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  • Dots and Spots, Yayoi Kusama and Damien Hirst

    Dots and Spots, Yayoi Kusama and Damien Hirst

    Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生 (as she is known in the West) is said to be currently the most expensive Asian artist in the world. And Damien Hirst is said to be currently the world’s wealthiest living artist.

    Artitute -- Spots and Dots exhibition -- Golden Pumpkin by Kusama

    Golden Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama

    If you remember Orchard Road trees ever looking like the dress of a famous girl-mouse, white polka dots on red, you can brag that you have seen the work of Yayoi Kusama. She is better known for being in sensational news in the 1960s, though, and for living by choice in a psychiatric hospital since she returned from the West to Japan in the 1970s. (more…)

  • Young Blood: NAFA’s latest graduates

    Young Blood: NAFA’s latest graduates

    Graduation shows are usually not the most ideal settings for viewing an artist’s work. They are (mostly) decontextualized collections of limited samplings, constrained by space, grouped by themes in the loosest sense. But I ended up visiting the NAFA galleries for repeated viewings of the school’s Diploma and Bachelors graduation shows. So what can we expect from NAFA’s freshly minted artists?

    Two highlights for me among their Diploma graduates were works by Kim So Young and Nhawfal Juma’at, the former for her technique, the latter for his conceptual rigour.

    __Nurwhal-Jumaat,-Meta-Arragnement-Series,-Fine-Art-Print
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  • AUTOIDENTITY’s Intrepid Ideas

    AUTOIDENTITY’s Intrepid Ideas

    From 13 July – 4 August, Art Space at Dbl O will play host to AUTOIDENTITY, an exhibition curated by fellow Artitute writer Joleen Loh. Through the personal experiences of the five young participating artists, Davy Animas, Jason Lee, Nel Lim, Sha Najak and Ummai Ummairoh, the exhibition seeks to examine the impact of the exclusive logic and artificial boundaries of ethnic classifications and stereotypes.

    The enigmatic title is an ironic reference to the automated, mechanical classification of people and the personal act of writing autobiographies. It suggests the futility of attempting to find a sense of belonging through reductive taxonomies when the reality of our surrounding community is a medley of diverse influences and impulses. In a world of mass migration, ease of mobility and cultural intermixing, marginalization and its accompanying prejudices should seem laughable. AUTOIDENTITY asks all the right questions while addressing these pertinent areas of exclusion and alienation within our society.

    jason lee
    Jason Lee, “The Unheard Voices”

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