June 2025 Round-Up
Queensway Television, Galeri Sasha, Richard Koh Fine Art, Calle Wright, Gallery Children's Biennale, The Back Room, A+ Works of Art, ARTJOG 2025, and School of Alternate Internets
By Yu Ke Dong
In Search of Geminid
Ryan Lim Zi Yi, In Search of Geminid (still from video). Image courtesy of Queensway Television.
Titled In Search of Geminid, Ryan Lim Zi Yi’s filmic work is showing at Queensway Television, a contemporary art space located at Queensway Shopping Centre in Singapore. A multimedia artist whose practice spans video, installation and text-based art, Lim seeks to explore the binary between public and private, the familiar and the alien. His most recent work chronicles a meandering walk the artist takes along the beach while in search of the elusive Geminid meteor shower. By voyeuristically documenting various interactions that the artist had encountered during his journey, Lim bears witness to moments gone unseen amidst the hustle and bustle of contemporary existence. Responding to the overwhelming saturation of images in our daily lives, Lim draws our attention to the pressing need to slow things down and pay closer attention to the details of everyday life.
In Search of Geminid will be playing from 17 May to 22 June 2025 at Queensway Television, Queensway Shopping Centre. More information here.
Being. Here.
Installation view of Being. Here. at Galeri Sasha. Image courtesy of Galerie Sasha.
This month, Galeri Sasha presents Being. Here., a solo exhibition dedicated to the works of multidisciplinary artist Wong Perng Fey. Wong’s recent work draws from his daily life in Graz, Austria as well as his early childhood memories in Malaysia. Turning away from the emotional intensity of his earlier works, the artist draws inspiration from absurdist artists such as Franz West and cartoonists like Dato Lat, embracing light pastel hues and floating shapes throughout the exhibition’s canvases and sculptures. Wong also incorporates the subtle drama of wayang kulit narratives in his own storytelling, creating sculptural works that reflect upon themes of transience, personality and presence.
Being. Here. will be on view from 24 May to 21 June 2021 at Galeri Sasha, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. More information here.
Welcome Back, Boo
Samuel Xun, I Won’t Run, I Have Nothing to Hide, 2025, metallised textile ribbon. Image courtesy of Richard Koh Singapore.
Richard Koh Fine Art presents Samuel Xun’s debut solo exhibition in Singapore, Welcome Back, Boo. The show hones in on Xun’s nuanced engagement with materiality as a means of mediating complex personal realities alongside broader societal discourse. Xun’s latest works blur the lines between garment and skin, using a meticulous hand-guided technique to interweave organic and synthetic materials, overlaying his pieces with visual patterns to create unique sculptural compositions. The ongoing exhibition not only highlights the artist’s unique work, but also fosters connections between his current practice and contemporary explorations of textile works by artists across Southeast Asia.
Welcome Back, Boo will be on view from 24 May to 14 June 2025 at Richard Koh Fine Art Singapore. More information here.
Early Philippine Contemporary Art (1969–1985): Works and Documents from the Collection of Judy Freya Sibayan
Judy Freya Sibayan, Lemon Cake, 1974, archival photograph (performance duration). Image courtesy of Calle Wright.
Calle Wright’s ongoing exhibition, Early Philippine Contemporary Art (1969-1985): Works and Documents from the Collection of Judy Freya Sibayan, explores a critical period of contemporary art history in the Philippines. Showcasing a curated selection of writings and art by influential artists affiliated with the Cultural Centre of the Philippines (CCP) Art Museum, the exhibition relies upon Sibayan’s creative journey as a lens through which it explores various exhibitions, collaborations and creative exchanges between artists in the 1970s and the mid 1980s. In doing so, the exhibition sheds light on the developments leading up to the emergence of the “contemporary” in Philippine art, during which artists moved beyond modernist tradition and embraced new modes of making art.
Early Philippine Art (1969-1985): Works and Documents from the Collection of Judy Freya Sibayan runs from 25 May to 31 August at Calle Wright, Manila, the Philippines. More information here.
Gallery Children’s Biennale: Tomorrow We’ll Be
Gallery Children’s Biennale poster. Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore.
The fifth edition of the Gallery Children’s Biennale is now showing at National Gallery Singapore, themed “Tomorrow We’ll Be…”. The event contains eight interactive works by Fern Wong, Wyn-Lyn Tan, Hiromi Tango, Souliya Phoumivong, Vicente Delgado, Mohamed Salehuddin, Co2_karbondioksida, and YeSeung Lee. The works, spread across the Gallery space, are organized according to four core values of joy, kindness, dream and love. In creating opportunities for immersive multi-sensory play, the biennale seeks to engage children of all ages as creative collaborators and active participants, inculcating creativity and imagination in the young minds of the next generation. This year, it expands its accessibility by offering for the first time experiences designed for infants, providing sensory stimulation in a protected environment.
