Arts Picks: Shui Tit Sing survey, Kim Association project space and Tay Chee Toh’s solo show
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Wrestling by Shui Tit Sing.
PHOTO: PRESTIGE GALLERY
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(Re)discovering Shui Tit Sing
A forgotten Singapore artist, who studied with now-famous Chinese names like Zao Wou-Ki and Wu Guanzhong as a student at the then Hangzhou National College of Art, is given a detailed survey at Prestige Gallery’s new space at Tanjong Pagar Distripark.
Born in Guangdong, China, Shui Tit Sing (1914 to 1997) moved to Singapore at the age of 32 and taught art and Chinese at Catholic High School for 29 years, mentoring Singapore artists including ink experimenter Chua Ek Kay.
Simultaneously a journalist at Singapore Chinese newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau, he travelled to places like Cambodia’s Angkor Wat that would influence him for life.
He is best known for his narrative teak sculptures, which he fell in love with and for which he quit smoking out of fear that it would damage the material.
But this show, marketed as the first of two parts of a belated Shui survey, focuses on what came before. There are exquisite watercolours, a mischievous self-portrait and a muscular oil work of wrestling bulls that was in 1952 praised as an early example of independent-minded Malayan art.
Prestige Gallery is also collaborating with art historian Koh Nguang How and Singapore Art Museum former director Kwok Kian Chow on a biography of Shui set for 2027, so there are detailed accompanying wall texts and supporting documents like letters, photographs and teaching notes.
A few teak sculptures, depicting Singapore scenes like a Thaipusam procession, provide a teaser of what is to come.
Look out, too, for a seal Shui carved, referencing the bloodshed of Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, and a painting of a Balinese girl in 1946 that could hold quiet revolutionary significance for Singapore’s art history.
Prestige Gallery owner Audrey Zhang says: “This predates the 1952 Bali trip by artists like Liu Kang and Cheong Soo Pieng. We don’t yet know if Shui went first, but it would be really interesting.”
The second exhibition in 2027 continues the story and will include later field trips he made with Singapore-based art collective Ten Men Art Group.
Where: 03-01 Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road str.sg/VDvj
MRT: Tanjong Pagar
When: Till Oct 9, 11am to 7pm (Tuesdays to Saturdays), noon to 7pm (Sundays); closed on Mondays
Admission: Free
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Indigenous Power (Ancestral Wisdom)
An exhibition of the same work by Puppies Puppies, now on show in Singapore, at Hannah Hoffman Gallery in the US.
PHOTO: HANNAH HOFFMAN GALLERY
A new art project space opposite the trendy New Bahru, started by Singapore-based art foundation Yenn And Alan Lo Foundation, begins its life with an act of quiet resistance.
Called Kim Association after its address in Kim Yam Road, its first exhibition is an immersive installation by Japanese and Taino artist Puppies Puppies – a soil-filled shamanic tribute to the Taino indigenous people in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.
Cast in green – a healing shade for the artist, who had to remove a life-threatening brain tumour in 2010 – the shophouse-turned-spiritual dwelling is an effort to connect with her paternal lineage.
Neon tubes trace blood-red hands on the walls, a common symbol of protest by indigenous women. Rocks carved with images of Taino water goddess Atabey transport those who enter onto sanctified soil, softened by the presence of a taxidermied dove.
A shaman once told her feeding these symbols of peace could help connect her to her culture, and there is consequently a pile of corn in a corner.
Puppies Puppies, whose real name is Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo, will be in Singapore in October for a performance, leaning into her Japanese side for a more complete portrait of her hybrid identity.
The show is curated by Hong Kong-born, Amsterdam-based Christina Li. Kim Association’s brief is to focus on contemporary Asian artists with a transnational background.
Where: Kim Association, 63 Kim Yam Road kimassociation.org
MRT: Fort Canning
When: Till Dec 7, by appointment through a form on its website
Admission: Free
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Spirited Wild
Artist Tay Chee Toh at his new show, Spirited Wild.
PHOTO: NANYANG ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS
Cultural Medallion recipient Tay Chee Toh makes a show of his wild side with his 11th solo exhibition, this time focusing on horses.
There are nearly 20 Chinese ink works of these majestic creatures at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa), all painted recently with a desire to redefine the possibilities of the medium.
The 84-year-old’s strokes are dynamic – at times, the horses’ tails appear to be swishing. Yet, in other herd settings, their stylised poses are consciously dupli-, tripli- and quadruplicated.
It is an elegantly mischievous show, stamped with Tay’s distinctive seals.
Where: The Ngee Ann Kongsi Galleries 1 & 2, Nafa Campus 1, 80 Bencoolen Street str.sg/ESVY
MRT: Bencoolen
When: Till Sept 16, 11am to 7pm daily
Admission: Free
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