With two new exhibitions by important modern artists in Southeast Asia, and the opening of the retail/F&B concept space, Gallery & Co., there’s no better time to visit the National Gallery Singapore. By Lucy Rees.
Spanning 8,800 square feet across the City Hall wing on the ground floor, Gallery & Co. fuses art and design into a cool retail and dining concept space. We love the open plan of the three spaces (including a museum store, cafe and cafeteria) and how the strong design elements create a sense of transition and fluidity between them. It’s no wonder if you consider who’s behind the venture: a partnership between Unlisted’s Loh Lik Pena, Foreign Policy Design Group’s Yah-Leng Yu, and Luxasia’s Arthur Chi.
The retail space: Aiming to bring together artisanal craft, design and culture, check out local and international brands like Matter Prints (the retail assistants wear uniforms by the brand too), Supermama, Marou, Q&Q, Maison Kitsuné and Jujumade. Upcoming collaborations include a capsule collection by Matter Prints, scented candles inspired by museum artworks by Mud Rock and Candle of Light, and a collaboration with an artisanal tea house in Japan.
The Cafeteria: Modelled around an all-day dining concept, you’ll find twists on the Southeast Asian classics. Created by Restaurant Ember’s chef Sufian Zain, the menu features salads, sandwiches and dishes like the Otah Stack, Green Curry Seafood Pasta, and Har Cheong Gai.
The Café: With wrought iron and gilded structures, the design is inspired by European coffee shop or pastry house. Grab a specialty coffee from micro-roaster Papa Paleta. There’s also indoor and outdoor seating options.
A solo exhibition of one of Singapore’s leading contemporary artists, Tang Da Wu. In 1980, he presented an exhibition titled Earthworks before it was shut down after just three days. The exhibition currently on at the National Gallery is a re-visit of the original show.
The main artwork is Gully Curtains, 1979, where the artist suspended huge pieces of fabric between gullies as though sheets on a clothes line. After being exposed to the rain and sun, the fabrics took on the texture of the earth. It’s now considered one of the first pieces of “land art” in Singapore. Also on display are some of his original mineral pigment drawings and archival photographs.
When: Until 19 Jun 2016
Where: Concourse Gallery 1
Admission: Free
Image: “Earth Work 1979”, installation view. Courtesy National Gallery of Singapore.
Showcasing the work of three groundbreaking artists from the 1970s in Southeast Asia: Filipino Johnny Manahan, Malaysia’s Redza Piyadasa and Singapore’s Tan Teng-Kee.
Working with painting, sculpture, and performance, they all challenged what the concept of “art” meant. Tan Teng Kee, for example, created a 100m-long painting before cutting it and setting fire to it – without planning to, he had created one of the first recorded ‘performance’ pieces in Singapore. The exhibition will explore the history of modern art in the region but also look at some of these iconic artworks that no longer exist physically.
When: Until May 29
Where: Concourse Gallery 2
Admission: Free
Image: “A Fact Has No Appearance: Art Beyond The Object”, Installation view, Courtesy National Gallery of Singapore.
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