Author Archives: Talenia Phua Gajardo

#ArtInMyCity - Support Local Artists, Galleries & Designers

#ARTINMYCITY The world has changed drastically over the last few months, but despite this, we continue to be hopeful! This is an opportunity for us to re-think how we've been connecting previously and to see if there are alternatives to maintaining and growing our respective art eco-systems.  In order to ensure the continued existence of our cultural scene, it’s crucial that we take active steps to ensure its survival. With cultural events postponed or cancelled for months to come, it's up to us to support creative talents and cultural communities during this extremely challenging time.  With international travel and movement drastically reduced, access to art and design across international borders will become increasingly difficult, not to mention more costly. We have already begun to see price surcharges climb for shipping and logistics, which will undoubtedly affect art 'consumimg' habits.   As a first step, we have made some changes on our site to ensure that you can discover artworks and artists in your city, from the comfort of your home. We have added the option to filter products by 'item location', so you will be able to shop and support artists, designers and galleries in your city! Let’s support our local arts communities, every little helps. To contribute, use #ArtInMyCity to start sharing your experiences with art - whether it's a throwback to an exhibition you caught months ago, or if it's an artist whose works you came across in a local show, exhibition, or an artwork in your home.  Stay tuned for more details on #ArtInMyCity!   

March 27, 2020

Blanketed in white - CANVAS HOUSE by Figment & Ministry of Design

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past”, says Ministry of Design's founder, Colin Seah. With Canvas House, Figment and MOD bring the two worlds of future and past together in a striking white-washed manner, with a converted conservation house in Singapore, which recently opened in February 2020. Ministry of Design explores history and our relationship with the past, present and future through the concept of layers in Canvas House at Blair Road. Blurring the boundaries between space and object, MOD conceptually blanketed Canvas House with a layer of white that provides a canvas for the future, whilst revealing historical preservation in concentrated spots. The house rhythmically reveals parts of its past, with Shadows of old timber as well as Layers of revealed brick and intricate details of re-purposed and upcycled furniture. At the same time, MOD invites visitors to imagine a future with Dream, a text-based neon piece that the studio created, with a quote by Thomas Jefferson that encapsulates MOD’s approach to Canvas House. The quote summarizes the attitude of the house; Colin explains, “it is a neutral white canvas for the future to be dreamt upon, rather than a wholesale homage to the past.”

March 16, 2020

Boedi Widjaja's architectural installation at The National Gallery, Singapore

Boedi Widjaja’s conceptually charged practice engages deeply with his own lived experience of migration and diaspora, and reflects on the complexities of hybridity, travel and isolation. For the Singapore Biennale in 2019, Boedi installs a site-specific proto-structure that serves as a diptych to the first iteration of the work at the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 2018. - Patrick Flores, Singapore Biennale 2019 Artistic Director  It's your last chance to catch the installation before the show closes on the 22nd of March 2020!

March 10, 2020

OMA's latest project in Bali - An exciting New Cultural Destination

BALI, INDONESIA ​- May 2020 will see the official opening of Bali’s first creative village, Desa Potato Head. Conceived as a multi-dimensional experience which transcends hospitality, it’s a place where music, art, design, food, wellness and sustainability will collide, offering a new type of holistic experience for both the local community and guests alike. “At Desa Potato Head we’re not trying to change the industry, we want to create an entirely new model for it. If we bring people together for good times, but offer them the unexpected, it will open their minds in new ways.” - Ronald Akili, Potato Head founder. 

March 04, 2020

Largest solo exhibition of Genevieve Chua works opens at STPI Gallery

A new show by Singaporean painter Genevieve Chua opens at STPI from the 22nd of February, 2020, featuring the largest exhibition of the artist's works to date. Recognised for her abstract approach to painting, Chua has been tapped as one of the most promising artists from Singapore in the last decade. Her use of geometric shapes and a monochromatic palette create complex, intricate works with patterns that evoke qualities of near-abstraction and optical art. An element of awareness in her practice adds playfulness to her exploration of visual perception and how the viewer interacts with her works.  

February 21, 2020

Richard Streitmatter-Tran at de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong

de Sarthe recently opened their new show; its second solo exhibition for the Vietnam-based contemporary artist Richard Streitmatter-Tran, titled, We No Longer See the Stars. Featuring a new series of paintings, sculptures, and interactive installations, the exhibition stages a commentary on the global tension and social unrest consequent to ongoing disputes across the world. We No Longer See the Stars opens on 18 January and runs through 7 March 2020. In Bless the Beasts and the Children (2019-20), freestanding portraits of people of various ethnicities dressed in black are propped throughout the gallery. As visitors weave through the space, they are forced to confront the unwavering gaze of the painted subjects. Titled after the 1971 film, in which a group of youth struggle in a pyrrhic battle against preordained defeat, the series speaks to the universal tenacity of human will in the face of conflict. Positioned in a front-facing formation, the figures stand in a field of echoed silence.

February 21, 2020

We Move Amongst Ghosts* at the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics in Jakarta

“We Move Amongst Ghosts” recently opened at the Museum of Fine Arts and Ceramics in Jakarta, Indonesia. This is Lucie Fontaine’s eleventh project and the first in a series of group exhibitions in collaboration with YMMJ. The series, showcasing artists from Indonesia and abroad, will be held at a selection of Jakarta museums and is their inaugural show, includes works by Arahmaiani, Ashley Bickerton, Chris Bunjamin, Marco Cassani, Rafram Chaddad, Cian Dayrit, Fendry Ekel, J. W. Heydt, Agnieszka Kurant, Goshka Macuga, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Rirkrit Tiravanija. *The title is taken from the article “We Move Amongst Ghosts” by British artist Laura Grace Ford. The article introduces her book, Savage Messiah (Verso Books, 2019), which gathers together a complete set of the artist’s fanzines to date. Part graphic novel, part artwork, the book is both an angry polemic against the marginalization of the urban working class and an exploration of the cracks that open up within an urban context. The show looks at the interface between object and space on the one hand, and memory on the other. In particular, they have focused on how objects and spaces conjure historical and communal memories. This underlying idea harks back to Kayu’s fifth project in 2016, “Ritiro,” in which a group of artworks ‘went’ on a retreat from Bali to Java, thus suggesting the idea that space and object, things without life in themselves, might have a kind of existence – an internal life – of their own.

February 20, 2020

Hong Kong Art Basel Highlights!

Highlights from Art Basel Hong Kong 2018; a gathering of 248 galleries from 32 countries and territories.

April 05, 2018

Art 021 & West Bund Art & Design: Spotted in Shanghai!

The Artling Team was in Shanghai from 8-11 November for Art021 and West Bund Art & Design. Check out some of the people we spotted at the fairs and parallel events!

November 10, 2017

"Without Hope, Without Fear": Zhang Yunyao at Perrotin

On the occasion of Zhang Yunyao's solo exhibition at Perrotin in Hong Kong, we speak with him to find out what ‘NEC SPE, NEC METU’ actually means

July 13, 2017

The Magical Light Installations of Hitoshi Kuriyama

We take a look at some of Kuriyama's captivating sculptures over the years...

May 17, 2017

An Interview with Liu Bolin 和刘勃麟的专访

More passionately known as 'The Invisible Man', we have the privilege to find out more from Liu Bolin about the inspiration and meaning behind his works.

March 31, 2017