Singapore is taking center stage on
the global art circuit this week as collectors descend on the
city-state for Southeast Asia’s largest art fair, auctions and a
video by Russian feminist art collective Pussy Riot.
Anchoring Singapore Art Week is Art Stage, a fair featuring
130 galleries offering works by Takashi Murakami, Mark Quinn and
Nam June Paik. In its fourth year, Art Stage plays a major part
in Singapore’s quest to develop itself into a regional art hub
to lure more high-net-worth individuals to settle there.
“Singapore is combining art, lifestyle and wealth
management all into one,” said Sundaram Tagore, who runs
galleries in New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Though smaller than Hong Kong’s Art Basel fair held in May,
Art Stage aims at preserving its regional character in the
island-state with new galleries from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
exhibiting for the first time.
It’s also a huge opportunity for Singapore-based galleries
to attract a wider clientele.
“A lot of collectors are coming in from the region,” said
Janice Kim, owner of Space Cottonseed, which is showing four
works from Nam June Paik priced between $110,000 and $400,000.
“For me this is the most important week.”
High-Net Worth
Singapore has 174,000 millionaires and neighboring
Indonesia another 123,000, according to the Credit Suisse Global
Wealth Databook 2013.
Local dealer Galerie Sogan Art is showing works by
Singaporean artist Jolene Lai, including a painting of a woman
prone on a slaughtering block surrounded by animals.
Blue-chip international galleries are using Art Stage to
feature Asian artists alongside more established western names.
Galerie Perrotin is showing Filipino Ronald Ventura, who holds
the auction record for a living Southeast Asian artist, with
French artist Sophie Calle and Takashi Murakami of Japan.
Primo Marella of Milan is presenting Indonesian painter
Heri Dono and London’s White Cube is featuring Zhang Huan and
Liu Wei next to Damien Hirst and Quinn, as well as more
conceptual pieces from Damian Ortega and Cerith Wyn Evans.
More than 1,000 VIPs will get a preview of works at Marina
Bay Sands Convention Center today, where traditionally some of
the most important purchases are made before Art Stage opens to
the public on Jan. 16.
Auction houses are taking advantage of the influx of well-heeled clients this week to hold sales.
Romanee-Conti
Borobudur Fine Art Auction Pte’s Jan. 18 sale features
Romanee-Conti wines estimated to sell for as much as $14,400 per
bottle, jewelry, a painting by Indonesian modern master Affandi
with a high estimate of $400,000 and four works by I Nyoman
Masriadi.
Rival auction houses East-Ouest, Larasati and 33Auction are
also holding sales.
For those with tighter budgets, Art Apart Fair will
transform rooms, lobbies and corridors at the Park Royal Hotel
into pop-up galleries from Jan. 17-19 to sell mostly works by
lesser-known artists at prices below S$10,000 ($7,890).
On Jan. 18, at a black-tie gala dinner, Prudential (PRU) Eye
Awards will announce the winner of its emerging artists
competition from a short list, including a video by Pussy Riot
from Russia and Yang Yongliang from China.
Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina, who was released from
prison on Dec. 23 under an amnesty issued by Russian President
Vladimir Putin after being jailed for inciting religious hatred
and hooliganism, will attend.
Art Stage runs from Jan. 16-19 at the Marina Bay Sands
Convention Center.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Frederik Balfour in Hong Kong at
fbalfour@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Matthew G. Miller at
mmiller144@bloomberg.net
Singapore Lures Buyers with Murakami, Wine, Pussy Riot
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