The second act is notoriously difficult to pull off, and this year’s ART SG in Singapore is no exception. After being postponed for two years due to the coronavirus, last year’s first event generated the kind of buzz expected from the launch of a new art fair.
And given that 89 of last year’s 164 participating galleries decided not to return, including David Zwirner, Pace, Galeries Perrotin and Skarstedt, this year the fair’s organizers are up to the task. It looked like he was burdened with work. He was able to generate the same level of excitement with just 114 exhibitors, including 39 new entrants.
“There are clearly headwinds,” fair co-founder Magnus Renfrew said when asked about the slimmed-down fair on the eve of ArtSG’s opening. “Economic and geopolitical factors, inflationary pressures, high interest rates… so galleries need to be more realistic.”
It’s not that Southeast Asia doesn’t have enough purchasing power. According to the 2023 Knight Frank Wealth Report, Singapore has 570,000 billionaires and 4,200 ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) who own at least $50 million. The number of ultra-high net worth individuals is 7,413, including neighboring countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
The number of family offices in Singapore has increased from about 100 in 2017 to more than 1,000 today. “Nine out of 10 high-net-worth art collectors surveyed plan to continue attending exhibitions in 2024,” said Jim E. Young, co-head of global wealth management at UBS. We expect the number of visitors to ART SG to remain strong.” UBS is a major sponsor of the fair.
Many dealers who chose not to come to this year’s fair argued that the collector base was insufficient to support the fair despite such a large event, but on January 18th A VIP preview and vernissage held at the Bay Sands Convention may have proved them wrong.
Please contact Alberts Benda Gallery. The company, which has spaces in New York and Los Angeles, sold an entire booth for Australian painter Del Kathryn Barton’s solo exhibition to one buyer. The Shanghai-based collector has purchased all seven paintings, which were sold at prices ranging from $30,000 to $200,000, and plans to display them as a single installation in a private museum under construction.
Daphne King, director of Chinese ink specialist Alisan Fine Arts (Hong Kong and New York), said, “The overall atmosphere is better than last year, with more collectors coming from overseas.” I’m nervous about returning to the fair because there aren’t that many.” Despite having deep pockets, it is not as mature or sophisticated as Hong Kong. ”
Among the prominent collectors in attendance were Alan Lo and his wife Yen Wong from Hong Kong, Lito and Kim Camacho from Manila, Rudy Tseng from Taipei, and Pontiac Land Group, the owner of a new three-story condo building. Also present were representatives of the billionaire Kwee family, which built the project. MoMA’s. Curators from LACMA, Tate Modern, and Toledo Museum of Art also attended the fair.
Many galleries reported strong first-day sales. White Cube sold a seven-foot-tall cast iron work by Antony Gormley to a collector in Southeast Asia for 500,000 pounds ($634,000) and a canvas work by Anselm Kiefer for 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million) Sold to local collectors. “We have seen an increase in community participation this year,” gallery director Faina Darman said of the fair.
Georg Baselitz served in a white cube.Photography: Frederick Balfour
Sundaram Tagore, which has spaces in New York, Los Angeles and Singapore, sold two paintings by Hiroshi Senju to an existing client for $260,000 and $360,000, and a photograph by Edward Burtynsky to a French collector in Hong Kong and a Singaporean. He said he sold a Jane Lee painting for $70,000. He sold a work by American Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Nutkin for $60,000 with an Indonesian buyer.
Singapore-based Gajah Gallery has sold two mid-five-figure bronze sculptures by Indonesian artist Unizar and a six-figure silicone bronze work by Singaporean Han Sai Poh to a Southeast Asian collector. Thaddeus Ropac unloaded Alex Katz for $110,000, Jules de Ballincourt for $125,000 and James Rosenquist for $40,000.
Jacob Twyford, senior director at Waddington Castor in London, was 99% sure he had sold a $360,000 work by British artist Ian Davenport to a buyer in the Middle East. There is only one.”) In Davenport’s “Puddle” paintings, acyclic paint is carefully poured onto the canvas (approximately 120 liters of paint was used in this work), and the paint spills onto the floor, where the colors mix and form swirls and puddles. The dealer has also received strong interest from Singaporeans in the most expensive piece on display at the exhibition, a 4-metre-tall Jean Dubuffet sculpture valued at $2.4 million.
Lehman Maupin reported six first-day sales, including two Lee Bulls for $200,000 to $300,000 and a David Salle on linen for $200,000 to $300,000. Also includes oil paintings, acrylics, and pencils.
Nigerian artist Ken Nwadiogbu.Photography: Frederick Balfour
First-time exhibitor Retro Africa from Abuja, Nigeria, presents a solo exhibition by Ken Nwadiogbu, a Nigerian artist who paints with a vibrant palette of orange, red and yellow. He draws on his own recent experiences to explore themes of migration and identity. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London. The gallery sold two of his works for $21,000 and $21,500 to an American university professor living in Tokyo who came to the exhibition as a VIP guest to meet Nwagdiogbu.
Malaysian Dayak artist Paul Nixon Attia and first-time exhibitor Rissim Contemporary from Kuala Lumpur were thrilled to see two of their lowest-priced ink-on-canvas works sold for $2,500 each. .
Another artist who was happy to participate at the fair was Ukrainian kinetic designer Valery Kuznetsov (Smith). He was allowed to leave the country because he had a weak heart and was unfit for military service, but his partner Otto Wincken had to stay at home. Together they formed the studio lab “Smith & Winken” and created works that will be exhibited in Dnipro for five months until October. These pieces, priced between $18,500 and $74,000, will be sold as limited editions in partnership with Singapore watch retailer The Hour Glass and Geneva’s MB&F MAD Gallery.
War, Kuznetsov said, “is the ugliest thing that makes people resilient in trying to create the most beautiful things, even though they may not be available tomorrow.”
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