S.E.A. Focus is uniting 27 participants to showcase the strongest art of the region

In Singapore, galleries are coming together to celebrate art – in person  

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	Asia`s inaugural hybrid art fair for this year is opening in Singapore. With the aggressive testing, comprehensive contact tracing methods, and strict social distancing measures that the city-state has put in place, it has successfully seen off multiple waves of the COVID-19 virus. Today, as restrictions have finally eased, the balmy streets of the Lion City are bustling with activity, galleries have reopened for business, and museums are starting to become busy again.


	The third edition of S.E.A. Focus, a homegrown initiative launched by local non-profit organization&nbsp;
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1284/STPI">STPI – Creative Workshop &amp; Gallery</a>, is featuring 27 galleries in a showcase of art and artists from across Southeast Asia. The boutique fair, which has a physical and virtual presence, is spearheading Singapore Art Week, a citywide event now in its ninth year.


	‘Despite recent challenges, galleries are eager to make an effort to build the momentum of the [Southeast Asian art] market,’ says Emi Eu, Project Director of S.E.A. Focus and Executive Director of STPI – Creative Workshop &amp; Gallery. ‘The whole COVID situation also gives us an opportunity to connect with the international audience via our online platforms, which is something we’ve always wanted to do.’
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Front and center


	This year, the exhibitor list for S.E.A Focus consists primarily of Singaporean and Southeast Asian galleries, with newcomers such as<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1185/Lehmann-Maupin"> Lehmann Maupin</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1401/Edouard-Malingue-Gallery" target="_blank">Edouard Malingue Gallery</a> occupying the handful of international spaces. Local dealers in particular have been looking forward to a physical art fair after months of being limited to virtual initiatives. ‘It’s high time that collectors be given the opportunity to take baby steps out. It’s also refreshing for artists to have an event to show at after a year of being locked indoors. Psychologically, it’s a big step,’ says veteran Singaporean gallerist Jasdeep Sandhu, the founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1364/Gajah-Gallery" target="_blank">Gajah Gallery</a>, which is located in Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the industrial building where the fair is taking place.


	Held in a cavernous, 24,000-square-foot warehouse art space – rented from art mover and storage company Helutrans – the show is presenting work by emerging and established names. Pieces on view range from a monumental tapestry created from Buddhist monks’ robes by the Argentina-born Thai artist&nbsp;
	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7088/Rirkrit-Tiravanija">Rirkrit Tiravanija</a>, to a tactile sculpture made of volcanic rock carpeted in lichen by the Indonesian artist Syaiful Aulia Garibaldi.


	Meanwhile, for the virtual component of the fair, a series of online talks and virtual studio and museum visits in Singapore and neighboring Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia has been organized. The fair is also partnering with Artsy to present S.E.A. Focus Digital, which is offering exhibitors a platform to show a wider range of artists.&nbsp;

A total of 18 exhibitors from previous editions have returned this year, including ROH Projects. ‘S.E.A. Focus is very much aligned with the vision of our gallery,’ says Jun Tirtadji, founder of the Jakarta-based gallery. ‘We’re all trying to make it happen for artists in our region and build a sustainable infrastructure to support them. Fairs like this accentuate the importance of this region and help to affirm that it’s a legitimate area of interest.’


	Alongside works that focus on the natural world by Garibaldi, Tirtadji is showing a range of experimental Indonesian artists, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/9693/Bagus-Pandega">Bagus Pandega</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/29339/Faisal-Habibi" target="_blank">Faisal Habibi</a>, as part of the gallery’s online presentation.


	Other gallerists are spotlighting artists who they feel have not received the recognition they deserve. ‘Southeast Asian art as a whole is very much under-researched. There is a whole cohort of artists that has not been fully appreciated,’ says Sandhu, offering as an example the Indonesian abstract painter Ibrahim Sutan Parpatiah, aka Ibrahim, whose work can be seen at the fair’s physical exhibition. ‘He was more or less forgotten for about 15 years, so to reintroduce him back into the artworld is exciting.’&nbsp;

