April 2025 Round-Up

Richard Koh Fine Art, Galerie Quynh, Mizuma Gallery, Yeo Workshop, Objectifs, Hyundai Blue Prize+ 2025 Open Call, Art Hub Copenhagen, and A+ Works of Art
By Alana Malika and A&M

The Modernity & Everyday Encounters, Silent Connections

Pen Robit, ‘Fighting to Food’, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 150 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Richard Koh Fine Art.

Kongsak Kampakdee, ‘End of work’, 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 75 x 84 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Richard Koh Fine Art.

This month, Richard Koh Fine Art in Singapore holds two concurrent solo exhibitions: ‘The Modernity’ and ‘Everyday Encounters, Silent Connections.’ Pen Robit’s ‘The Modernity’ touches on contemporary issues such as democracy and exploitation. However, the Cambodian artist subverts these bleak themes using vibrant colours and cartoonish imagery to embody hope for social progress. ‘Everyday Encounters, Silent Connections’ features works by Kongsak Khampakdee depicting poignant moments from everyday life. The Thai artist draws from his personal memory to bridge an emotional connection with viewers, by allowing them to look closely into their daily surroundings on painted canvas.

‘The Modernity’ and ‘Everyday Encounters Silent Connections’ are on view from 22 March to 19 April 2025 at Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore. More information here.

21 Years of Galerie Quynh

Sue Hajdu, ‘MAGMA | we're not counting sheep’, 2006/2025, site-specific installation and performance, room structure; glass; LED light; pleated velvet fabric; customized mattress, pillow, blanket, and clothing; fabric roses; customized pendants; sequins; dressmaker's pins; plastic beads; disco balls; chicken wire; zinc wire; fishing wire; two sleepers each night for 21 consecutive nights, dimensions variable, room: 295 × 250 × 500 cm, performance every evening from 21 March to 10 April from 7pm to 12am. Image courtesy of Galerie Quynh.

Galerie Quynh celebrates over two decades in the Vietnamese contemporary art scene in an exhibition, ‘21 Years of Galerie Quynh.’ Emerging curator and gallery alumna Thái Hà invites 16 artists from Vietnam and elsewhere, including Ngô Đình Bảo Châu, Hoàng Dương Cầm, Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn, Đỗ Thanh Lãng and Sue Hajdu. The exhibition simultaneously reflects on Galerie Quynh’s pioneering support of abstract painters during its early days and its evolution into an influential gallery in Vietnam today.

‘21 Years of Galerie Quynh’ is on view from 22 March to 21 June 2025 at Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City. More information here.

To Truly Return, We Must Belong: Djirna’s Tapak Dara

I Made Djirna, ‘Jejak Leluhur Di Tanah Suci (Ancestral Footprints in the Holy Land)’, 2023, mixed media on canvas, 280 x 380cm © I Made Djirna. Image courtesy of the artist and Mizuma Gallery.

I Made Djirna debuts a new series in ‘To Truly Return, We Must Belong: Djirna’s Tapak Dara’ at Mizuma Gallery in Singapore. The Balinese artist borrows from Hindu and Buddhist tradition; ‘Tapak Dara’ is a sanctified symbol depicted as two crossed lines (+) that represents dichotomies joining together. The selected works ruminate on the reconciliation of the inner self with the outer world to create sustainable ecosystems and peaceful humanity.

‘To Truly Return, We Must Belong: Djirna’s Tapak Dara’ will be on view from 5 April to 15 June 2025 at Mizuma Gallery, Singapore. More information here.

Points of Articulation: Repose

Solamalay Namasivayam, ‘Nama 97’, 1997, pastel and charcoal on paper, 89 x 119 cm. Image courtesy of Yeo Workshop.

This April, Yeo Workshop will host ‘Points of Articulation: Repose,’ an accompanying exhibition to a monograph launch featuring the late Singapore artist Solamalay Namasivayam or Nama. The exhibition celebrates Nama’s underrated legacy in Singapore’s art history through his prolific practice in figure drawing despite public scrutiny. The exhibition will be accompanied by a guided life drawing session, reminiscent of the sessions Nama organised as one of the founders of Group 90. 

