Jakarta may be sinking, prompting the announcement last month that Indonesia will create a new capital on the island of Borneo, but the city's longest-running art fair is on the rise. Founded by the license holder of Harper's Bazaar Indonesia, the fair began as Bazaar Art Jakarta in 2008. While it's still owned by the same holding company, MRA...

There was a great connection between the first edition of Taipei Dangdai (18–20 January 2019), staged on the 4th floor of the Nangang Exhibition Center, and the 11th Taipei Biennial, Post Nature—A Museum as an Ecosystem (17 November 2018–10 March 2019). Installed at the fair's entrance was John Yuyi's live tree, I Tree to Call You (2018),...

'The sixth edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong brought together a uniquely global mix of galleries spanning six continents, outstanding artworks by established and new artists from across theworld and a singular gathering of international collectors and institutions.' –Art Basel in Hong Kong (29–31 March 2018).

Martha Atienza's single-channel video Our Islands 11°16'58.4 N 123°45'07.0'E (2017) shows an underwater procession based on the Ati-atihan festival, which emerged during colonisation in the 16th Century, and blends animist and Catholic symbolism. Filmed in the waters of Bantayan Island, where cross-dressing and role-playing intermingle with...

This year marked the eighth edition of Art Stage Singapore (26–28 January 2018), founded with the goal of bringing together galleries and art from Southeast Asia under the roof of the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. The fair was, in its initial years, seen as Singapore's answer to Art Basel, but with a distinct regional...

Initiated by Singapore-based Gajah Gallery in 2012, Yogyakarta Art Lab (YAL) is a foundry and production house located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. With a small staff expertly trained in a variety of metal production techniques, the lab's purpose is to engage international artists to experiment with new mediums in order to expand their practices....

Earlier in your career, your paintings focused more specifically on your direct environment, Bali. Now your research considers the national history of Indonesia. What prompted this shift to exploring the broader historical and political landscape of your country?Nature is an endless source of inspiration for me, both in its beautiful, pristine...

Following a breakthrough 2015 edition – which placed the Hong Kong show squarely in the center of Asia’s international art scene – the upcoming Art Basel in Hong Kong offers a premier platform for showing works from across the globe, more than half from Asia and Asia Pacific. The show provides an in-depth overview of the...

Art Basel Hong Kong has started early this year. I don’t mean just the dates, which have been pushed forward from May to March. I mean inboxes are already flooded with invitations for previews and dinners taking place well ahead of the March 22 VIP preview. There are more events, more exhibitions, and certainly more collectors descending...

Contemporary Singapore, as most observers of the island state will know, is a place that has grown enormously successful despite the shock of its early separation from a federation with Malaysia. Celebrating its golden jubilee last year, and branded in typical Singaporean fashion as ‘SG50’, there was excitement in some circles over the...

In this Ocula Insight, Ashley Bickerton—who has lived in Bali for the last 22 years, but who came to the forefront of the art world as a central figure in New York’s vital East Village scene of the 1980s—discusses his work, and in particular how it has been influenced by both Bali and his time spent working at the Yogya Art...

The much-anticipated National Gallery Singapore opened its doors to the public for the first time on 24 November 2015. Following an extensive renovation by Studio Milou Architecture, the museum now occupies two important historic buildings in the heart of Singapore’s Civic District, the former City Hall and Supreme Court buildings. The...

In 1996, Jasdeep Sandhu established Gajah Gallery in Singapore with the purpose of promoting Southeast Asian Contemporary Art with an emphasis on Indonesian contemporary art. Now twenty years on the gallery is about to expand into a 6,000 square foot space in Tanjong Pagar Distripark in Singapore, and also recently opened a second exhibition...

In conversation with Ashley Bickerton he references David Ostrowski as a painter he follows. The reference is surprising as a type of erasure and emptiness often defines Ostrowski’s practice – a recent work shown at Simon Lee gallery featured just a spray of colour across the bottom of an otherwise white canvas. Bickerton’s...

Gu Wenda is best known for his extraordinary installations comprising human bodily substances – powdered placenta, blood and hair. Born in Shanghai, Gu studied at the Shanghai School of Arts and Crafts and then the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou. The artist’s early training in traditional Chinese painting laid the...

South Korea’s most anticipated event of the year, the opening of MMCA Seoul, is a milestone for the national museum and local art scene. The new outpost of South Korea’s singular, national contemporary art museum is situated on a minefield of historic structures, set within a zoning law nightmare, and sandwiched between...