Recently opened at Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is a triple bill of exhibitions, featuring renowned Singapore artist Jane Lee’s first museum solo; a presentation of Factory of the Sun, Hito Steyerl’s installation at the German Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale; and the inaugural edition of SAM Contemporaries: Residues & Remixes, featuring nine artworks by the next generation of Singapore-based artists.

Razor-sharp sickles from Indonesian blacksmiths, rubber slippers from inmates in Singapore and used blankets from anonymous citizens in Busan. These are just a handful of the unusual materials that Filipino artists Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan use to create installations, which explore ideas of memory, displacement and home.

Running through 27 June at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Sounds of Blackness is a landmark exhibition bringing together the work of artists from the African diaspora, curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah and anchored by works from the collection of Filipino collector Timothy Tan.

ART SG speaks to collector and ART SG Advisory Group member Pierre Lorinet about his collecting philosophy, his views on what it will take for Singapore’s art ecosystem to flourish in the next decade and ART SG’s role in the region. Pierre also shares insights on ‘From Western Minimalism to Asian Political Abstraction’, a significant curation of works from his private collection that audiences will be able to see in January, during Singapore Art Week.

The Bangkok Art Biennale returns for its third edition from 22 October 2022 to 23 February 2023. Titled CHAOS : CALM, the Biennale will present works by 73 leading artists over multiple sites in the city as well as online. ART SG speaks to Prof. Dr Apinan Poshyananda, the Biennale’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director, about the importance of mounting this major presentation of contemporary art in Bangkok, memorable artwork-site activations, and the future of the Bangkok Art Biennale.

One of Singapore’s foremost contemporary artists, Jane Lee works primarily with the medium of paint, creating visually resplendent works that draw the viewer in with their heavily textured surfaces and dynamic presences. Much of Lee’s work seeks to redefine painting’s conventions while vividly bringing to life paint and painting’s materiality and processes. ART SG speaks with Lee to hear how she found her ‘voice’ in abstraction, and her journey as an artist.

Ming Wong is best known for his re-working of world cinema classics, in which he deliberately ‘mis-casts’ himself and others, often playing multiple roles in a foreign language. He represented Singapore at the Venice Biennale in 2009 with a presentation that revisited the golden age of Singapore cinema, for which he was awarded a Special Mention by the International Jury of the 53rd Venice Biennale. ART SG catches up with Wong on the occasion of the launch of his new public art work at the Singapore Art Museum, titled Wayang Spaceship.

Filipino collector and ART SG Advisory Group Member Marcel Crespo talks to ART SG about how his collecting practice has evolved over the years, what he looks out for before acquiring an artwork, and how his perspective has shifted after taking a break from the art circuit during the pandemic.