The new art destination for the Asia Pacific region

The just concluded Art Stage Singapore brought together Asia’s top galleries along with some European contemporary pieces. Off its fair grounds, the fair assiduously worked with many art industry partners on quality educational programs, including a large-scale museum show of spectacular Asian contemporary masterpieces brought from top private collections in Asia. It was organized by the Singapore Art Museum.

This superb collectors exhibition gave an opportunity to see a representative selection of significant works by some of Asia’s most critically acclaimed contemporary artists, such as Ai Wei Wei, Shen Shaomin, Zeng Fanzhi, Fang Li Jun, Liu Wei (China), I Nyoman Masriadi, Agus Suwage (Indonesia), Nam June Paik (Korea), Yoshitomo Nara (Japan), apart from Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, TV Santhosh and L.N. Tallur from India.

The much anticipated project was realized in cooperation with leading collectors of Asian contemporary art like Kim Chang-il (Korea), Deddy Kusuma (Indonesia), Monique Burger / Burger Collection (Hong Kong), Agnes Lin / Osage Art Foundation (Hong Kong), Sylvain Levy / dsl Foundation (France), Dr. Oei Hong Djien (Indonesia), Judith Neilson / White Rabbit Collection (Australia), Qiao Zhibin (China), Marcus Tan (Malaysia), Budi Tek (Indonesia), Jackson See (Singapore),Yang Bin (China) and Lekha & Anupam Poddar / Devi Foundation (India). Explaining how Singapore is fast emerging an ideal destination for art exchanges, an organizer’s note stated:

“At the heart of the cultural and commercial crossroads between the East and the West, Singapore is the perfect meeting place. The city’s reputation as a premium lifestyle destination has been enhanced over time with the recently opened Marina Bay Sands. Often referred to as the ‘Switzerland of Asia’, it’s among the world’s fastest growing economies, and the private wealth management centre of Asia Pacific."

The Singapore government is investing in key market infrastructure for art including The National Art Gallery and Gillman Village, a new arts and creative businesses cluster that will be a hub for international galleries and arts businesses. Asia’s only state-of-the-art, recently launched, Singapore Freeport is another example of such initiatives to promote art.

At the heart of these encouraging developments, Art Stage Singapore is keen to position itself as a flagship event to catalyze the city’s ascension into a leading arts destination.