Tag Archives: singapore art museum


Chimera At The Singapore Art Museum

Tabaimo, video still from "Midnight Sea", from the collection of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art

The Wall Street Journal got it right.  Collectors did rule at Art Stage Singapore, from the marketing campaign to the biggest fringe event of the week.  The people behind the art fair did not shy away from promoting its commercial aspect, they made no bones about who exactly they wanted to come and see at the event (and what they expected them to do with their wallets).  But that didn’t mean that the rest of us could not enjoy some pretty good art. Especially not at Chimera, an exhibit at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) of select pieces from select collectors, contemporary works from Asia. Chimera belongs to a series called The Collectors Show that runs concurrent to Art Stage Singapore every year. Continue reading →


My Top Three For 2011

Louie Cordero, "My We", image from www.singaporebiennale.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manila’s art lovers will remember 2011 as the year when Rodel Tapaya made us proud with his APB Signature Art Prize win, Roberto Chabet proved that he’s still at the top of his game after fifty years, and Mideo Cruz exposed the need for Filipino audiences to encounter more  varied forms of artistic expression to broaden their perspectives. Continue reading →


On Rodel Tapaya’s APB Signature Art Prize Win

Rodel Tapaya, "Baston Ni Kabunian, Bilang Pero Di Mabilang"

Most of us know by now that Rodel Tapaya won the Grand Prize of the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize, one of the richest prizes in the region, a triennial event organized by the Singapore Art Museum.  Undoubtedly, this counts as one of Philippine art’s highlights for 2011 as Rodel’s work was chosen from an initial list of over 130 nominees from across Asia Pacific, later pared down to 15 finalists by an international panel of judges.  He exhibited the majestic Baston Ni Kabunian, Bilang Pero Di Mabilang at the UP Vargas Museum one year ago, part of Bulaklak Ng Dila, his most ambitious, compelling solo show to date. Continue reading →


The Singapore Art Museum Negotiates Southeast Asian Contemporary Art

Poklong Anading, "Anonimity", lightboxes series

It will hit you, as you make your way around the Singapore Art Museum’s (SAM) galleries, that we share so much of the same sensibilities as our Southeast Asian neighbors.  Now on its last week, Negotiating Home History and Nation- Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011 presents a survey of works from within the region by 54 artists whose pieces belong to the museum’s permanent collection.  While the overt references to Catholicism obviously originated from the Filipinos, the palette and images that majority of the artists adopted could have come from anywhere:  the streets of Manila, KL, Jakarta, Hanoi, or Bangkok. Continue reading →