This year, the Singapore fair has selected seventeen fresh new artists to feature in a special #SPOTLIGHT exhibition. Get a sneak peek at five in our latest blog.
At Affordable Art Fair Singapore, we’re proud to show a broad range of artworks by emerging and established artists; living up to our claim that there is something for everyone at the fair! This year, we have over two hundred new artists, all showing at the fair for the first time, bringing fresh new work for you to peruse.
Sometimes, however we come across an artists work that we feel is that extra bit special. An emerging talent that deserves to have a #SPOTLIGHT shined on their work! So, at this year’s fair – we have created a special #SPOTLIGHT feature space, where we’ll be exhibiting works created by seventeen talents, specialising in mediums ranging from painting to sculpture, materials from acrylic to ceramics.
Unfortunately, we can’t delve into each of their oeuvres within one blog, there’s just too much to say! So, we’ve selected five of these special new artists to share with you in this #SPOTLIGHT sneak peek, read on for an introduction to each:
Tembusu Gallery, Singapore, Stand 3D – 07
Chwee kway, the iconic Teochew steamed rice cake eaten across China, Singapore, Johor and Southeast Asia is made in bowls called Chwee Kway Wa. It’s these bowls and the delicious treat, that inspired Chuan Siang Boon’s work “Chwee Kueh Wa, Shui Guo Wan 水粿碗”.
The set of 108 ceramic works dramatically different in size, growing incrementally from the smallest bowl, which is comparable to a single grain of rice, to the largest with a diameter of 25 cm.
In conjunction with the Singapore Bicentennial commemoration in 2019, Chuan created this fascinating piece work using a unique (and secret!) production method using Old Dragon Kiln Clay. The final artwork inspiring viewers with a sense of nostalgia for the “good old days”.
Blue Lotus Fine Art, Singapore, Stand 3D – 14
A recipient of the NATIONAL ARTS COUNCIL Young Artist Award for the year 2013, we’re really excited to have works by Mohammed Zulkarnaen Othman (or ZERO, his artist moniker) at the fair!
ZERO has been a practising artist since late 2003, in which he explores the subculture of street art and graffiti, and its unconventional norms. ZERO’s body of works attempts to negotiate the oddity of street and graffiti art in a regulated space while creating social commentaries on society and space. He researches contemporary issues around urban social life, public spaces, current affairs and the adverse effect of pop culture, creating exciting reactionary works using aerosol paint on canvas in the process.
Giant Year Gallery, Hong Kong, Stand 3C – 02
Maria’s works are based around the idea of “recognition”, exploring sensorial information, memory and experience, then applying the outcome of these investigations onto ceramic objects such as the gorgeous piece below!
Talking about her work, Maria says: “The process of making transfer paper on ceramics seems to be similar to the human perception, and I wanted to express it through my own work. This idea was obtained while attending Tokyo University of the Arts, and the graduation work “Those who looked over (life-sized female statues)” was also a flower while women were being projected by others. It is expressed by stacking a number of types of images on a female image.”
Maria decided to apply flower imagery to her works, as flowers stimulate the human senses of sight, smell, touch, and sometimes even sound and taste. Because of this they’re one of most enjoyable sensorial experiences and are also highly recognisable, making the superimposed imagery stand out clearly to the viewer.
Artêria, Canada, Stand 2B – 10
The landscape and tectonic movements of the earth fascinate artist Carole Arbic, representating of the incessant changes that shape the terra firma in her mixed media works. Carole’s work explores the primordial relationship between landscape and movement, whether natural or artificial in origin, these fluctuations fundamentally influence her creative process.
The tension between construction and deconstruction, assembly and fragmentation, and Carole’s physical process of creation, makes the pictorial surface the arena of multiple encounters. Carole says: “With momentum, I tear, I cut, I destroy, like an improvised dance, in order to better reconstruct and relate the different elements of the puzzle. Emerging from spontaneous or controlled gesture are lines, drips, splashes and fragments that find their place and their interaction”.
The results of this frenetic process mean that fragments of drawings, fabric remnants, corded filaments and solid colour cohabit on one canvas. When looking at one of Carole’s works, you feel that the painter’s purpose is to generate environments, to create worlds.
Arts de Siam, Thailand, Stand 3C – 11
Portrait artist, Pranai Kasemtavornsilpa, creates works featuring the faces of ASEAN children with yellow Tanaka powder on their face. Inspired by the Burmese and others in Asia who wear Tanaka as a form of sun protection, a long-established traditional and cultural practice.
Through her works, Pranai is commenting on the influence of foreign cultures and how their impact has led to a reduction in this tradition, especially in the new generations of young adults. Prani celebrates the beauty of the tradition and through his clever use of acrylic and wax pencil, he creates pieces with captivating texture, light and shadow – expressing a sense of innocence and naïveté in the children he portrays.
These five artists’ works are just a few of the fifteen new creative talents exhibiting at the Singapore fair for the first time! We were hard pressed to select the artists we featured in this blog, having a soft spot for each of the fresh new talents which you are sure to love.
Don’t forget to buy a ticket to the fair in advance to get the best possible price, and keep your eye out for these works, and 1000s more at the fair (22 – 24 November, F1 Pit Building).
Main Image:
Pranai Kasemtavornsilpa, Traces, 2018, acrylic and wax pencil, 110 x 130cm, SG$6,500, Arts de Siam.
Featured art from first to last:
Chuan Siang Boon, Chwee Kway Wa, 2019, Old Dragon Kiln Clay, dimensions vary – up to 25 cm diameter, SG$9,000, Tembusu Gallery.
Mohd Zul Othman (ZERO), Backing Out, 2013, aerosol paint on canvas, 122 x 91cm, SG$3,800, Blue Lotus Fine Art.
Maria Murayama, Stuffed Animals – Rabbit and Flower, 2018, ceramic, 25 x 27 x 30 cm, SG$1,700, Giant Year Gallery.
Carole Arbic, Mes bleus s’enfoncent, 2018, mixed media on wood, 61cm diameter, SG$1,700, Artêria.
Pranai Kasemtavornsilpa, Traces, 2018, acrylic and wax pencil, 110 x 130cm, SG$6,500, Arts de Siam.