The unsure way forward for two regional establishments dominated discussions throughout this yr’s Singapore Artwork Week (SAW), which ran from 22 to 31 January. For the primary time, curated Southeast Asian boutique honest S.E.A. Focus, working since 2019, was folded into Artwork SG, now in yr 4.
Some contributors quietly expressed concern that the step preceded the bigger, dearer honest absorbing S.E.A. Focus totally. In the meantime controversy over a widely-criticised version of the Singapore Biennale, first held in 2006, culminated into an equally controversial article in native paper Straits Instances calling for its outright termination.
Each the Biennale and S.E.A. Focus have, for all their shortcomings, been essential nubs of exercise rising the essential and industrial visibility of Southeast Asian artists. S.E.A. Focus’s mixture with Artwork SG appears an effort to streamline SAW’s two industrial occasions right into a coherent entity, although its sponsoring physique, Singapore’s Nationwide Arts Council, has been coy in regards to the actual causes.
“Shifting meant the platform may attain a broader viewers and convey Southeast Asian artwork into a bigger world dialogue,” says John Z.W. Tung, curator of this yr’s S.E.A. Focus themed round artwork’s position to find compassion amidst world turmoil. Tung has curated the honest since 2023, on a contract ending after this version. He provides that the publicity additionally comes with new challenges: “The intimate group dynamics that outlined S.E.A. Focus wanted to be balanced with the size of ART SG, which I really feel we tackled efficiently. I additionally see this as a possibility to interact in dialogue that isn’t nearly visibility, however about how artwork can mirror the political, ecological, and social adjustments throughout the area.”
Gross sales suggestions was “usually sturdy”, says Tung: “there was palpable curiosity within the works, with a recognition that Southeast Asian artwork has lengthy been evolving however nonetheless struggles with world recognition. Many galleries reported significant connections that prolonged past simply transactional engagements, highlighting how essential it’s to foster an ongoing dialogue between collectors, artists, and curators.”
Tung would “welcome the prospect to return,” if invited to resume his contract with S.E.A. Focus. “On the identical time, we should proceed to evolve the platform in response to regional and world shifts.” He says it should stay “about persevering with to problem the framing of Southeast Asian artwork inside a worldwide context. I hope we are able to maintain pushing this dialog ahead, much more successfully.”
Some Southeast Asian galleries anonymously described feeling like “sub-sectors” of the principle honest, and suspicious that the transfer was undertaken to bolster Artwork SG’s diminished numbers—right down to 95 galleries, from 2023’s 160. They concern that even when S.E.A. Focus survives there might be stress on them to maneuver over to Artwork SG, the place cubicles are $900 per sq m, in comparison with S.E.A. Focus’s flat fee of SGD 8000 ($6,320), out of attain for many regional sellers.
Nonetheless, the largely constructive suggestions augurs nicely for the platform’s return subsequent yr. “We discovered the venue to be well-organised, accessible, and thoughtfully built-in throughout the broader Artwork SG ecosystem,” says Deborah Iskandar, proprietor of Jakarta’s Isa Artwork Gallery. She felt the incorporation with the larger honest was “particularly useful, because it allowed for cross-regional visibility and introduced in a extra various group of collectors and establishments.”
Isa’s part supplied a dramatic entrance to S.E.A. Focus with the dramatic ceiling-hung flags made by Indonesia’s Arahmaiani. Her Flag collection works with communities all over the world to embroider ideas most essential to them, in their very own languages, on the intense banners. Additionally exhibiting Ines Katamso’s ecological compositions, Iskandar says they “positioned a number of key works with a number of collectors” for costs between $3,600 and $19,500. “We hope [S.E.A. Focus] continues to develop as a platform that helps essential discourse, long-term artist improvement, and deeper regional engagement past purely industrial aims.”
“The inclusion of S.E.A. Focus at Artwork SG this yr was a serious success. This strategic collaboration introduced a robust contingent of Southeast Asian artists and galleries to the honest, amplifying the platform’s attain,” says Artwork SG cofounder Magnus Renfrew. “Trying ahead, I see S.E.A. Focus persevering with to develop and supply extra alternatives for native and regional artists to interact with the worldwide market. The themes explored—particularly round pressing world challenges like ecological crises, displacement, and peace—are extra related than ever, and I’m wanting to see how the platform evolves within the coming years.”
Total, says Renfrew, “Singapore and Southeast Asian artwork markets proceed to show outstanding momentum.” Guests to SAW and the gala’s this yr included together with Michael Govan, chief government and Wallis Annenberg, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork (Lacma), Tate’s outgoing director Maria Balshaw, and the collectors Rajeeb Samdani and Han Nefkens.
