birth of Tragedy at Richard Koh Fine Art
Marc Quinn’s Angkor Windfarm at Bartha & Senarclens Partners

Wim Delvoye, D11 Scale Mode

If we had any money at all we would buy:

Handiwirman’s sculpture at Gajah Gallery
Thukral & Tagra prints at STPI
Lego sculptures by John Cake & Darren Neave (The Little Artists)
Anish Kapoor’s untitled gourd sculptures at Art U-Room and Numthong Gallery
Tintin Wulia’s video installation, Neous ne notons pas les fleurs -Jakarta at ARK Galerie
Chen Yujun, Asian Circumscription –5.2 Square Meters No. 20100415 at Boers-Li Gallery
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Van Gogh’s The Midday Sleep 1889-90 at the Thai Villagers, at 100 Tonson Gallery

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Van Gogh’s The Midday Sleep 1889-90 at the Thai Villagers

A collage by Thukral + Tagra

Image: Propositional Berg by Lena Cobangbang for Rogueish Festive Cards

Very shortly, we will be ushering in a new year. Where did all our time go in 2010?  Between collections consultancy and logistical management work, and our publication and commission projects, it’s been an inspiring year with new challenges and rewards. Here are some of the highlights of our 2010:

Publications

WORKING

Kicking off with the exhibition WORK at 19 Jalan Berangan in January, this artists-initiated project culminated in the launch of our first RogueArt publication in October, in conjunction with the exhibition 10 Malaysian Artists:  Portraits From The Work Project by the book’s lead photographer Tara Sosrowardoyo at Zinc Art Space in KL. WORKING explores studio practice and artistic process through the experiences of Malaysian artists Ahmad Fuad Osman, Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Chong Siew Ying, Hamir Soib, Jalaini Abu Hassan, Kow Leong Kiang, Raja Shahriman Raja Aziddin, Ramlan Abdullah and Yee I-Lann.

Yee I-Lann: Boogeyman: Fluid World

In collaboration with Valentine Willie Fine Art, we worked with Yee I-Lann on her landmark exhibition Boogeyman at the Black Box at MAP KL in September and her monograph Fluid World, which was launched at VWFA in November.

2010 also saw the launch of two publications we were involved in as text editors last year – Agus Suwage’s extraordinary monograph Still Crazy After all These Years in Jakarta in May and 30 Art Friends in Singapore in March. We helped the Malaysian Art Friends with an exhibition to coincide with the book’s Kuala Lumpur launch at the National Art Gallery in June.

All the above publications and more books on Southeast Asian art are now available at www.rogueish.asia, and at selected bookshops in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Publications in progress

We are proud to announce that we have raised support for the full budget of RM360,000 for Narratives in Malaysian Art, an ambitious four-volume publication comprising republished texts, commissioned essays, and interviews on the development of visual art in Malaysia to be published by RogueArt through 2011 and 2012. We’d like to thank our sponsors Bangsar Village, Balai Seni Lukis Negara, Kenneth Tan, Gudang Damansara, Rosemary and Steve Wong, Malakoff Corporation Berhad, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Avenue Invest Berhad, Helu-Trans (Singapore) Pte Ltd, and Khazanah Nasional Berhad for their corporate support, and the Krishen Jit-ASTRO Fund for their support, as well as the many Friends and benefactors of the project. The editorial team led by Nur Hanim Khairuddin and Beverly Yong, with Hasnul J Saidon and Eva McGovern are very excited as Volumes I and II begin to shape up. Do visit the NMA website for updates.

RogueArt are also thrilled to be working on an artist’s book for Eko Nugroho, to be published in Indonesia in the second half of 2011. This monograph will a present a number of landmark projects and works produced by this prolific artist over the past decade.

Sime Darby Epic Painting

In 2009, we assisted Sime Darby Berhad in commissioning three artists to work on an epic painting to celebrate its centennial this year. Ahmad Fuad Osman, Anurendra Jegadeva and Chuah Chong Yong are currently completing this 50 ft opus, which offers a dynamic visual interpretation of this company’s history and vision, at Wisma Sime Darby in KL as part of the company’s centennial exhibition.

‘So You Want To Be an Artist’

In June we organized a workshop in collaboration with House of Matahati (HOM) geared towards young artists starting out on a professional career. Artists and industry players offered practical advice and guidance on matters from how to pack an artwork to the ethics of gallery contracts.

Online material

We’ve recently uploaded the notes from Where Art Happens, our 2009 talks series on issues of art infrastructure focusing on the Malaysian scene but also looking to achievements and challenges in the region as a whole, as well as articles we’ve published as RogueArt, for the sadly now defunct Off the Edge magazine (including our “Where Art Happens” map of local art infrastructure), and “Cocktails Will Be Served”, our contribution to IVAA’s publication in progress on the art market boom and bust, Economy Class.

We’d like to wish all our friends and associates a wonderful start to 2011. We hope to see you in the New Year!

