Affordable Art Fair draws 17,800 visitors and chalks up $4.9 million in sales

SINGAPORE - The popular Affordable Art Fair has wrapped up its fourth edition with record sales and visitorship.

The visitorship hit 17,800 and sales hit a new high of $4.9 million. With a much larger fair this year, organisers were targeting 17,000 visitors and over $4 million in sales.

Indeed, gallerists barely had time to take a break from their booths on most days of the fair which opened with a packed VIP preview last Wednesday night.

Several galleries, particularly local ones, reported excellent sales.

Utterly Art, for instance, sold more than 58 artworks and had a little over $100,000 in sales. Their hot sellers were works by homegrown artists including contemporary pop artist Andre Tan, watercolourists Foo Kwee Horng and Aaron Gan, as well as street artist TR853-1.

Among the earliest art works to sell at the fair were local contemporary Chinese ink painter Tay Bak Chiang's six paintings priced around $8,000 each. His work was shown by Hong Kong-based gallery Art Projects, which had a superb outing in their first showing at the fair. By closing time, it was a sea of red dots next to most artworks.

ir as the visitors. I feel it has something for everyone and is not an intimidating fair."

Local gallery Jada Art, which sold 10 artworks on opening night alone, wrapped up the fair with sales of $90,000 and over 60 per cent of the artworks sold.

Affordable Art Fair, which originated in London in 1999, is now in 12 cities worldwide, including New York, Milan and Hong Kong.

In Singapore, it continues to draw not just local and regional galleries but important international players such as London's Bicha Gallery.

The vibe is less intimidating than at a regular high-end fair, where prices are given only on request.

Those who could not make it this time will no longer have to wait a year to catch the next instalment.

The popular annual fair, which has grown in size, attendance and sales every year since its launch here in 2010, will add another fair next year from May 22 to 25, making it a bi-annual event in Singapore.

deepikas@sph.com.sg

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