RECORD BREAKING PRICES FOR S’PORE WOMEN ARTISTS AT ‘TREMENDOUS’ ART SG AND SOTHEBY’S SALES
Last week saw top sales for Southeast Asian women artists at both Art SG and the Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary auction, including Singaporean artists Melissa Tan and Kim Lim. With regards to Art SG, this year saw the maturation of the fair as it entered its third edition with a shift in collector behaviour toward active acquisition. Mr. Richard Koh, founder of Richard Koh Fine Art, reported the sale of works by five out of six of the young Singapore artists that he exhibited at the fair, including Ruben Pang and Samuel Xun. However, the topline sale of the fair for a living Singapore artist was Melissa Tan’s The Fates: Klotho, Lachesis & Atropos (2024), a triptych sold by Haridas Contemporary to a regional private museum. The involvement of Singapore institutions was also noted this year with SAM acquiring works from both Art SG and S.E.A. Focus. Alongside Art SG, last weekend saw the first Sotheby’s auction held in conjunction with Singapore Art Week (SAW). RONIN (1963) by Kim Lim set a new artist record of SGD 168,000 and Christine Ay Tjoe’s Lights for the Layer(2011) set a new artist record after hammering at SGD 2.94 million. In addition, Sotheby’s has reported a 60% increase in Singapore-based bidders at the auctions since 2022.
Melissa Tan (b. 1989), The Fates: Klotho, Lachesis & Atropos, (2024)
FRIEZE LOS ANGELES TO PROCEED AS CITY STRUGGLES TO RECOVER FROM DEVASTATING FIRES
Frieze Los Angeles will be going ahead this year for its sixth edition despite the wildfires that have struck Los Angeles recently. Running from February 20 – 23 at the Santa Monica Airport, the organizers have stated that the choice to push ahead with the fair was due to their want to support the city’s economy and its arts community. A statement released by the fair stated that, “our hearts are with everyone affected by the devastating fires in Los Angeles. Since the fair’s founding six years ago, Frieze has been proud to support and be part of this vibrant community. The challenges the city is currently facing only strengthen our commitment to work alongside the community to rebuild and recover together.” Frieze have also donated $12 million to the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, which helps artists and arts workers who have been impacted by the fires. Alongside Frieze, the Felix Art Fair and Santa Monica Post Office will both be running, with both events encouraging donations to fire-related funds. Felix Art Fair are urging VIPs to donate to Grief and Hope, an arts focused charity, and Santa Monica Post Office are promoting aid organisations such as the California Fire Foundation and the World Central Kitchen.
JOSEPH KOSUTH ‘THE QUESTION’
Sprüth Magers is presenting ‘The Question,’ a survey exhibition stretching across five decades of the works of Joseph Kosuth in honour of the artist’s eightieth birthday. The exhibition celebrates the contributions that Kosuth has made to conceptual art across his career, particularly his belief that art is not only a reflection of the world but a continuous exploration of meaning itself. Furthermore, the exhibition delves into Kosuth’s interest in the philosophy of language, an interest that stems from the artist’s opinion that the instability of contemporary reality lacks certainty. The exhibition will run from 24 January 2025 – 15 March 2025 at Sprüth Magers’ gallery space in London.
SINGAPORE BIENNALE ANNOUNCES 2025 THEME, ‘PURE INTENTION’
Singapore Art Museum (SAM) curators Duncan Bass, Hsu Fang-Tze, Ong Puay Khim, and Selene Yap, have been appointed to lead this year’s edition of the Singapore Biennale. Returning after a hiatus of three years, the biennale is set to run from 31 October 2025 to 29 March 2026. The biennale will take place in venues all over Singapore, including historical sites and residential neighbourhoods such as Fort Canning Park and the Rail Corridor. Institutions such as Asian Film Archive and Hothouse (both Singapore), Hyphen (Yogyakarta), SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), and Colombo-based collective The Packet, have been invited to present their artistic projects. The title of the biennale is Pure intention, in reference to the 1995 essay 'Singapore Songlines,’ by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In the essay, Koolhaas theorises that Singapore’s rapid urban development was shaped by ‘pure intention.’ In a statement the curators shared that, “Pure intention facilitates deep engagement with Singapore's rapidly changing social and urban environment, inviting reflection on the intersection of tradition and modernity.”
Left to right: curators Hsu Fang-Tze, Selene Yap, Duncan Bass, and Ong Puay Khim. Courtesy Singapore Biennale.
LESLIE HEWITT’S PHOTOGRAPH’S REVEL IN BURIED SYMBOLISM
Perrotin in Los Angeles presents ‘New Waves’, showcasing four large-scale photographs by Leslie Hewitt. The pieces rest on the floor against the wall, a method of displaying that Hewitt often employs that morphs the photographs into sculptural entities within their own right. The photographs reference mise-en-abyme, the concept of an image within an image, and depict arrangements of objects leaning against a wall. The way in which the exhibition has been curated also leans into the space of Perrotin, with Untitled (Imperceptible, Slow Drag, Barely Moving) (2022) placed in the centre. The piece comprises of chartreuse glass bowls, curved wooden wedges and steel beams, the parentheses shape framing the exhibition as a negotiation of language. The subjects of the photographs can be seen as both still life and minimalist abstractions, comprising. Both historical and cultural references make their subtle presence known throughout the works, from the allusions to vanitas paintings of the Dutch baroque to Jean Paul Sartre’s Black Orpheus. It can also be inferred that Hewitt’s post-minimalist works can act as a vehicle for historical remembrance, particularly through the ways in which the artist highlights Black narratives and voices.
Installation shot of 'New Waves'
HOW FAYE TOOGOOD IS PUSHING FORWARD MODERN DESIGN USING ANCIENT INSPIRATION
British designer and artist Faye Toogood has had a marked start to the year with a solo show opening at Friedman Benda in New York and the launch of a multi-room solo presentation titled “Womanifesto!” at Maison et Object. Toogood was also named Designer of the Year 2025 at Maison et Object, a furniture and design fair based in Paris. The designer shared that the Benda show was “so much about digging down, trying to find these relics within the ground, trying to unearth something that’s always been there,” while ‘Womanifesto!’ was Toogood realizing “that after 20 years of working in design, I can now use emotion in a way that I never could. I’m just putting it all out there.” ‘Assemblage 7: Lost and Found II,’ running until mid-March at Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth, exhibits like a history museum with its archaeological derived titles and monolithic forms. The materials used in the show are significant to Toogood, from the Purbeck marble to the English oak and the subtle appearance of fossils within the carved stone. Toogood shared that the work looks into the process of aging, “I guess [I mean] my aging, the world aging. But also preservation, and the beauty of age and patina. Some of the pieces with all the chisel work feel like they’ve been bashed by the elements and they’re still standing and they’re monumental.”
Installation shot of 'Assemblage 7: Lost and Found II'
Jordan Tan holds an MA in History of Art from the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art. With a passion for fine art and the art market, Jordan plays a key role at Art Works by researching and interpreting trends across the primary and secondary markets, delivering valuable insights and business intelligence for the fine art department.
