February Round-Up

Numthong Art Space, The Art People Gallery, UP Vargas Museum and Artinformal Gallery
By Alana Malika

Nik Shazmie, ‘The Contemporary Human’, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 94 x 134cm. Image courtesy of The Art People Gallery.

Abstracted Reality - A Celebration of Self
The team at The Art People Gallery in Selangor, Malaysia has curated abstract pieces that seem aesthetically mismatched and independently distinct, yet collectively brimming with optimism. In ‘Abstracted Reality - A Celebration of Self’, nine artists invite viewers to connect with them during a time of scarce face-to-face interaction through socially distanced introspection. As we go through isolated times, the group exhibition will take place both online and in person to reach out to people seeking human connection by exploring subjectivity.

The Art People Gallery, 21 January to 10 February 2021.

‘Try Me I Speak Art Edition 5’, 2020, Slip cast stoneware in a wood & paper box with speaker, Ceramic: 29 x 19 x 16 cm, Installed: 43 x 23.5 x 19 cm. Image courtesy of Numthong Art Space.

 NOTHING PERSONAL
Organised by Numthong Art Space in Bangkok, ‘NOTHING PERSONAL’ by Thai artist Note Kritsada presents his delight in revisiting his childhood interests, such as Mickey Mouse, Dragon Ball and Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’. He adorns sculptures of Duchamp's portrait with them, like a schoolboy doodling in his ceramic notebook. Kritsada sets a tone of irreverence and absurdity in order to bring lighthearted smiles and laughter to his viewers. The exhibition is a therapeutic escape to a simpler past and an homage to the artistic influences borne from his boredom as a child.

Numthong Art Space, 16 January to 27 February 2021.

Installation view of ‘Displace, Embody’. Image courtesy of UP Vargas Museum.

Displace, Embody
UP Vargas Museum brings together Philippine and Thai artists in the group exhibition, ‘Display, Embody’. Bree Jonson, Eisa Jocson, garbanzos, Patipat Chaiwitesh, Samak Kosem, and Wantanaee Siripattananuntakul showcase art that confronts orthodox labels by depicting moments of transfiguration. In this multimedia exhibition, viewers will tour paintings of inter-species ecology, films of cross-border male sex workers and other fluid entitities that travel through liminal space to challenge the rigidity of boundaries.

UP Vargas Museum, 17 December 2020 to 13 February 2021.

Bree Jonson, 'Falling Birds’, 2021, oil, crayon, graphite on canvas, 251.4 x 186cm. Image courtesy of Artinformal Gallery.

ZZYZX
Bree Jonson presents ‘ZZYZX’ at Artinformal Gallery, Makati. In quarantine, Jonson woke up to birdsong everyday. This prompted her to study birds, particularly the mass extinction of bird species in the Philippines and Indonesia due to human activities like deforestation and hunting. Named after both a spa-turned-nature preserve in Southern California and a Malante nightclub, ‘ZZYZX’ presents a call to preserve biodiversity through her candid works of nature. It aims to introduce a return of humanity to animalistic nature that we have artificially separated ourselves from in the name of civility.

 Artinformal Gallery, 16 January to 6 February 2021