KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 — Leading platform for Southeast Asian contemporary art, S.E.A. Focus, is set to make its sixth appearance in Singapore from January 20 to 28, 2024.

Commissioned by the National Arts Council, Singapore (NAC), the annual showcase is a key event in the Singapore Art Week (SAW) calendar which marks the city’s signature visual arts season.

With technology playing an increasingly important role, the 2024 exhibition will explore the intriguing interplay between humanity and technology, as well as what gives distinctiveness to being human in the midst of an impending technological confluence.

Titled Serial and Massively Parallel, the showcase will see a curated assembly of artworks from 22 galleries and more than 40 artists from around the world responding to the theme.

From Malaysia is artist Tan Zi Hao who will be featuring his work Bags of Stories, no. 9, as part of his Casebearer series. Over the years, Tan paid attention to an insect popularly known as "household casebearers” (Phereoeca spp.).

Pervasive in domestic spaces, they live in the most inconspicuous corners, clinging on to the most marginal fringes like droplets of gray. As the name suggests, a household casebearer survives as a larva bearing an oval case before metamorphosing into a moth.

What to expect

At the exhibition, visitors will be able to experience more large-scale and off-the wall artistic creations that reflect the fusion of Southeast Asian influences and digital advancements in the world today.

There will also be an opportunity for collectors to have first dibs and acquire these artworks at the preview.

"As a platform dedicated to championing the diversity of Southeast Asian creativity, we look forward to inviting all visitors on an enthralling voyage into the realm of Southeast Asian art with a fresh lens,” said S.E.A. Focus project director and STPI executive director, Emi Eu.

"Since 2019, S.E.A. Focus has been a key highlight of SAW, which focuses on showcasing Southeast Asian art by both established and emerging talents in the region. Their presence also enhances and adds to the diversity of the visual arts scene, creating a special moment," said National Arts Council Visual Arts (Arts Ecosystem Group) Director, Tay Tong.

A directed experience

Curating S.E.A. Focus for the first time is John Tung, a curator with extensive experience through his work with the Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Singapore Biennale and Singapore International Photography Festival.

His selection of works for S.E.A. Focus 2024 poses questions about the nature of creativity, the evolving landscape of artistic expression in an increasingly digital age and the experience of art as a uniquely human endeavour and phenomenon.

"As digital technologies and artificial intelligence increasingly makes its mark on our lived experiences, S.E.A. Focus offers an opportune moment to think of its role and function amidst the contemporary arts ecology,” said Tung.

"That is not to say that the presentation is focused on the digital, but rather, locating its place amidst a breadth of practices and mediums arising from the intrinsic human impulse to connect and to create,” added Tung.

Names to watch

In regard to the exhibitors, S.E.A. Focus 2024 is presenting 22 new and returning galleries including A+ Works of Art (Malaysia), Artinformal (Philippines), Art Porters Gallery (Singapore), Baik Art (United States, Korea, Indonesia), FOST Gallery (Singapore) and Gallery VER (Thailand).

With over 40 regional and international artists showcasing their works, Singapore’s Aiman, the Philippines’ Poklong Anading, Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Indonesia’s Mella Jaarsma and Malaysia’s Tan are some names to watch.

Represented by KL’s A+ Works of Art, Tan was one of two artists whose works were selected under the SAM S.E.A. Focus Art Fund in the last edition. Inaugurated in 2023, the Art Fund recognises and supports notable pieces of contemporary Southeast Asian art.

Complementing the main exhibition is the signature SEAspotlight Talks, a curated series of conversations by art professionals and thought leaders.

The line-up dovetails with the curatorial theme and looks at efforts in the region to create, critique, curate and collect art in the current landscape. Among the speakers are artists Yee I-Lann (Silverlens), Heri Dono (The Columns Gallery) and Dinh Q. Lê (STPI - Creative Workshop & Gallery).

S.E.A. Focus 2024 will be held from January 20 to 28 at 39 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore. For more information, visit http://www.seafocus.sg.