It’s been such a manic end of year, we’ve barely had a moment to blog. So before we step into 2013, a few highlights and events from the past couple of months:

 

1-29 December Euphoria at Numthong Gallery at Aree – breathtaking landscape paintings by Niti Wattuya, some stretching to six metres.

 

8 December-14 April (2013) The 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT7) at GOMA and QAG Brisbane – we finally made it to APT, now 20 years old, and were glad we did. Many happy reunions with old friends at the opening, and a generally laid-back experience with interesting sights and sounds. We especially enjoyed Kids APT!

1 December VWFA closing party – we bid a sad final farewell to Valentine Willie Fine Art and the Bangsar gallery.

 

26 October-6 January Thai Transience at Singapore Art Museum – last chance to catch this wonderful exhibition of contemporary and traditional art works and objects from Thailand, curated by Apinan Poshyananda, organised as part of Thai CulturalFest.

 

2 November-5 December  Milenko Prvacki: A Survey, 1979 – 2012 at Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS) – Charles Merewether in his notes to the exhibition describes Milenko Prvacki as “one of the most important painters today” and indeed, this exhibition truly showed there to be a giant among us.

 

7-28 November at VWFA KL Painted Words and Written Paintings: For the Refined and For the Masses – a fitting last solo exhibition at VWFA’s flagship Bangsar gallery. Malaysian painter Liew Kwai Fei has gone in a surprising, interesting new direction, pulling off a show bursting with colourful exuberance, brimming with angry social criticism.

 

1-20 November at TAKSU KL No Talking Points – it was refreshing, in this time of quick fixes, to come across this quietly, carefully thought-out exhibition of challenging paintings and objects by a generation of Pinoy artists of true mettle, including Bernardo Pacquing, Cris Villanueva Jr, Elaine Navas, Hubert San Juan, Juan Alacazaren, Nilo Ilarde, Pete Jimenez, and the younger Lyle Buencamino.

(BY)

The opening of Personal Effects, our first exhibition project for 2009, on 30 May was a roaring success. We were really happy to see so many of our friends from the art world and beyond come to the show. Thanks all for your support. Thank you especially to the exhibitors for being so forthcoming. I hope in the end they rather enjoyed having their prized possessions on display.

The first floor was a great crowd-pleaser, especially with the younger guests – they really took to Su Ann Wong’s shrine “The Dolphin is My Goddess” and Chang Yoong Chia’s clever shadow play “Shadow of Flora and Fauna”. Wong Hoy Cheong’s “Free Coffee” was also very popular, attracting such luminaries as Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal and his wife Datin Hamidah.

We apologise now for not having many photos of the night – sadly, while the crowd was wonderfully respectful of the fragility and preciousness of the exhibits, my camera went missing at the end of the night. If you came for the opening, please do post any nice images you may have!

For more about the show, and to download the PDF catalogue, go to our Exhibitions Page.

BY