August Round-Up

Silverlens Gallery, Richard Koh Fine Art, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, 16albermarle Project Space, iPRECIATION, Gajah Gallery Jakarta, and Blank Canvas
By Alana Malika

'At First Sight' & 'Pow Martinez'

Leo Valledor, ‘Supriolism’, 1979, acrylic on shaped canvas, 72.05 x 71.97 in, 183.2 x 182.8 cm. Image courtesy of Silverlens Gallery.

Pow Martinez, ‘inner critic’, 2024, oil on canvas, 61 x 61cm. Image courtesy of Silverlens Gallery.

Silverlens Gallery presents two solo exhibitions featuring Philippine artists Leo Valledor and Pow Martinez respectively. ‘At First Sight’ is a survey of the late Leo Valledor’s paintings and drawings that captures his contributions to American Modernism as a Filipino American. These abstract experimentations display Valledor’s concept of “4-dimensional colour,” which posits that the ambiguities of shapes and colours can be explained by the moment of time it was perceived. Meanwhile, Pow Martinez’s namesake show translates imagery from the online world into surrealist paintings. Rendered in vivid colours, Martinez’s comical style borrows familiar characters from different corners of digital subcultures such as the female nude, cowboys, and more.

‘At First Sight’ is on view from 25 July to 17 August 2024 at Silverlens Gallery, Manila, Philippines. More information here.

‘Pow Martinez’ is on view from 25 July to 17 August 2024 at Silverlens Gallery, Manila, Philippines. More information here.

‘Stage Fright,’ ‘Conversations with Strangers’ & ‘The Container’

Pawarest (Doe) Choksaen, ‘Game On’, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80cm. Image courtesy of Richard Koh Fine Art.

Wantaya Thitipaisal, ‘Like A Walk In The Park’, 2023, oil on canvas, 90 x 70cm. Image courtesy of Richard Koh Fine Art.

This August, Richard Koh Fine Art hosts three solo exhibitions featuring Thai artists: ‘Stage Fright’ & ‘Conversations with Strangers’ in Singapore and ‘The Container’ in Bangkok. ‘Stage Fright’ by Wantaya Thitipaisal and ‘Conversations with Strangers’ by Pawarest Choksaen (Doe) both present collections that depict day-to-day interactions in figurative abstract paintings. Thitipaisal painted each piece in ‘Stage Fright’ over the course of a year, contemplating how people attempt to strike the balance between what they keep private and what they show publicly. In ‘Conversations with Strangers,’ Doe colorises mundane activities in vibrant colors that creates a visual harmony between people and their environment to provoke inquisitions into human relationships. Lastly, ‘The Container’ by Temjai Cholsiri is a collection of installation pieces, paintings, and sculptures that investigate the mind-body connection, intentionally using the robust materials to represent the body and delicate forms to represent the mind.

‘Stage Fright’ & ‘Conversations with Strangers’ is on view from 27 July to 17 August 2024 at Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore. More information here.

‘The Container’ is on view from 3 to 24 August 2024 at Richard Koh Fine Art Bangkok, Thailand. More information here.

‘Light permeates the wounds: Hoang Duong Cam’ & ‘Xenomech: Enigmas Inside the Margins’

Choy Chun Wei, ‘Futurist (2A-Quick Charge)’, 2023, acrylic, oil, printed paper, resin cast and sand on wooden panel, 15.2 x 10.2 x 7cm. Image courtesy of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

In its fifth iteration of the Forum, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts unveils two concurrent solo exhibitions featuring Vietnamese artist Hoang Duong Cam and Malaysian artist Choy Chun Wei. As Hoang’s first solo show in Singapore, ‘Light permeates the wounds: Hoang Duong Cam’ translates contemporary perspectives on the Vietnam war onto 19 large scale abstract paintings. Meanwhile, ‘Xenomech: Enigmas Inside the Margins’ by Choy Chun Wei exhibits a collection of works experiments with found objects and texts as a commentary to modern-day communication. 

‘Light permeates the wounds: Hoang Duong Cam’ is on view from 5 July to 7 August at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. More information here.

‘Xenomech: Enigmas Inside the Margins’ is on view from 19 July to 18 August at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. More information here.

