January Round-Up

Creative Space Gallery, Carnegie Museum of Art, Guangdong Times Museum, KADIST, Gallery Quynh, and No Horses Run
by Alana Malika

Đỗ Thanh Lãng, ‘Untitled’, 2020, oil, acrylic and epoxy resin on canvas, 120.2 x 120.3 x 4.7cm. Image courtesy of Galerie Quynh.

fluorescent fog
Maurice Merleau-Ponty once wrote, “It is by lending his body to the world that the artist changes the world into paintings.” In a solo exhibition at Galerie Quynh, Vietnamese artist Đỗ Thanh Lãng provides an artistic depiction of Merleau-Ponty’s musings in ‘fluorescent fog’. In these series of paintings, Lãng imagines beings unconfined by the shackles of space-time existence like light or gravity. The artist paints the space in otherworldly fluorescent hues to “overwhelm” and “paralyse” them. These void architectures dematerialised space in a similar way the digital realm does. Lãng’s art reconstitutes reality with every brush of translucent fluorescent paint as a commentary on the surveying eyes of algorithmic softwares. The artist draws a parallel between his “fluorescent Voids” and the digital realities we create as we click through social media feeds.

 Galerie Quynh, 22 December 2020 to 10 February 2021.

Chok Si Xuan, ‘neonate (6e656f6e617465)’, 2020, close up view. Image courtesy of No Horses Run.

M.U.T.A  
‘M.U.T.A.’ is a group exhibition in Singapore that derives its name from the words mutability, transmutations, and mutagen, all of which indicate changes in state. Aneesha Shetty, Choo Li Wei Lewis and Chok Si Xuan unravel the convergence of their three distinct artistic processes in developing installations, sculptures and performance. In these precarious times, the three multimedia artists seek to unpack how our human character adapts to varied circumstances.

No Horses Run, 8 January to 22 January 2021. RSVP here via Facebook.

Ho Tzu Nyen, ‘Hotel Aporia’, 2020, installation view at Frequencies of Tradition (Guangdong Times Museum, 2020, curated by Hyunjin Kim, co-organized by Guangdong Times Museum and KADIST), photographed by Luo Xianglin. Image courtesy of Guangdong Times Museum

Frequencies of Tradition

KADIST collaborates with Guangdong Times Museum in a group exhibition titled ‘Frequencies of Tradition’. Hyung Jin Kim has curated a selection of videos, films and performances that challenge the seemingly warring dichotomies of tradition versus modernisation and East versus West. Especially in East Asian Tiger economies, modernisation is synonymous to adopting western neoliberal policies and an individualist mindset that is contentious to the collectivist dimension of Asian culture. Tradition becomes a contested space that struggles between the dismantling of the patriarchy and authoritarianism, and the preservation of Asian tradition for future generations. The exhibition leans into this dilemma and provides a liminal space to reflect on the role of tradition in a globalising Asia.

KADIST and Guangdong Times Museum, 12 December 2020 to 7 February 2021.

Emerge 9: Cultural Reset
Creative Space Gallery presents the latest installment to their ‘Emerge’ series in the group exhibition,  ‘Emerge 9: Cultural Reset’. Osveanne Osman created the popular series in 2016 to fulfill her father’s vision of creating a platform for young artists in Brunei to educate one another, showcase their work and develop a community. In its fifth iteration, the exhibition will feature 16 local artists as a space to expand the dialogue on Brunei’s contemporary culture and its influence on the budding art scene.

Creative Space Gallery, 19 December 2020 to 10 January 2021.