Art Stage Singapore, Southeast Asia’s flagship art fair, will return for the seventh time from January 12 to 15, presenting artists from across Asia and the world. More than just a market platform, Art Stage Singapore continues to address issues touching on current world affairs and their impact on contemporary art in the region.
The art fair positions itself as a forum where artists, curators and collectors can exchange ideas and make valuable connections.
“Art Stage Singapore takes our role as a key player in the contemporary art scenes of the region very seriously,” said Lorenzo Rudolf, the founder and president of Art Stage Singapore. “While acknowledging today’s challenging economic and socio-political situations, we continue to be committed to strengthening the art eco-system of Southeast Asia by presenting relevant and innovative content that would encourage a more involved art scene. This is why our second Southeast Asia Forum, through its exhibition and series of lectures, will be even more important to the way we position ourselves as an engaged art fair that looks beyond the markets.”
In order to strengthen Southeast Asia as a cohesive art market that can compete with other, further developed art markets in the West and China, Art Stage Singapore holds the second Southeast Asia Forum that aims to build a bridge between art, commerce and content.
Titled “Net Present Value: Art, Capital, Futures”, the Southeast Asia Forum consists of an exhibition and lecture series that focus on global issues with a direct impact on the region, including income inequality and the rise of populism around the world. These issues result in socioeconomic uncertainties and international security conflicts, calling for visionaries and thinkers to re-evaluate the way the world is built.
According to the organizers, the forum “seeks to explore the values of art, imagination and progress, and the price of doing business as usual in the global capitalist system. […] The Forum’s exhibition surveys impacts of economic development on cultures, beliefs, social relations and daily life in Southeast Asia as countries race to establish their place in the league of global economies.”
The participating artists – most of whom come from Southeast Asia – highlight the importance of cultivating alternative forms of capital and conditions for the evolution of societies in a complex environment. Among the highlights of the exhibition are the works by Indonesian artists Jim Allen Abel (presented by Yeo Workshop), EldwinPradipta (presented by Lanwangwangi Creative Space), YudiSulistyo (presented by Pearl Lam Galleries) and TintinWulia (presented by Milani Gallery).
A novelty at this year’s Art Stage Singapore is the Collectors’ Stage, a project collaboration between Art Stage Singapore and The Artling. The show will feature artworks from the collections of six leading Singapore based collectors, following up on the successful Collectors’ Show that was held during the inaugural Art Stage Jakarta in August 2016, where six leading Indonesian collectors opened up their collection for a selection of artworks to be featured at the fair.
