Seen at Art Stage Singapore 2012… [01/17/2012]

Public sales of Contemporary art are still modest in Singapore where, in 2011, art auctions only generated total revenue of $4.4m versus, for example, $11m in France. However, the city-state has made a huge impact on the global art scene with its Art Stage art fair, the second edition of which ended on 15 January 2012.
In just two years Art Stage has succeeded in revealing the extraordinary diversity of artistic creation in the Asia-Pacific region: major names like Yayoi Kusama, Chen Yifei, Takashi Murakami rub shoulders with emerging artists from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia.

Although well represented at the fair, painting - representing 77% of Contemporary art sales in Asia – did not overwhelm other artistic media. Photography (Yasumasa Morimura, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Liu Bolin, Zhang Huan...), sculpture (Chen Wengling, Chiharu Shiota, Zhou Chunya, Shi Jindian) and installations were all given special attention. Installations by Wang Yuyang (Artificial Moon, the Yang Gallery ), Chen Zhen (Daily Incantation, at Sarthe Gallery), Bose Krishnamachari (Ghost Transmemoir, Exhibit Gallery) featured alongside the luminous installations of Kira Kom (Coca Killer, Xin Dong Che Gallery) and Tracey Emin. There was also a Tony Oursler projection (at Lehman Mauping), an animated work by Kondoh Akino (Kiya Kiya, at Mizuma art), jubilatory handywork by Ujino Muneteru and a poetic video installation by the Indian artist Ranbir Kaleda (Volte Gallery).
These multimedia artists are still little known on the auction market apart from Chen Zhen (record: $520,000 for Crystal Landscape of Inner Body, 15 November 2007, Sotheby's), Tracey Emin (record: Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made, roughly $137,000, 8 February 2001, Christie's London) and Tony Oursler (record: $62,000, Good – Bad, 16 May 2000, Christie's New York).

Other artists more firmly established on the secondary market managed to generate an artistic reconciliation between East and West at the fair, with works by the American Roy Lichtenstein, the German Georg Baselitz, the Italian Alighiero Boetti, the British Antony Gormley, the French Xavier Veilhan, the Japanese Murakami, the Indonesian Nyoman Masriadi... all signatures that major collectors are willing to pay six, seven or even sometimes 8 figures for, such as last November’s new record for Roy Lichtenstein (I Can See the Whole Room!...and There's Nobody in it ! that fetched $38.5m on 8 November 2011 at Christie's NY).
Today, top quality works find buyers in Singapore, and Asia now represents the heart of the top end of the global Contemporary art market. In effect, nearly 17% of Contemporary artworks sold in Asia fetch more than $50,000 compared with an average global ratio of 8.7%.