Safety firstWhile last year’s edition of S.E.A. Focus adopted a typical art-fair format, with white-walled booths erected in a tent at the art venue Gillman Barracks, formerly a British military facility, this year the fair is taking a different approach. Each gallery has submitted an average of two to four works, which are being shown in one combined, free-flowing exhibition titled ‘hyper-horizon’, curated by Joyce Toh, a Singapore-based curator.In keeping with the city-state’s strict laws, the layout is mindful of social distancing rules. Visitors have also had to pre-register online for the vernissage and VIP preview, which have been divided into slots across two days. Once open to the public, the fair will be accessible on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of 150 people allowed in the space at any one time. Special ambassadors and security personnel will be present to manage crowds. As per the government regulations since the pandemic began, masks are mandatory in all public spaces. Since traveling to the fair was difficult this year, each overseas exhibitor shipped over their artworks ahead of time, with the exception of one who is showing a video work. While many overseas gallerists, and even some with spaces in Singapore, admit that sending in works and eschewing booths is not ideal (as it means dealers and sales staff aren’t permanently stationed by the pieces), they are still optimistic. ‘It is worth exploring different formats, especially at this time,’ says Lorraine Kiang Malingue, co-founder of Hong Kong- and Shanghai-based Edouard Malingue Gallery, which is showing work by the Thai filmmaker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Singaporean multidisciplinary artist Ho Tzu Nyen, as well as the Indonesian art collective Tromarama. ‘The works will speak for themselves.’

Local gallerists are using Singapore Art Week as an opportunity to put on their best shows. Japanese gallery Ota Fine Arts, which is exhibiting the two young Singaporean painters Hilmi Johandi and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/42744/Guo-Liang-Tan" target="_blank">Guo-Liang Tan</a> at the fair, is also presenting a major solo exhibition of recent paintings by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7763/Yayoi-Kusama">Yayoi Kusama</a> in its Gillman Barracks outpost. Meanwhile, the neighboring&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1466/Yavuz-Gallery">Yavuz Gallery</a>, which will be showing mixed-media works by young Singaporean artist Ian Tee at the fair, has also rented an additional space in Gillman Barracks to put on a pop-up solo exhibition of Tee’s work. ‘I’m using this art week as an opportunity to really get out there and kick-start my program,’ says Can Yavuz, the gallery’s founder, who confirms that the fair has helped to grow his local collecting base. ‘We’ve had fantastic feedback from our clients and the artists, because it really feels like a community fair.’

Looking back at the roots of S.E.A. Focus, it was always intended to be about building solidarity among the Singapore art community. The seed for the fair was planted several years ago when Eu, along with other local gallerists who were part of the Art Galleries Association Singapore, decided to rally together to reignite the local art scene. In 2014, they launched Art in Motion, a citywide art walk held in conjunction with Singapore Art Week, which ran for three years, supported by the government-run National Arts Council, the Singapore Tourism Board, and the Singapore Economic Development Board. ‘It was really focused on nurturing and developing the activities of galleries here,’ says Eu. ‘This is how the whole idea [for a regional fair] came up, and ultimately it made sense that STPI would be a good vehicle to run it, because we [also] have support from the National Arts Council.’Over the years, the Singaporean government has played a critical role in bolstering the fair as well as the city’s overall art scene. Today, at a moment when smaller art fairs across the globe are struggling, S.E.A. Focus has managed to survive due to a combination of private and public support. ‘The local art ecology has expanded over the past decade and a half, largely due to government policies,’ says independent curator Louis Ho. ‘The development of visual arts in Singapore prior to that looked quite different A lot of what we have now we owe to deliberate official moves – one can’t discount that.’The government is also throwing its weight behind Singapore Art Week to reinvigorate the local art scene in the wake of the pandemic. Its program features more than 100 events, many of which are physical exhibitions and talks held by independent art spaces, private galleries, individual collectors, and public institutions.&nbsp;

Growing placesIn recent years, Eu and other gallerists have noticed that interest in Southeast Asian art from regional and overseas collectors is growing. ‘It’s really important to sustain this,’ says Eu. ‘We think that the fair can go even further than having just one event a year.’In the meantime, several international exhibitors plan to continue strengthening their ties with the region. ‘We have been paying close attention to the markets in Southeast Asia and steadily cultivating strong relationships with collectors here,’ says David Maupin, cofounder of Lehmann Maupin, which is showing a mixed-media work by London-based Malaysian artist Mandy El-Sayegh. ‘It’s an exciting region with energy and potential.’As Tirtadji says, ‘Literally everything that we are doing is unprecedented. Every step that we’re taking in our region has never been taken before. We don’t have a lot of infrastructure yet, but we have the opportunity to build it.’ Unlike more-established markets, the story of Southeast Asia is still being written, and S.E.A. Focus is helping to shape a compelling new narrative.

SEA Focus and Singapore Art Week run January 22-31, 2021.Top image:&nbsp;Rirkrit Tiravanija, untitled 2016 (nothing) (detail), 2016. &copy; Rirkrit Tiravanija. Courtesy of the artist and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. Photo by Jens Ziehe.

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S.E.A. Focus is uniting 27 participants to showcase the strongest art of the region