Arin Rungjang was born in Bangkok in 1975, a time of political turmoil in Thailand. Two years prior, student demonstrations led to the fall of military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn, who returned from exile in 1976. That year, students gathered at Thammasat University to protest and the military opened fire; 46 died, 167 were wounded, and over 3,000...

Art fairs are like the Hydra—chop one head off and several more sprout up in its place. This month saw the inauguration of two new fairs in Asia alone, with Taipei Dangdai kicking off in the third week of January, followed by S.E.A. Focus the very next week in Singapore (24–27 January 2019). February also sees the launch of the first edition...

S.E.A. Focus, the new boutique art fair by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, will take centre stage during this year's Singapore Art Week (19–27 January 2019). Running between 24 and 27 January 2019, 26 galleries will participate in the inaugural edition, showcasing modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art within a pop-up structure in...

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...

A relentless defiance against singularity pervades Dawn Ng's formal training and aesthetic methodologies. After two years at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., Ng spent her third year of studies at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, before graduating with a BA in English and art (with a minor in economics) from...

Born to a Japanese mother and an American father, Miya Ando is very much a creature of both the East and West. Known for creating large-scale installations, paintings and sculptures redolent of natural phenomena, as a child she split her time between the redwood forests of Santa Cruz, California, and a Buddhist temple in Okayama, Japan, where her...

Sydney-based artist Abdul Abdullah is the 'outsider amongst outsiders', with an interdisciplinary practice that explores the misconceptions and misunderstanding of minority groups in a multicultural society. Born to a sixth-generation Australian father and a Malay migrant mother, Abdullah is the epitome of the contemporary urban Australian. His...

Albert Yonathan Setyawan believes there's a holiness in recurrence. Born in Bandung, the Indonesian artist is known for his drawings and performances, but is perhaps most widely recognised for his masterfully made and diminutive ceramic sculptures, replicated by the hundreds and arranged in geometric or mandala-like formations. Ritual is integral...

Francis Ng has led many lives. A self-described 'low-tech person', Ng made a name for himself as a young artist with Delocating margins (2001), a site-specific intervention in a disused shophouse lot. A gesture both brilliant and brash in equal measure, it earned him his fair share of critical attention. What followed was a decade-long practice...

With its beginnings in New York's East Village scene of the 1980s, Frank Holliday's ongoing career as a painter is a testament to the medium's endurance. Today, Holliday is precisely what you would expect from a serious painter: a self-proclaimed 'studio rat'. Forty years earlier, one may have said otherwise. In the late 1970s and early 80s,...

Born, raised and based in Singapore, Fyerool Darma has recently become one of the most sought-after artists working in Southeast Asia. Beginning with his breakout solo exhibition Moyang at Singapore's Flaneur Gallery (19–29 March 2015), he went on to become one of the youngest artists in the 2016 Singapore Biennale (27 October 2016–26 February...

There is a luminescence to Hiromi Tango's art practice that is perhaps a brightness born out of darkness; a mysterious, beguiling playfulness that hints at more serious matters. Her art is distinctive for the bowerbird-like use of brightly coloured cloth, cord, rope, neon lighting, mirrors and other man-made detritus of the contemporary world....

Looking at one of Hiroshi Senju's waterfall paintings feels akin to being alone inside a dark cave with a private cascade. They are not Niagara, Yosemite or Victoria; Hiroshi Senju's intimate waterfalls descend in pairs, trios or many columns of water, conveying a gentle rush. Mist emanates as water droplets (in reality, splashes of translucent...

Indonesian artist duo indieguerillas, comprised of husband and wife Dyatmiko 'Miko' Lancur Bawono and Santi Ariestyowanti, was formed in 1999 in Yogyakarta as a graphic design firm. If the 'indie' of their name is an allusion to both Indonesia and their artistic self-determination, the reference to a lawless fighting strategy denotes a defiant,...

I first came across Khairuddin Hori's name in an interview Ocula Magazine conducted in 2015 with artist Tianzhuo Chen. At the time, Hori was deputy director of artistic programming at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, where he oversaw Chen's solo exhibition (23 June–12 September 2015). In the interview, Chen describes Hori as a curator who enabled the...

The list of credible galleries in China is short, and for many years there was only one entrant from Shanghai: ShanghART Gallery. Now, with the Shanghai scene growing at an impressive rate—it is already arguably the hub of China's art world—this gallery remains very much its centre. For such an important platform, ShanghART's model is...

Massimo Giannoni is an Italian artist living and working in Florence. His paintings bear the influence of the old master works that abound in Italy, and remind one of the grand interiors in Renaissance paintings, with deep tones and a strong command of perspective guiding the eye through architectural space. Simultaneously, however, Giannoni imbues...

In an ironic twist, it is the work of Yinka Shonibare MBE RA who I am most reminded of when visiting the National Gallery Singapore and spying the work, Morning (1960-1963) by Chuah Thean Teng. The National Gallery work makes reference to batik, a fabric Shonibare uses in his work. While Teng’s early use of wax-dying batik techniques is...

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...

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...

Savita Apte, well respected art historian and formidable supporter of the arts, talks to Anna Dickie about how a microbiologist came to be an art historian and reflects on the definition of South Asia and the Singapore art scene. Specialising in modern and contemporary South Asian art, Savita Apte began her career at Sotheby's...