Locals go solo

SINGAPORE - DAYS WE MET

Artist: 5ive Foot Way, a photography collective that comprises Adam Abdul Rahim, 27, Aik Beng Chia, 46, Callan Tham, 36, Donna Chiu, 44, and Tham Jing Wen, 32

What: The five members train their lenses on various subject matter but they all focus on street and vernacular photography, which aim to capture the everyday and commonplace in new and personal ways. Each member will show six photographic prints.

The themes explored include neglected urban spaces, the interaction between man and animal, and a sense of familial longing.

Where: Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, 56A Arab Street

When: Friday to Jan 24, 11am to 7pm (weekdays), noon to 6pm (Saturdays), closed on Sundays and public holidays

DRAWING PARALLEL

Artist: Tang Ling Nah, 42

What: The act of drawing is taken beyond its conventional meaning by Tang, who usually works with charcoal and paper, in this movement-based performance art piece. It incorporates an ephemeral installation of recycled paper. The work is inspired by her observation of how her body moves when she works on large-scale charcoal drawings. It seeks to draw a parallel between drawing, particularly the act of erasure, and everyday movements of the body. Tang will collaborate with dancers Eng Kai Er, 29, Adele Goh, 23, and Bernice Lee, 26, as well as sound designer Ho Wen Yang, 31, and violinist Audrina Goh, 20.

Where: Aliwal Arts Centre, 28 Aliwal Street, Level 1, multi-purpose hall

When: Jan 17, 7 to 8pm, and Jan 18, 6 to 7pm

WINDOWSHOP

Artist: Dawn Ng, 31

What: This installation is presented as a cabinet of curiosities, but instead of exhibiting precious objects, the display cases celebrate everyday objects hand-picked from local junk stores and homes. The significance of the items is also teased out by the label on each case, which word pithy observations on the relations between people, objects and concepts of memory, space and time.

Where: Chan Hampe Galleries, Raffles Hotel Arcade, 328 North Bridge Road, 01-20/21

When: Friday to Feb 9, 11am to 7pm (Tuesdays to Sundays), closed on Mondays and public holidays

SEA STATE 3: INVERSION

Artist: Charles Lim, 40

What: In this series of recent works in video, photography and 3-D prints, Lim explores the interplay between man and the maritime environment. Unlike his previous works, which examined the boundaries inscribed on the restless surface of the sea, this series goes to the sea floor, mapping the unstable lines that separate natural and man-made spaces, sea and land, and past and future. He unravels how the notion of place is constructed and how the national identity is entwined with the city-state's tussle with nature.

Where: Future Perfect, Block 47 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks

When: Friday to Feb 16, noon to 7pm (Tuesdays to Saturday), noon to 6pm (Sundays), closed on Mondays and public holidays

MOVING FOREST

Artist: Han Sai Por (above), 70

What: Better known as an artist who works with stone, Han shows off her versatility as a sculptor with an exhibition that features almost 50 new works made with paper pulp using techniques such as etching, woodblock printing, paper casting and paper-pulp moulding. The pieces reflect her enduring interest in nature with their organic forms, vegetal motifs and evocation of the renewal of seasons.

Where: Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 41 Robertson Quay

When: Jan 15 to Feb 22, 10am to 6pm, (Tuesdays to Saturdays), by appointment on Mondays, closed on Sundays and public holidays

LOGICAL PROGRESSIONS

Artist: Ang Song-Ming, 33

What: Music has been the beat that pulses through Ang's practice as he explores how people experience and interact with it. His art, which is a nod to conceptual art and avant-garde music, often spotlights non-conventional ways of presenting music such as drawing and photography. A key work in this show is Backwards Bach (2013), a new, two-channel video of Ang performing on a harpsichord J.S. Bach's Prelude in C Major, albeit in reverse.

Where: Fost Gallery, 1 Lock Road, 01-02, Gillman Barracks

When: Friday to March 2, 11am to 7pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays), 11am to 6pm (Sundays), by appointment on Mondays and public holidays

FRATERNIZE FEAT. TAN PEILING

Artist: Tan Peiling (above), 26

What: The city and its people often rely on visual archive material, such as photographs, to remember buildings and places with histories that have to make way for redevelopment.

Tan, however, challenges convention with The Blind Witness, a large-scale light and sound installation that invites viewers to observe the move of Keppel Terminal to Tuas using one's ears instead of eyes. The port, which is behind Artspace@Helutrans where the work is installed, will relocate when the lease on its current site expires in 2027.

This work inaugurates Fraternize, an exhibition platform for site-specific installation, which is supported by the space, Galerie Steph and Ikkan Art.

Where: Artspace@Helutrans, 39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 01-05

When: Jan 14 to March 1, noon to 7pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays), by appointment on Sundays, closed on Mondays and public holidays

ZUL: SONICALLY EXPOSED

Artist: Zulkifle Mahmod, 38

What: The artist, better known as Zul, was formally trained as a sculptor and ventured into sound art in 2006 with installations that combine visuals and sound.

This show breaks away from the common perception of sound art as being performative in nature by fusing them with sculpture and turning the works into pieces of art that can be physically displayed.

On show are nine wall-mounted sound-reliefs, four sound sculptures placed on pedestals and a sound installation.

The works engage with the rapid urbanisation of Singapore and the noise generated by the growing population and construction.

