The weary figures portrayed in fast-rising artist Faris Heizer‘s paintings come at a rather apt time – they feel like an apt reflection of our collective mental states – both coming off the festive period and on the whole, after enduring two years of the pandemic.

The 23-year-old is staging his first solo show of the year, titled Crooners, showcasing a new series of works that build a narrative around the white-collar worker in his intimate moments that often go unnoticed or overlooked in the public eye.

Notions commonly associated with the salaried professional such as masculinity and capitalism are interspersed with less common intervals of vulnerability and mellowness, such as the malaise of work, having drinks after hours and men opening up about their emotional insecurities. In many of the works, the cigarette serves as a leitmotif – it’s meant to signify a (temporary) form of escape between the relentless drudgery of urban life.

More details here.

January 8 to January 30 at Cuturi Gallery, 61 Aliwal Street

Asian Film Archives is kicking off the year on a good note. Its first film festival is simply titled hahaha and it’s dedicated to comedy – the film genre that is perhaps the most universal – and just the antidote we need in the face of Miss Omicron.

They’re presenting 10 films in total that promise to traverse decades and languages – from the side-splittingly slapstick and wryly deadpan to the satirically political and downright surreal. For feline lovers, there’s ​​Rent-a-Cat, which chronicle the offbeat people that Sayoko (an unconventional young woman who operates a cat rental service) meets through her service.

Those who love slapstick might want to check out Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It which is about the adventure of three hapless fishing buddies who become the target of a mob and a knife-wielding one-eyed maniac after accidentally witnessing a murder in the forest.

Head to the cinema for a communal experience and portal to levity. Check out the full line-up here.

January 7 to February 27 at Oldham Theatre, 1 Canning Rise

We’ve all been inundated with digital experiences, exhibitions, shows, gigs and so on, especially during the first wave of the pandemic when people were forced to shift to the virtual in order to adapt.

Here’s a show that invites you back into the physical space and experience of art. Titled Ornamental ⠂瓖, the exhibition is a small and intimate one held at Yeo Workshop that features works by five local and regional artists – Stephanie Jane Burt, Shayne Phua, Quynh Dong, Lizzie Wee and Santi Wangchuan.

The works in this show set aside notions of utility in favour of something we’re all familiar with today: aesthetics. The artists use vivid aesthetics as a tool to re-focus attention on various forms of cultural, political and domestic constructs – the latter explored in Wee’s Honey Trap (pictured) which is her reflection on the commonplace objectification of women. In doing so, they re-position what might traditionally be deemed as “decorative” as something that can be critical. 

On now till January 9 at Yeo Workshop, 47 Malan Rd, #01-25, Gillman Barracks