Tan Nan See, “I Wanna Be A Contemporary Artist”, 2006-2007, Mixed media.

This work is exhibited at Galeri Petronas, KLCC in their exhibition “Young Malaysian Artists – New Objec(tion), 13 July – 3 October 2010.

The dust has now settled from our move to Taman Tunku apartments in March 2010. While we adjust to the cosier dimensions of our office space, Rogue has been working on a few projects at a steady simmer. At present, we are also juggling a couple of unexpected last minute offers which we simply could not refuse.  We thought we’d take a moment to share with you are activities for the upcoming months, in case you are wondering what has been keeping us busy. View/Download the PDF here.

To keep in touch with our activities, join us on Facebook!

We are in the middle of getting ready for the exhibition “Malaysian Art Friends : Highlights from 15 Private Collections” opening at the National Art Gallery Malaysia this weekend. This exhibition will be held in conjunction with the launch of the book “30 Art Friends : Appreciating Southeast Asia Art”. So, if you are free on Saturday evening, do drop by and join us at the exhibition opening at 8pm on June 26th, 2010. The event will be officiated by Y Bhg Tan Sri Kamarul Ariffin.

National Art Gallery Malaysia
2, Jalan Temerloh, Off Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur

The exhibition continues until 20 July 2010

RSVP before 24 June 2010
+603 4026 7000
Noor Elissa
Salma At’riah

We had a chat with our friends at Arteri Malaysia about our involvement with Agus Suwage’s monograph “Still Crazy After All These Years”. Click here to read

For more about Agus Suwage’s work, check out his website here.

(AO)

We’d like to congratulate national laureate Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal on winning his court case against the Mayor of KL last Friday, and to the courts for their enlightened decision on this landmark case for the Malaysian artist community. The Mayor of KL has been ordered to pay RM750,000 to Datuk Syed for “damages on infringement of moral rights” following the massive alteration of the artist’s Lunar Peaks sculpture (commissioned by UMBC Harta Sdn Bhd in 1985) at Jalan Bandar without his consent. Read the reports in Malaysian Digest and The Star.

We salute Datuk Syed and Datin Hamidah and their legal team for their perseverance. What now for Lunar Peaks however?

(BY)

Hello All!

This has been circulating in Facebook for a couple of weeks now and we thought we’d share this with you. Our dear friends at Cemeti Art House is making an open call to artists from Southeast Asia who may be interested in participating in the following programmes:

- working on project/workshop & exhibition with artists from Myanmar
- 3 month residency at Cemeti Art House
- holding Master Class programme

If you are interested please mail them:

- latest updated CV with links to websites/blogs etc
- a portfolio with minimum 5 works
- a short write up about the theme and concepts you’d like to explore

CAH only accepts proposals in the form of CD, DVD or hardcopy print outs.

There is no age limit to this call. Students are encouraged to apply if interested. Please note however that non-Indonesian artists will have to work out funding possibilities individually as this is a rather modest programme and funding is very limited.

DEADLINE is APRIL 15th but CAH is willing to make exceptions for late-applicants so do email ahead to let them know if you are interested in applying! Apparently there haven’t been many takers so we thought we’d help spread the word from our end.

email:cemetiah@indosat.net.id

GOOD LUCK!

***

Lamaran Terbuka Untuk Seniman/Seniwati
Dengan pergantian fokus Rumah Seni Cemeti di tahun 2010 yang tidak lagi kepada penyelenggaraan pameran rutin, tetapi lebih kepada mendorong praktek seni dan wacana dengan mengembangkan proyek-proyek khusus dan program residensi, maka kami membuka penerimaan lamaran dari seniman/seniwati yang memiliki antusiasme untuk memperdalam wacana & merealisasikan proyek/ide kreatifnya bersama Rumah Seni Cemeti.

KAMI MENCARI SENIMAN/SENIWATI YANG TERTARIK
UNTUK MENGIKUTI:
- Proyek/workshop & pameran bersama seniman dari Myanmar
- Residensi di Rumah Seni Cemeti selama 3 [tiga] bulan
- Master Class Program

SEGERA KIRIMKAN:
- CV terbaru [dilengkapi dengan link ke website atau blog Anda jika ada]
- Portfolio dengan minimal 5 [lima] karya Anda
- Tulisan singkat tentang tema & konsep karya

Kami hanya menerima lamaran & portfolio dalam format cd, dvd dan hard copy.
Tidak ada batas usia pelamar & lamaran juga terbuka untuk mahasiswa.

Tenggat waktu pengiriman:
15 April 2010

Aplikasi dikirimkan ke:
Jl. D.I. Panjaitan 41 / Yogyakarta 55143
Open : 09.00 a.m. – 05.00 p.m. , Sunday, Monday closed.
t / f : +62 (0) 274 371015 / SMS : 08122733564
e-mail : cemetiah@indosat.net.id

http://www.facebook.com/l/10ce8;www.cemetiarthouse.com