Art Stage Singapore 2011

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