June Round-Up

The Back Room, Blaffer Art Museum, Haridas Contemporary, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Serving Thot, CIMB Hotel Art Fair, Silverlens Gallery, Art Agenda
By Alana Malika

Inventory of Intimacies

Ang Xia Yi, ‘Wasting Time’, 2024 (March 1969), domestic textiles (cotton baby napkins from 1990s, cotton-canvas, cotton-polyester mixed fabric topstitched with cotton threads), 26.5 x 35cm. Image courtesy of The Back Room.

‘Inventory of Intimacies’ at The Back Room in Kuala Lumpur is showcasing the works of Ang Xia Yi, Cheong See Min, and Nia Khalisa, three textile artists from Malaysia. Through the use of found fabrics, nostalgic imagery, traditional batik craftwork, and more, the group exhibition explores the use of textiles to document memoirs of personal histories. Beyond the artists’ individual memories, these textile works can be interpreted from the lens of broader collective narratives on human nature, colonialism, and domestic life.

‘Inventory of Intimacies’ is on view from 1 to 23 June 2024 at The Back Room in Kuala Lumpur. More information here.

Cian Dayrit: Liberties Were Taken

The artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States, Blaffer Art Museum in Houston presents ‘Cian Dayrit: Liberties Were Taken’ by the Manila-based artist. A finalist of the 2023 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Dayrit grounds his works in the gritty realities of solidarity movements in the Philippines through graphs, written texts, and other cartographic visuals. He captures the revolutionary optimism that fuels such movements by presenting land as a steadfast constant of past, current, and future social transformations.

‘Cian Dayrit: Liberties Were Taken’ is on view from 31 May to 18 August 2024 at the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston. More information here, and read our interview with Cian Dayrit here.

Breadth of Air: A Solo Exhibition by John Marie Andrada

Installation view of ‘Breadth of Air: A Solo Exhibition by John Marie Andrada.’ Image courtesy of Haridas Contemporary.

Singapore-based Philippine artist John Marie Andrada has her first solo exhibition titled ‘Breadth of Air’ at Haridas Contemporary. Andrada’s show displays her fixation with the color blue; a representation of endlessness as found in the ocean and skies. Shown together, the collection of works marks Andrada’s experience with grief. She finds solace in the vastness of blues, as a reminder that time can transform the supercut of memories of lost loved from painful thoughts into fond remembrances.

‘Breadth of Air: A Solo Exhibition by John Marie Andrada’ is on view from 25 May  to 23 June 2024 at Haridas Contemporary in Singapore. More information here.

Living Another Future

Khvay Samnang, ‘Preah Kunlong (The way of the spirit’), 2017 - 2019, (still) two channel video installation, color, sound, recycled bronze and steel, 18.43 mins. Image courtesy of MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum.

Featuring artists eight international artists, including Khvay Samnang (Phnom Penh), Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn (Ho Chi Minh City), Dansoung Sungvornveshapan (Bangkok), and Ubatsat (Chiang Mai), ‘Living Another Future’ at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum interrogates the power of narratives in shaping the material world. Curated by Zoe Butt, artists explore beliefs from folklore mysticism to political propaganda that are embedded in societies across Thailand, Vietnam, the Congo, Cambodia, China, Morocco, and Pakistan. By recognising humanity’s constant search for narratives that align with people, the show seeks to thread together global happenings recorded through artistic research, to challenge viewers by considering who or what was sacrificed for certain narratives to prevail.

‘Living Another Future’ is on view from 24 May 2024 to 3 June 2025, at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai. More information here.

Party in the Back

Daniel Chong, ‘Grey underwear unravelled into a corner web dotted with faux crystals (forms of non-mutual abandonment) (tender structures)’, 2024, unravelled underwear and faux adhesive crystals. Installation view at RM Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand Image courtesy of the artist.

‘Party in the Back’ is a group exhibition by Serving Thots. It is the first showcase in a series dissecting queer experiences this June and July. Daniel Chong, Ezzam Rahman, Kerru, Phoenix Fry, and Siew Guang Hong join together in a presentation exploring the discovery, expression, and erasure of queerness over time. As diverse narratives are brought to light in this showcase, the collection celebrates the fluidity of queer identities, which are negotiated in both personal and community spaces.

‘Party in the Back’ is on view from 7 to 23 June 2024 at Wine Mouth in Singapore. More information here.

CIMB Artober Hotel Art Fair

Promotional Image of the CIMB Artober Hotel Art Fair. Image courtesy of CIMB Artober.

CIMB Malaysia continues their patronage of contemporary arts in Malaysia in the CIMB Artober Hotel Art Fair at the Four Points by Sheraton in Kuala Lumpur, City Centre. As part of its fifth iteration this year, CIMB Artober is a three month long initiative that aims to platform art practitioners across Malaysia in a series of creative programming such as the Hotel Art Fair, Art & Soul, and Fashion Week. Over the weekend, participants will be able to interact with artists such as Anisa Abdullah, a Malaysian visual artist who was commissioned by the bank to create a massive collage made from recycled paper provided by CIMB employees.

The event will be open to the public from 29 to 30 June 2024, at Four Points by Sheraton in Kuala Lumpur, City Centre, 11 am to 7 PM. Read about the highlights of CIMB Artober Art & Soul 2023 here.

‘Land Poetics’ and ‘Causal Loops’

Dina Gadia, ‘Land Poetics (Encounters)’, 2024. Image courtesy of Silverlens Gallery.

Bernardo Pacquing, ‘Lottery of Birth (detail)’, 2023. Image courtesy of Silverlens Gallery.

This June, Silverlens Gallery in Manila will be unveiling two solo exhibitions: ‘Land Poetics’ by Dina Gadia and ‘Causal Loops’ by Bernardo Pacquing. ‘Land Poetics’ by Gadia features painted interpretations of the artists’ personal photographs. The show features seven new acrylic paintings, and resists from borrowing from the captured realism of her photographs. Instead, Gadia renders the images on canvas in her own representational style. ‘Causal Loops’ will be Pacquing’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. In this collection of 25 works, the artist expands his oeuvre by experimenting with tried, true, and new techniques of abstracting construction materials, such as cement, cardboard, and hardwood scraps, to create meaning. Pacquing’s reflection on his artistic journey is most apparent in ‘What I Have Learned From My Paintings,’ where he references the biomorphic shapes from his earlier works on a large  canvas

‘Land Poetics’ and ‘Causal Loops’ is on view from 11 June to 13 July 2024, at Silverlens Gallery in Manila. More information here.

Crossings: Series of Activations in the Philippines

Fajar Sidik, ‘Dinamika Keruangan II (Space Dynamics II)’,1971,  oil on canvas, 63 x 63cm. Image courtesy of Art Agenda.

Nena Saguil, ‘Untitled’, 1974, oil on wood, 74 x 74cm. Image courtesy of Art Agenda.

‘Crossings: Series of Activations in the Philippines’ explores modern art as an important cultural touchstone between the Philippines and Indonesia. The first exhibition in the series is a duo exhibition titled ‘Cosmic Concerns: Nena Saguil & Fadjar Sidik.’ It features Philippine artist Nena Saguil and Indonesian artist Fadjar Sidik, who were featured in the 60th iteration of the Venice Biennale. Once again, their works will be displayed side by side in Cebu as kindred abstract painters whose art has remained resonant to humanity’s pursuit for meaning over a century later.

‘Cosmic Concerns: Nena Saguil & Fadjar Sidik’ is on view from 28 June to 12 July 2024, at Mahogany Place, Cebu, Philippines. More information here. Purchase ‘Fadjar Sidik: Expressive Design’ at A&M’s Marketplace here.