SINGAPORE: A major exhibition on street art – featuring important works by artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, JR and Space Invader – will be held at ArtScience Museum next year.
Art From The Streets, which opens on Jan 13, is touted as the first big street art retrospective to be shown in Southeast Asia.
Spanning 40 years of the art movement, it will comprise 200 pieces from 50 of the world’s best known street artists. These include paintings, installations, archives, sketches and even on-site projects by visiting artists. Emerging street artists from the region will also be included.
A mural in Shanghai by Portuguese artist VHILS, one of the artists that will be featured in ArtScience Museum’s Art From The Streets. (Photo: Danysz Gallery, Joao Moreira)
Regarded by many as one of the most famous – and infamous – street artists around, the elusive UK artist Banksy is known for his satirical and politically loaded graffiti. This year, he controversially set up a hotel in the Palestinian territories. Meanwhile, Fairey is an American artist behind the OBEY brand, who is best known for his “Hope” poster featuring former US president Barack Obama.
The street art exhibition is one of the highlights of next year’s Singapore Art Week (SAW), which will run from Jan 17 to 28. The sixth edition of the annual art showcase comprises over 100 events, including exhibitions, talks, and tours.
The Light To Night Festival, formerly the Civic District Outdoor Festival, will be held across the different cultural institutions in the area. (Photo: National Gallery Singapore)
Aside from the street art retrospective, other highlights include the Light To Night Festival. Previously called the Civic District Outdoor Festival and first held last August, it has now been permanently moved to January as one of SAW’s marquee events.
The festival will feature outdoor events across institutions in the Civic District, including Art Skins On Monuments, a series of works projected unto the facades of buildings, which will be created by 30 local illustrators and media artists.
Another new addition is DISINI, a site-specific festival that will be held for nine months at Gillman Barracks. Its first iteration will include outdoor sculptures and murals by eight artists, and an all-purpose pavilion.
The Little India tours, with performances, returns for Singapore Art Week 2018. (Photo: Singapore Tourism Board)
The two festivals join Aliwal Arts Centre’s own urban art fest, which will also put the spotlight on street art and other subcultures.
A joint initiative by the National Arts Council, Singapore Tourism Board, and the Singapore Economic Development Board, the annual SAW is a way to raise the profile of the local art industry as well as provide an opportunity for participating Singapore artists to push their own artistic boundaries, said Linda de Mello, the arts council’s director for sector development (visual arts).
She added that the diversity of next year’s programmes will bring a richness of experience to audiences from different communities.
Next year’s State Of Motion films-meet-art tour will focus on seminal Malay language films, such as Isi Neraka, and will take participants to Pulau Sekudu. (Photo: Shaw Organisation)
Other returning events during SAW include the eighth edition of the fair Art Stage Singapore, the Little India tours, and the films-meet-art State Of Motion tours. The latter will revisit seminal Malay language films and instead of its previous bus tour format, it now will include a boat trip to Pulau Sekudu, off Pulau Ubin.
Among the shows presented by individual artists are urban artist Samantha Lo’s interactive installation Progress: The Game Of Leaders, based on the block-stacking game; recent Young Artist Award recipient Kray Chen’s 5 Rehearsals For A Wedding, which looks at the rituals of Chinese weddings in Singapore; and an exhibition of works by one of Singapore’s most overlooked artists, the late sculptor and printmaker Kim Lim.
From Kray Chen’s 5 Rehearsals For A Wedding. (Photo: Kray Chen)