Gallery Children’s Biennale: Tomorrow We’ll Be will take place between 31 May 2025 and 29 March 2026 at National Gallery Singapore. More information here.
Containment ——— Field
Liu Liling, Blue Ice II, 2023, inkjet print on fine art paper, 24.5 × 29cm. Edition 3 of 3 + 1 AP. Image courtesy of the artist and The Back Room.
Curated by Lim Sheau Yun, Containment ——— Field brings together works by two print artists Amanda Gayle and Liu Liling. The exhibition title holds two ideas in tension: enclosure and openness. This theme is explored in the two artist's practices where they challenge the limitations of the print medium's substrate and process. Their works embody a sense of time that questions the immediacy associated with a printed image.
Containment ——— Field is on view from 7 to 22 June 2025 at The Back Room, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. More information here.
So Obsessed with Possessing
Mary Pakinee, So Obsessed With Possessing, installation view at Liste Art Fair. Image courtesy of A+ Works of Art.
Presented by A+ Works of Art as part of their participation at Liste Art Fair in Basel, Mary Pakinee’s solo presentation, So Obsessed with Possessing, investigates the tension between subject-hood and objectification, focusing on how women’s bodies are portrayed and classified. Drawing from her background in observational drawing and storytelling, Pakinee builds on earlier explorations of the body and memory, linking them to colonial systems of classification such as cabinets of curiosities and botanical gardens.
A central aspect of So Obsessed with Possessing is its critical engagement with the gendered history of painting, particularly the floral still-life genre, which has long been associated with femininity and often dismissed as decorative or domestic. By merging botanical and anatomical imagery with references to classical painting, colonial frameworks, and mythological figures, Pakinee challenges these assumptions and invites viewers to reflect on the complex intersections between power, control, and visual representation.
So Obsessed with Possessing is on view from 16 to 22 June 2025 at A+ Works of Art’s presentation at Liste Art Fair, Booth Number 65, Messe Basel, Hall I.I, Basel.
ARTJOG 2025
ARTJOG; MOTIF AMALAN poster. Image courtesy of ARTJOG.
This year, ARTJOG returns to the Jogja National Museum, rounding out the Motif trilogy curated by Hendro Wiyanto, which began in 2023 with ‘Motif Lamaran’ and subsequently ‘Motif Ramalan’ in 2024. This year’s edition is centered around the theme ‘Motif: Amalan’, which seeks to explore the possibilities of artist practice as a form of a meritorious deed, or “amalan”.
ARTJOG 2025 will feature 47 artists as part of its main exhibition, which also includes two newly commissioned works by artist Anusapati (Yogyakarta) and REcycle EXPerience (Bandung). The festival has also included 44 children and teenagers as artist-participants under the ARTJOG Kids umbrella. In the festival’s Special Project section, audiences can find three projects by Murakabi Movement (Yogyakarta), ruangrupa (Jakarta) and DEVFTO Printmaking Institute (Bali).
This year, ARTJOG 2025 will debut the new Spotlight initiative, which will showcase a series of actor Reza Rehardian’s collaborative works with diverse creators. The festival will present the new initiative Love ARTJOG in collaboration with the Pusat Layanan Disabilitas (Centre for Disability Services), aimed at improving access to contemporary art by involving persons with disabilities directly in ongoing festival programmes.
ARTJOG 2025 will take place between 20 June and 31 August 2025 at Jogja National Museum, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. More information here.
School of Alternate Internets
School of Alternate Internets poster. Image courtesy of Feelers.
Organized by Feelers, the School of Alternate Internets is a slate of multidisciplinary educational programmes led by arts practitioners and academics, oriented around the introduction of experimental and alternative approaches to the internet. This year’s iteration of School of Alternate Internets will feature workshops by Raksha Mahatani, ants chua, Kapilan Naidu, Ashley Hi, Aly Chandra, Viknesh Kobinathan, and Johann Yamin. During each session, like-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds are brought together to share knowledge, skills and experiences related to digital practices, engaging in cultural theory and contemporary case studies. They will also examine prescient issues in contemporary digital culture, such as digital advertising, online surveillance and Artificial Intelligence. The series will culminate in an informal symposium, where participants discuss their takeaways and share ongoing projects.
School of Alternate Internets will be conducted between 28 June and 19 July 2025 at the Feelers office in River Valley Road, Singapore. More info here.