Singapore Art Week 2019 Celebrates Art After Dark At Gillman Barracks

Gillman Barracks, Singapore’s premier visual arts destination, will host over 20 multi-disciplinary programmes by a diverse range of partners to engage varied audiences through innovative, compelling, and inspiring art experiences during Singapore Art Week (SAW) 2019. Featuring a new boutique art fair S.E.A. Focus, signature open house event Art After Dark, the debut of Adaptations – an exhibition that intersects art and technology, as well as new exhibition openings, you can look forward to an array of quality visual art, live music and F&B pop-ups as Gillman Barracks celebrates all things art in conjunction with SAW 2019.

Known for showcasing and encouraging discourse around Southeast Asian art, Gillman Barracks is the anchor venue for the inaugural edition of S.E.A. Focus, an initiative by STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, supported by the National Arts Council (NAC). Held from 24 to 27 January 2019, S.E.A. Focus will cast a spotlight on established and emerging Southeast Asian artists – featuring 26 leading galleries from Singapore and abroad, including Gillman Barracks’ very own Chan + Hori Contemporary, Sullivan+Strumpf and Yavuz Gallery.

Organised with the aim to grow and nurture a deeper appreciation for the dynamic and rapidly evolving modern and contemporary art scene within the region, S.E.A. Focus promises a comprehensive suite of programmes catering to broad audiences, including #SEAcommunity, designed to deepen children’s appreciation of art; and #SEAspotlight, a series of talks by well-known artists, gallerists, and curators from the region.

Ms Linda de Mello, Director of Sector Development (Visual Arts), NAC, shared: “Featuring a concentration of quality visual art programmes during SAW 2019, Gillman Barracks is one of the best places for Singaporeans and international visitors to experience the arts. With the debut of S.E.A. Focus, the new exhibitions presented by our resident galleries, as well as a SAW highlight, Adaptations by independent art space Supernormal, visitors have many exciting options when they visit. We encourage families and arts lovers to enjoy the thought-provoking new works by artists – emerging and established – from Singapore and Southeast Asia. As Gillman Barracks is a critical platform supporting the growth of our visual arts ecosystem, we are also thrilled to see the community come together to develop and present extensive programming that spans art forms and challenges mediums, in order to deepen art appreciation here.”

Art After Dark, Gillman Barracks’ flagship night-time open house event and perennial crowd-favourite, will return as part of SAW on 25 January 2019, featuring new exhibition openings by resident galleries such as Ota Fine Arts, ShanghART Singapore, and Yavuz Gallery. Besides stimulating visual art experiences, visitors can also soak up live performances by established producer Intriguant, and musical stalwarts Vandetta aka Vanessa Fernandez and MAS1A. Completing the night’s offerings will be F&B pop-ups by Hopscotch, Super Simple and The 1925.

Art lovers can also immerse themselves in ongoing exhibitions throughout SAW at Gillman Barracks’ resident galleries, such as Mizuma Gallery’s Hopes & Dialogues in Rumah Kijang Mizuma, Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui’s (Trying to Remember a Tree (iii) – The world will surely collapse (ShanghART Singapore), and the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art’s Quadra Medicinale Singapore – the Asian premiere of works by the late Belgian artist Jef Geys.

This seminal work debuted at the 2009 Venice Biennale’s Belgian Pavilion, where visitors from around the world collaborated to document 12 street plants in their immediate environment, uncovering uncanny functional and medicinal properties of the oft-overlooked “weeds” in their environments. On view will be four chapters of the project, which include a newly-created Singapore chapter containing Geys’ instructions and contributions by local collaborators Louise Neo and Teo Siyang.

Pop-up exhibitions like Richard Koh Fine Arts’ Midday Stanza will treat visitors to an immersive installation by Haffendi Anuar, in addition to exhibitions that span a variety of themes, such as Yavuz Gallery’s Alvin Ong, Supper Club redolent with black humour, and ShanghART’s Boedi Widjaja: Rivers and Lakes Tanah Dan Air featuring the artist’s Stone Telling series. For younger audiences, Playeum Children’s Centre for Creativity will present workshops via the Seeing Art Through Play series, where young families can bond over art by building a portable camera at Camera Obscura! and creating shapes with everyday materials at Press & Pull a Cloud.

For a complete list of Singapore Art Week activities and exhibitions, please click here