‘Points of Articulation: Repose’ is on view from 5 April to 7 May 2025 at Yeo Workshop, Singapore. More information here. Register for the life drawing session here.

The 7th Objectifs Documentary Award

Image courtesy of Aziziah Diah Aprilya.

The 7th Objectifs Documentary Award aims to empower unheard narratives within Singapore and its surrounding region through documentary photography. This month, Objectifs will host solo exhibitions featuring three recipients of the award: Gab Mejia and Geela Garcia from the Philippines as well as Aziziah Diah Aprilya from Indonesia.

Curated by Goh Sze Ying from National Gallery Singapore, the exhibition puts marginalised indigenous traditions and critical anthropogenic conditions at the forefront through photography and multimedia installations.

Solo exhibitions by the recipients of the 7th Objectifs Documentary Award are on view from 4 April to 18 May 2025 at Objectifs, Singapore. More information here.

Hyundai Blue Prize+ 2025 Open Call

Installation View of The Animal Farm Simulator, Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech 2023. Photo ⓒ Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing.

Hyundai Blue Prize+ 2025 Open Call poster. Photo ⓒ Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing.

Launched in 2017, Hyundai Motors sponsors the Hyundai Blue Prize+ to provide opportunities for emerging curators in Asia to evolve their practice. The award’s mission is to highlight the importance of curators in expanding present transcultural discourses in Asia through arts engagement. A jury panel of esteemed curators and directors of leading institutions in Asia and beyond will shortlist five finalists from the open call. These finalists will create a final exhibition proposal with the support of professional mentorship, a research tour in China, and a USD4,000 grant. Two awardees will then be selected to materialise their vision in an exhibition at Hyundai Motors Studio, Beijing with a budget of up to USD110,000.

For more information, and to submit a proposal, click here. The application period will run from March 20 to June 8 2025.

Gathering: A Seminar on the Conditions of Independent Art Spaces and Initiatives

Yehwan Song, ‘Enhanced’, 2024, performance, MMCA, Seoul, Korea. Photographed by Seunghyuk Park, MMCA. Image courtesy of Art Hub Copenhagen.

Gathering: A Seminar on the Conditions of Independent Art Spaces and Initiatives joins together practitioners from Asia, Sweden, and Denmark that support artistic movements that exist beyond institutions within their respective regions. Art Hub Copenhagen collaborates with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in Seoul to create a two-day programme that invites Southeast Asian practitioners such as Mook Attakanwong from ATT19 in Thailand, Liza Ho from BackroomKL in Malaysia, and Charlie Co from the Orange Project in the Philippines. Ashley Chiam, Adeline Kueh, and Hazel Lim will speak about their challenges and victories leading Supper House and Critical Craft Collective respectively in Singapore, where there are restrictions on urban planning and institutional support of the arts.

Gathering: A Seminar on the Conditions of Independent Art Spaces and Initiatives will run from 4 to 5 April 2025 at Art Hub Copenhagen. For more information, and to register for the event, click here.

A: Solo Exhibition by Agus Suwage

Agus Suwage, ‘The Singer Not the Song’, 2025, acrylic, graphite, painted branches, loud speaker, audio player, metal bucket, pebble stone, found object, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of A+ Works of Art.

Curated by Bob Edrian, this solo exhibition of Agus Suwage’s work highlights the cyclical nature of the artist’s practice. Working iteratively, Suwage deconstructs and re-assembles his works in order to draw new ideas from his past creations alongside inspirations from the external world. Through a variety of mediums from watercolour drawings, to sculptures and found objects, ‘A’ establishes both the beginning and the gateway to unveiling the complex layers that circulate Suwage’s aspirations and practice. 

‘A’ is on view from 13 April to 3 May 2025 at A+ Works of Art, Kuala Lumpur. More information here.