‘Shifting Tides’, ‘Singapore Utopia’, ‘Poor Imagination’ and more
By Anna Chan

Entang Wiharso, ‘Evolution: Floating Garden Series #1’, 2016, acrylic, glitter and India ink on canvas, 285 x 200 cm. Image courtesy of ASEAN Gallery.

Shifting Tides
ASEAN Gallery presents its inaugural exhibition with 16 artists including Heri Dono from Indonesia, Jigger Cruz from Philippines, Loi Cai Xiang from Singapore, and Chong Ai Lei from Malaysia, in the heart of the new ASEAN Secretariat Building in Jakarta. Curated by Benjamin Hampe, the show is a place for the artists to share their identities, as well as contemplate domestic and international politics, the transcultural experience of migration, postcolonial reconstruction of history, and the nature of truth.

ASEAN Gallery, 8 August to 6 September.

Lim Tze Peng, ‘Untitled’, ink on paper, 150 x 210cm. Image courtesy of Ode to Art.

Lim Tze Peng: The Spirit of Ink
Singapore’s 99-year-old pioneer artist Lim Tze Peng will have his first solo exhibition in Mumbai, India, held in conjunction with the celebration of Singapore’s Bicentennial and National Day celebrations this year. Known for employing traditional Chinese ink painting techniques in contrast to the subject of modernising Singapore cityscape, Lim reformed Chinese calligraphy with his invention of "hu tu zi" (art calligraphy). Five new pieces of these abstract works will be shown in public for the first time. The show is the result of the efforts of Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, in collaboration with IDF Singapore, Ode To Art, and the Consulate-General of the Republic of Singapore.

Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, 3 August to 15 September.

Jeremy Hiah performing 'Coward' at Gillman Barracks on 27 July 2019. Image courtesy of the artist and Chan + Hori Contemporary.

Singapore Utopia: National Identity Through the Lens of Art
Curated by Deborah Lim and Lisa Polten, 15 Singapore artists including Adeline Kueh and Ezzam Rahman inhabit the exhibition space to examine the notion of national identity through current conversations of cultural and socio-political contexts, in response to themes of diaspora, intimacy, housing, and history. New works include a performance piece by Jeremy Hiah and new media installation by Ho Tzu Nyen. The show, which attracted an enthusiastic crowd to its opening, challenges visitors to question and reflect on their realities in Singapore society.

Chan + Hori Contemporary, 27 July to 1 September.

Tristan Lim, ‘Hollowing II’, 2019, two-channel video installation, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of Sullivan+Strumpf.

Poor Imagination
Led by curator Rafi Abdullah, seven artists— Stephanie Comilang, Fyerool Darma, Agan Harahap, Michael Lindeman, Tristan Lim, Takuji Kogo and Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran— consider what the image means in contemporary times and innovatively includes a wide range of representative media from painting and photographs to sculptures and a video work. The show builds upon Hito Steyerl’s term of the “poor image”; characterised as one that is readily and easily accessible, and in addition having an atrocious quality which deteriorates as it is distributed.

Sullivan+Strumpf, 27 July to 8 September.

Phornphop Sittiruk, ‘Sometimes You Can be Weak’, 2018, wood and steel sculpture, 13.5 x 18 x 21.5cm. Image courtesy of A+ Works of Art.

Phornphop Sittiruk: Sometimes You Can Be Weak
Kuala Lumpur-based contemporary gallery presents Thai artist Phornphop Sittiruk’s works, curated by Eric Goh. This exhibition suggests how mental illnesses might reveal more truth about neoliberal societies today, through an intimate narrative of the artist’s personal emotions, experience, and progress of learning to cope with depression. Through this showcase of crafted objets d’art and sculptures, forms of the human body and objects of daily life are distorted, portraying the breakdown of rigid masculinity and human psyche.

A+ WORKS OF ART, 11 July to 30 August.

Art Jakarta

Art Jakarta returns for its 11th edition at JCC Senayan. Aside from a new venue, the fair has also rebranded itself to place Jakarta as a key centre of Asian contemporary art where the local and international art communities are able to interact. Altogether, there will be 70 galleries participating –with more than half from outside Indonesia– in Art Jakarta Gallery, the main section of the fair. Art Jakarta Spot and Art Jakarta X feature special presentations by well-known artists such as Eko Nugroho and Ronald Ventura and Art Jakarta Play engages the youth. Art_UNLTD, presented by the Indonesian Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) gives a platform to young artists to showcase their work. There will also be ten carpets created by artists auctioned off for charity, in the fair’s tradition of raising funds for a good cause.

JCC Senayan, 30 August - 1 September.