Everyday Practices

Installation view of ‘Everyday Practices’ at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

‘Everyday Practices’ marks the opening of Singapore Art Museum’s new collection gallery at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Featuring a survey of 21 artworks from artists representing 10 countries across Asia, the group exhibition takes inspiration from Hsieh Tehching’s ‘One Year Performance 1978-1979.’ The collection peers into how the monotony and tedium of the mundane can overcome adversities, build progress, and ultimately amount to a meaningful life.

‘Everyday Practices’ is on view from 30 August to 20 July 2025 at Singapore Art Museum, Singapore. More information here.

ទេយ្យទាន Teyyatean | Than Sok: Giving alms

Than Sok, ‘Tragedy’, 2009 (remade 2024), incense sticks, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of 16albermarle Project Space.

Cambodian artist Than Sok exhibits two decades of work in ‘ទេយ្យទាន Teyyatean | Than Sok: Giving alms’ at 16albermarle Project Space. Drawing from two years spent serving in a monastery in the 1990s, the artist’s practice explores the complexities of Buddhism in the modern world through diverse mediums such as video, sculpture, and painting. ‘Teyyatean’ alludes to the ritual of ‘giving alms’ to monks as a way to sustain their ascetic lifestyles. While it is believed to be a way for Buddhists to earn merit towards enlightenment, Than Sok’s works acknowledge how monkhood today is seen as a pathway to escape destitution in Cambodia.

‘ទេយ្យទាន Teyyatean | Than Sok: Giving alms’ is on view from 27 July to 21 September 2024 at 16albermarle Project Space, New South Wales, Australia. More information here.

Echoes and Reverberations: The Interconnectedness of Being and Becoming

Raymond Yap, ‘Petalscape 1’, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 30cm. Image courtesy of iPRECIATION.

‘Echoes and Reverberations: The Interconnectedness of Being and Becoming’ at iPreciation  joins together five Singapore-based artists: Milenko Prvački, Oh Chai Hoo, Chiew Sien Kuan, Boo Sze Yang, and Raymond Yap. The group exhibition features 30 artworks that draw from diverse and dichotomous inspirations such as nature and urban landscapes. Borrowing from Eastern philosophy, the collection portrays art as a reminder of how interconnectedness is a driving force of life and change.

‘Echoes and Reverberations: The Interconnectedness of Being and Becoming’ is on view from August 11 to September 8 2024 at iPRECIATION, Singapore. More information here.

Possession: To Have & To Hold

Marina Cruz, ‘Kinship’, 2024, oil and embroidery on canvas, 121.9 x 152.4 cm. Image courtesy of Gajah Gallery Jakarta.

Curated by Joyce Toh, ‘Possession: To Have & To Hold’ is the first group exhibition featuring Philippine artists presented in Gajah Gallery Jakarta. Kiri Dalena, Benedicto Cabrera, Mark Justiniani, Leslie de Chavez, and Marina Cruz explore how people turn ordinary objects into dear possessions by assigning subjective meaning onto them. For instance, Cruz’s nostalgic series of photorealistic paintings features clothes passed down in her family. Referencing her familial archives, she meticulously paints every frayed hem and stain on the fabric to preserve the memories, remembered or forgotten, behind each imperfection.

‘Possession: To Have & To Hold’ is on view from 11 August to 8 September 2024 at Gajah Gallery Jakarta, Indonesia. More information here.

It depends…

Dan Lie, ‘Member 6’, 2022, turmeric dyed cotton fabric, wooden stick, 300 x 111cm. Image courtesy of Blank Canvas.

‘It depends…’ features a collection of works that confront questions on the human condition that take lifetimes to answer. Curated by Blank Canvas and sputnikforest, five works by Dan Lie, Ser Serpas, Chiharu Shiota, Tan Zi Hao and Danh Vo are exhibited in a gallery space transformed to mimic an eerie stroll through the woods in twilight. Viewers are made to feel as if they are trading in their slumber to visit the liminal space and brood on their own questions about mortality, power, home, and more.

‘It depends…’ is on view from 1 June to 18 August 2024 at Blank Canvas, George Town, Penang, Malaysia. More information here.