ART SG 2024: 6 Stand-Out Works to Discover
ART SG (19–21 January 2024) returns for its second edition at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore. Coinciding with Singapore Art Week (19–28 January 2024), this year's fair features more than 100 galleries presenting across three sectors: GALLERIES, FOCUS, and FUTURES.
Following last year's success, ART SG has established Southeast Asia's preeminent art fair. Ahead of the opening, Ocula Advisors select works to seek out.
Rinus Van de Velde's He is silent, staring through half-closed lids. ... (2023) at Gallery Baton
Rinus Van de Velde's large oil pastel work features a luminous depiction of a dense forest adorned with scribbled text at its base.
He is silent, staring through half-closed lids. ... (2023) is one of many works that trace Van de Velde's imaginary journeys through expansive landscapes. Within this particular painting, towering blue tree trunks, decorated with thorn-like branches, reach skyward from a shadowy forest floor in search of sunlight.
The gradient from darkness to light imparts a theatrical quality to the work, while the cryptic text at its base imbues it with the sense of a page torn from a storyboard or a storybook.
Discussing his work, the Belgian artist said, 'I depict a life I never had. For me, daydreaming is more important than what happens in reality. After all, you can experience so much more in your mind than you can in reality.'
Van de Velde's painting will be showcased alongside works by artists Song Burnsoo, Bae Yoon Hwan, Liam Gillick, and Peter Stichbury, among others.
Anton Munar's La luz de aquellos días / The light of those days (2020–2023) at Peres Projects
Anton Munar crafts transfixing compositions with rich layers of paint, merging fragmented narratives steeped in emotion.
Presented by Peres Projects, this dramatic painting features ghost-like silhouettes populating a coastline beneath a brooding sky painted in plum hues. The heavy mark-making, evident in thick brushstrokes on the rocky land and turbulent sky, gives the work fantastic depth.
The Spanish title, referencing Munar's Majorcan roots and evoking nostalgia, hints at a personal history woven into the painting.
Munar's mysterious visions lure you into a world of constant change, where meaning evolves with every viewing.
Marguerite Humeau's The Brewer (2023) at White Cube
Marguerite Humeau consistently delivers captivating viewing experiences with her fantastical installations and sculptures, which envision peculiar ecosystems. Now, the French artist introduces The Brewer (2023) to Singapore.
This hand-blown glass sculpture mirrors the form of two morning glory flowers mesmerisingly balanced face to face.
Utilising materials including honey, wasp venom, and culture of termite mushrooms, the sculpture incorporates elements from nature but feels otherworldly. It prompts us to contemplate the existence of alternate worlds—those that currently exist, have existed, or may come into being.
Humeau's work will be showcased at White Cube alongside artists including Georg Baselitz, Mona Hatoum, and Ibrahim Mahama, among others.
Laetitia Yhap's The Propeller (1981–1983) at Hales Gallery
Hales Gallery announced its representation of Laetitia Yhap in September last year, where she has since presented a solo show and featured in the gallery's booth at Frieze London.
Appearing at ART SG, The Propeller (1981–1983) depicts two fishermen painting a boat on a beach in Hastings in a cool, muted palette. Beside them, a puppy sits on a t-shirt, while in the distance, seagulls circle above another fishing boat, likely just returned from the sea. Yhap focuses on the labour of the men rather than the natural beauty of the landscape surrounding them.
Yhap's paintings are uniquely presented on individually crafted panels, each handmade by the artist. The distinctive shape of The Propeller suggests a porthole or the cross-section of a barge.
Born in wartime England with a mix of Austrian and Chinese heritage, Yhap always felt a sense of not belonging. Turning to art and later immersing herself in the Hastings fishing community, she has become an important figure in British art history.
Mandy El-Sayegh's Net-Grid (strike) (2020) at Lehmann Maupin
After a very successful year of solo exhibitions at Lehmann Maupin, Tichy Ocean Foundation, and Overbeck-Gesellschaft – Kunstverein Lübeck in 2023, Mandy El-Sayegh continues to make waves at ART SG.
Renowned for her puzzling and intricate multi-layered paintings, the Malaysian-born artist is showing her large-scale work, Net-Grid (strike) (2020).
This piece features a mille-feuille-like grid drenched in pools of pastel-coloured paints. From the work's gauzy surface, snippets of text emerge, with 'STRIKE' boldly declared at the centre.
El-Sayegh draws parallels between her exploratory process and the unfolding of contemporary social and political events, emphasising their shared characteristics of chaos and distress.
Describing her collage process as 'suturing', El-Sayegh labels her painted surfaces as 'skins'. Using materials like latex, rubber, clay, newsprint, aerial maps, and anatomy books, she weaves a narrative that exemplifies how meaning might change when specific materials are placed in different contexts.
Han Sai Por's Sprouting 1 (2022) at STPI - Creative Workshop & Gallery
Inspired by nature, Han Sai Por sculpts forms that embody the essence of life, expressing a sensual beauty through organic shapes like shells, coral, plants, seeds, and fruit.
In Sprouting 1 (2022), fine ridges and a delicate spiral converge, creating an object that traces the existence of a once-living thing from the past. Each curve and contour suggests an interplay between form and function, seemingly shaped by nature but, in reality, meticulously crafted by Han's hands through careful moulding and carving.
Over the course of four decades, Han has dedicated herself to mastering various materials and achieving a harmonious blend of symmetry and balance. Her commitment in these endeavours positions her as one of Singapore's foremost modern art sculptors.