Also on show are 15 sketches, which form a key part of Zul's creative process.

Where: The Private Museum, 51 Waterloo Street, 02-06

When: Jan 15 to March 9, 10am to 7pm (weekdays), 11am to 5pm (weekends), by appointment on public holidays and other times

RECENT WORKS BY MILENKO PRVACKI

Artist: Milenko Prvacki, 63

What: Cultural Medallion recipient Prvacki will show recent works from his extensive body of art, including 60 pieces from the series Unsent Letters, which features paintings made on photographic collage. A monograph on the artist, After Memory: The Art Of Milenko Prvacki - 40 Years, will also be launched at the show and the artist will be present at its public launch at Art Stage on Jan 18, from 2 to 4pm.

Where: iPreciation at Art Stage

When: Jan 16 to 19, noon to 7pm (Thursday to Friday), 11am to 7pm (Saturday), 11am to 6pm (Sunday)

ONG KIM SENG: TRAVEL JOURNAL IN OILS

Artist: Ong Kim Seng, 68

What: He is well known as a watercolourist, but Ong is no stranger to oil painting. This show will introduce a new side of his practice to the public. Much of the 30 works on display are oil paintings made in recent years featuring landscapes in Singapore as well as overseas. A selection of his watercolour landscapes will also be on show to complement the new oil works.

Where: artcommune, Block 231 Bain Street, Bras Basah Complex, 02-43

When: Till Jan 18, noon to 7pm daily

DRAWING CAGE

Artist: Boedi Widjaja, 38

What: This exhibition, drawing on the concepts and methods of avant-garde American composer and artist John Cage, explores issues of identity, place and memories through the performance of time and space in Singapore. The eight works on display range in mediums from drawings to installation.

Where: 38 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks

When: Sunday to Jan 26, 3 to 7pm (Tuesdays to Thursdays), 11am to 7pm (Fridays to Sundays), closed on Mondays

100 FACES

Artist: Jane Lee, 50

What: Lee, who has made a name for herself with signature works that layer paint to form intense, tactile surfaces, shows a bold new side to her practice. Drawing from Eastern philosophy and the idea that less is more, her latest works are driven by a desire to subtract from her previously built-up surfaces.

The series Portrait and 100 Faces, for example, feature painted surfaces that have been gouged or poked to expose a riot of hues beneath. And in the series Stack, paintings are piled to form pillars so that the surfaces are hidden and only the sides are visible.

She is also presenting a large-scale work, 50 Faces, at the South-east Asian platform at Art Stage. The 10m-long installation comprises 50 paintings made of acrylic heavy gel, reflective mirror and fibreglass.

Where: Sundaram Tagore Gallery, 5 Lock Road, Gillman Barracks, 01-05

When: Friday to March 2, 11am to 7pm, (Tuesdays to Saturdays), 11am to 6pm (Sundays), closed on Mondays

IN THE DEADPAN BED PAN

Artist: Tan Wee Lit, 35

What: Tan's first solo exhibition here features nearly 100 self-reflexive works that examine the transcience of life and issues of mortality in his characteristically absurd, tragicomic tone.

For example, the bronze bust Living Legacy (2006) inhales and exhales using a mechanism that draws in and expels air, and imagines Tan's visage as a sexagenarian.

Where: Chapel Gallery, Sculpture Square, 155 Middle Road

When: Jan 16 to 29, 11am to 7pm (Tuesdays to Sundays), closed on Mondays

VIVID VISTAS

Artist: Aaron Gan, 34

What: This exhibition marks the return of Gan, a watercolourist, after his first solo show last year, which sold out. Instead of painting street scenes, a familiar subject matter for Singaporean watercolourists, he chooses to depict atmospheric skies, vegetation and expanses of water in broad, assured strokes. His show will feature 20 paintings rendered with a vibrant palette of colours.

Where: Utterly Art, 20B Mosque Street

When: Till Jan 19, by appointment only, 2 to 8pm (Mondays to Saturdays) noon to 5.30pm (Sundays), call 9487-2006

SLEEPLESS IN THE CITY

Artist: Hong Sek Chern, 46

What: A fire engulfed Hong's studio early last year and the incident was widely reported in the news here. That episode led her to start on her latest body of work, which explores how the private intersects with the public through physical sites. Her subject matter is buildings and spaces that have made the news for a myriad of reasons, such as the site of a minor traffic accident or a hawker centre caught in the middle of a cleaning dispute between a town council and the environment agency.

The tension between the public and private is further complicated by her style of painting, which is in the vein of Chinese ink landscapes and seamlessly blends subjective and objective realities together.

Where: Art-2 Gallery, 140 Hill Street, 01-03

When: Jan 13 to 29, 11am to 7pm, (Mondays to Saturdays), closed on Sundays and public holidays

RUBEN PANG SELECTED PORTRAITS

Artist: Ruben Pang, 24

What: The latest series of paintings by the popular young artist features portraits that meld memories of film stills, the notion of synaesthesia and the residue of preceding paintings. The result is works that alternate between abstraction and figurations of flesh and smoke.

Where: Chan Hampe Galleries at Art Stage

When: Jan 16 to 19, noon to 7pm (Thursdays to Fridays), 11am to 7pm (Saturdays), 11am to 6pm (Sundays)

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