The week additionally included Sotheby’s annual Trendy and Up to date, which achieved $13.1m throughout 62 heaps, with new public sale information for Southeast Asian artists Pacita Abad and Anthony Poon. “We actually felt this confidence on the bottom at Artwork SG,” says Renfrew, with main gross sales corresponding to Danh Vo’s Untitled (2022) for €260,000, Michael Armitage’s 1: The Trial (2025) at $280,000, and three Cai Guo-Qiang gunpowder on canvas works for $120,000 every at White Dice. Johyun Gallery offered out all works of a presentation by Lee Bae for a complete of USD 2,758,000.
Thaddeaus Ropac noticed main gross sales together with Raqib Shaw’s Fall of the Jade Kingdom I – Paradise Misplaced Chapter II, (2014–2023) for £475,000, Antony Gormley’s SET VII (2024) for £450,000, David Salle’s Bow Ties (2025) for $250,000 and Lee Kang So’s The Wind Blows – 230928 (2023) for $100,000. “There was a great power on the honest and throughout Singapore’s artwork scene in the course of the week,” says the gallery’s director, Asia, Daybreak Zhu. “The honest felt busy and, along with the native attendees, we noticed collectors from throughout the area together with from Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong and mainland China, and notably extra institutional attendance than final yr, with quite a lot of teams from main worldwide museums.” SAW’s programming has continued to mature, she says, whereas “collectors are very thought of in what they’re shopping for, participating deeply and excited about long-term purchases. We noticed sturdy engagement and gross sales of works by each established worldwide names and artists with a connection to Asia, which displays a need to develop various and genuine collections.”
Singapore’s Ministry of Commerce & Trade initiatives the city-state’s GDP to develop by 2% to 4% this after, after progress of 5% in 2025 pushed by manufacturing and know-how, regardless of a sluggish client financial system. Nonetheless, Singapore’s position inside Southeast Asia means it additionally facilitates artwork gross sales to neighbours like Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, whose artwork scenes are maturing regardless of political instability.
“Singapore has been serving as an essential gateway to the colourful [Asia Pacific] artwork scene with sturdy curiosity amongst artwork collectors,” says Jin Yee Younger, co-head of UBS World Wealth Administration Asia Pacific. She cites the Artwork Basel and UBS Survey of World Gathering 2025 report, which “reinforces Singapore’s significance, exhibiting it’s now the fifth-largest world importer of artwork and antiques, with import values rising considerably by 74% to simply beneath $1.7bn in 2024. Moreover, optimism is excessive amongst collectors, with 81% of HNWI’s surveyed in Singapore feeling optimistic in regards to the outlook for the worldwide artwork market within the subsequent six months.”
UBS this yr offered the 5 hour efficiency I Love You (2007) by iconic Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo, a part of a broader incorporation of efficiency artwork into this yr’s Artwork SG via a particular sector curated by X Zhu-Nowell, director of Shanghai’s Rockbund Artwork Museum. Suryadono joined Arahmaiani at S.E.A. Focus for a strong cohort of mid-career Nustantaran ladies artists because the honest and the week’s standouts. Subsequent to Arahmaiani’s flags hung images of vanishing Singapore traditions by this yr’s Singapore Pavilion at Venice artist Amanda Heng.
In Artwork SG’s curated part Platform, Malaysia’s Anne Samat’s set up It Feels Like House… The Journey Continues (Large Awake and Unafraid Sequence) wowed by the honest’s first flooring entrance and downstairs Bali-based artist Citra Sasmita’s Bedtime Tales coated her Platform sales space with tapestries interweaving ritual and feminism seen from reclining on the pillow-strewn flooring. On the Nationwide Gallery of Singapore, Worry No Energy: Ladies Imagining In any other case celebrated trailblazing Southeast Asian ladies artists together with Heng‘s performances and the highly effective sculptures of Dolorosa Sinaga.
Hanging over this yr’s SAW was a scathing editorial that ran 6 January within the Straits Instances slamming the present Singapore Biennale (till 26 March) for its muddled messaging and impossibly far-flung venues. Longtime arts editor Ong Sor Fern referred to as the present, themed “Pure Intentions” from a 1995 Rem Koolhaas essay, “a ticking of bureaucratic bins” and “haphazard, disconnected from the group, and inaccessible.”
In a joint assertion to The Artwork Newspaper, Low Eng Teong, chief government of Singapore’s Nationwide Arts Council, and Eugene Tan, chief government officer and director of the Singapore Artwork Museum, mentioned they “admire the suggestions and concepts from the humanities group and the general public” and have been reviewing “via ongoing dialogue and reflection…how the Singapore Biennale can greatest serve artists, audiences, and the broader cultural panorama.”
Low and Tan mentioned they’ve been engaged on methods to convey artwork nearer to Singapore communities, and this version’s format sought to “allow Singaporeans to interact with artwork past conventional museum settings.” They’ve labored on discovering methods to enhance signage, excursions and print and digital maps over the present’s run, whereas contemplating the way to enhance future editions. They pressured that its position stays essential, as “a key platform for native modern artists to showcase, experiment and interact via works that talk to native and world audiences,” serving to to “develop the native arts scene and place Singapore on the worldwide arts map.”
