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Oct 2013

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Oct 31 2013

Hong Kong

Concrete Love

by Jen Kwok

Oct 30 2013

Japan Hong Kong

So Sweet! MR. in Hong Kong

by Chloe Mandryk

This October, at Galerie Perrotin in Hong Kong, contemporary Japanese artist MR. debuted ten large-scale acrylic works as well as a handful of watercolors created in the last five years. Celebrating the ascension of anime to the ranks of high culture, MR. inundates the picture plane with 7-Eleven products, graffiti text and dancing punctuation, all of which enshrine devotional images of young girls. Much like a sugar-high, the artist highlights the visceral and irrational state caused by excessive consumption.

Oct 28 2013

Malaysia Singapore

Order and Chaos: Interview with Shooshie Sulaiman

by Marybeth Stock

Shooshie Sulaiman was born in Malaysia in 1973. After receiving a BA in Fine Art from the MARA University of Technology (UiTM) in 1996, she was given the National Art Gallery of Malaysia’s prestigious Young Contemporaries Award. Currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Shooshie also runs 12 Residence, an exhibition and project space and art-infused guesthouse.

Oct 25 2013

Singapore

Singapore Biennale 2013: Preview

by Sylvia Tsai

Singapore’s premier contemporary art exhibition, the Singapore Biennale, will open to the public on October 26. This year’s edition named “If the World Changed” will have a strong Southeast Asian focus bringing in 27 curators from around the region. This new curatorial model is aimed at developing a deeper knowledge of art scenes in the region, filling in the gaps where the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) curation is not as strong. In choosing this year’s curators, former director of SAM and project director of the biennale, Tan Boon Hui, said that the selection of curators started from “where we don’t know, people who have access to the scene, new art practices. . . this approach is taken in hopes of expanding the capacity of the Biennale.” With greater focus and intensity on this part of the world, curators selected a wide-range of projects to contextualize the unique practices, concerns and perspectives of artists from Southeast Asia. 82 artists and collectives from 13 countries, were invited to reflect on the current state of the world while offering re-imaginings for the future. Many venues are clustered in the Bras Basah. Bugis Precinct—including SAM, 8Q, National Museum of Singapore and Peranakan Museum—but some works can be seen beyond the main hub at locations such as Fort Canning and Taman Jurong. Here’s a teaser of of Singapore Biennale 2013’s offerings.

Oct 24 2013

Singapore

Singapore Biennale 2013: Parallel Event Openings

by Sylvia Tsai

Two days before the official opening of the 4th Singapore Biennale, the art community has already begun its celebrations. Art spaces around town took advantage of the influx of regional and international attention to open exhibitions and inaugurate new spaces. Here is a glimpse of the events on Wednesday evening that kick-started festivities in the lion city.

Oct 23 2013

Hong Kong USA

Future Economies: Interview with Robin Peckham

by Ming Lin

Oct 21 2013

China

Kuang Kuang: “Where Is My Dream?”

by Pi San

Satirical Internet cartoonist Pi San illustrates ironic critiques of the Chinese School system in his video animation Kuang Kuang. Fearlessly skirting the country’s Great Firewall, Pi delivers commentary on the absurdities of the modern Chinese society to millions of netizens. In “Blackboard” (2010), Pi asks: What happens to those students who fail to fulfil their national duty?

Oct 17 2013

Hong Kong

Concrete Love

by Jen Kwok

Oct 10 2013

Hong Kong

Concrete Love

by Jen Kwok

Oct 09 2013

USA Bangladesh

Worn: Monica Jahan Bose’s “Storytelling with Saris”

by Miryam Haarlammert

At the Brentwood Arts Exchange at the Gateway Arts Center in Brentwood, Maryland—less than a mile from the United State’s capital—the sounds of Katakhali, a small community on Barobaishdia Island in South-western Bangladesh, can be heard. Following the sounds, and turning a corner, one is led to Bangladeshi-American artist-activist, Monica Jahan Bose’s exhibition “Layer By Layer: Storytelling with Saris,” which is part of an ongoing conversation about literacy and eco-empowerment for the women of her home village of Katakhali.

Oct 07 2013

Palestine Italy

Emily Jacir: Letter From Roma

by Emily Jacir

“What’s left of the Left in Italy?” This question led Emily Jacir through archives in Italy, where she discovered little-seen films made in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

Oct 03 2013

Taiwan

Untitled Selection: Meng-Tang Chuang

by Ann Woo

Oct 02 2013

Singapore Indonesia

Unmasked: Indonesian Artists in Singapore

by Marybeth Stock

A mask can serve many purposes—disguise, restraint, identity, totem—but in the hands of Indonesian artist Eko Nugroho, it becomes something more: a wry avatar of the artist’s private mythos and an insightful rejoinder to sociopolitical absurdity. Since the 1990s, he has parodied the political issues that emerged following the collapse of the Suharto regime. Nugroho’s solo exhibit at Singapore Tyler Print Institute, “We Are What We Mask,” includes over 70 handmade paper works, all produced during the artist’s six-week residency, including some 20 mask-based incarnations of outrage and dissent.

Oct 01 2013

Australia

Crowd Control: Visitors Flock To Sydney Contemporary

by Michael Young

More than 28,000 visitors flocked to the inaugural Sydney Contemporary art fair at Carriageworks, an inner-city art space housed in a historic warehouse. On the opening night alone, 14,000 crowded into venue, causing acute crowd-control problems and nearly exceeding the overall number of visitors projected to visit the harbor city’s first major international art fair.