2016 UNTAPPED DISCOVERY
Group exhibition featuring: Akai Chew, Cassandra Koh, Clare Chong, Cynthia Delaney Suwito, Germaine Chong Sue Lynn, Ivan David Ng, Kiwha Lee Blocman, Leow Wei Li, Wang Chenying Rebecca and Zulkhairi Zulkiflee.
Exhibition Design by Curator Wong Binghao.
Exhibition Dates: 10 – 23 December 2016
Opening Night: Saturday, 10 December, 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Open House: Saturday, 10 December 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
The Visual Arts Development Association of Singapore (VADA) is proud to present UNTAPPED DISCOVERY. This exhibition features ten up-and-coming, Singapore-based artists. Hand-picked by the UNTAPPED Advisory Committee, these ten artists present work in a notably diverse selection of media including concrete, fabric, black fungus, digital print, film, and painting.
The President of VADA, Angeline Chan, says, “This platform gives early career artists the experience of working in a gallery with a curator at hand, as well as the opportunity to connect with patrons and collectors. And, once again, the judges have stated how impressed they are by the scope and depth of work that was submitted.”
2016 UNTAPPED DISCOVERY will take place at SHOPHOUSE 5 located at 5 Lorong 24A in Geylang. The exhibition opening will be held on Saturday 10 December from 7:00 - 9:00 PM. There will be an Open House also on Saturday 10 December from 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM prior to the Opening Night event. For enquires or to arrange a private viewing outside of these times please call +65 6338 6192.
About the 2016 UNTAPPED Series
UNTAPPED invites visual artists to apply to participate in one of two group shows to be held each year at SHOPHOUSE 5, an art space located in the Geylang area of Singapore. The goal of the series is to establish support networks and offer practical experience for local artists at this crucial early stage in their career. UNTAPPED does this by presenting two annual juried group exhibitions and by connecting artists directly with arts patrons.
UNTAPPED EMERGING exhibits new work by up to 10 artists with 2-4 years of professional practice. An Open Call for 2017 UNTAPPED EMERGING will take place in January 2017.
UNTAPPED DISCOVERY features new work by up to 15 artists between the ages of 16-35 within the first 2 years of professional practice.
The feature that sets UNTAPPED apart from other emerging artist programmes is its close collaboration with arts patrons. Local patrons provide the up-front funding for the project. In return, each patron is able to collect one artwork from each exhibition. This means that over a third of the artworks shown by these young artists will automatically be acquired by established art patrons. This goes beyond general exposure and connects artists directly with individuals who are actively supporting the visual arts in Singapore.
The Advisory Committee Members who judged and selected the artists were Boo Sze Yang (Artist), Martin Constable (Professor, The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Vietnam) and Adeline Kueh (Senior Lecturer, at LASALLE College of the Arts).
About VADA
The Visual Arts Development Association (Singapore) (VADA) was conceived in response to the growing need for an independent, not-for-profit arts organisation to service the needs of the burgeoning Singapore visual arts industry. VADA's in-built capability allows it to take the lead in developing platforms and opportunities for those individuals who will represent Singapore nationally and internationally in the visual arts.
VADA programmes are intended as “incubator initiatives” designed to identify and cultivate artistic and curatorial talent by providing developing arts practitioners both the exposure and practical experience required to establish sustainable careers in the arts. All programmes include presentation and sharing components, from exhibition and blogs, to publications and talks, artists and curators have opportunities to present their work to private and industry audiences as well as the community-at-large. For more information on VADA or UNTAPPED visit: www.vada.org.sg.
About the Artists
Akai Chew (b.1987, Singapore) works and lives in Singapore, and has a background in architecture. He considers himself to be a practicing urban explorer and the city is his muse and playground. His art practice explores the profound relationship between history, humanity and the urban environs. His urban interests include historical research and cartography, sometimes discovering historical artefacts. His first art exhibition was in 2013 at Noise Singapore The Apprenticeship Programme.
Cassandra Koh (b. 1992, Singapore) graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts with a degree in Fine Arts (Painting) and is a recipient of the Winston Oh Travel Award. Her works deal with the complexity of Singapore’s postmodern identity and youth culture. As an SG50 artist, she was commissioned to create large-scale murals at Taman Jurong and Siglap South CC. She has exhibited her work at Lasalle, *Scape and Marina Bay Sands, and is also a passionate part-time art educator.
Clare Chong (b. 1996, Singapore) in her video works ponder on the nuances in human interaction. Her video pieces invite audiences to question how one perceives, judges and come to conclusions of people around them, and in turn, questions what they say about themselves. She received her International Baccalaureate diploma from School Of The Arts, Singapore and is currently pursuing her degree in filmmaking. She received 2nd prize for an experimental film made during the 13 Little Pictures Film Lab in Bangkok 2013, 2nd Prize for Hi-story My Story Filmmaking Competition in 2013, as well as nominations for Best Fiction, Best Director, Best Performance and Best Script for the 6th Singapore Short Film awards 2015.
Cynthia Delaney Suwito (b. 1993, Indonesia) graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore in 2016 with a Bachelor in Fine Arts (First Class Honors). Her artworks explore the concept of everyday systems in the city, presented in the form of videos and conceptual installations made of found everyday objects. Often with a subtle humour, Suwito creates artworks that focus on the experience of viewing and/or participating. She distils complex concepts into simple and common actions such as breathing or filling up forms. She uses a variety of media to create her installations including videos and everyday objects such as cartridge paper, clocks and instant noodles - objects that she believes are important and act as symbols of culture today. Her works have been exhibited in “An American in Singapore 1960-1967 (2015)” at Brother Joseph Mcnally Gallery at Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore and “Little India Art Walk (2015)” as part of Singapore Art week. She was also a finalist at the Harpers Bazaar Art Prize 2015.
Germaine Chong Sue Lynn (b. 1991, Singapore) received her Bachelor’s in Fine Art (Honours) from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Partnership with Loughborough University, UK. Dealing with an array of mushroom, chemical compounds and bacterial cultures, she attempts to set a clinical, repulsive and yet lamenting narrative that draws comparison between the notion of feminine ‘dirtiness’ and fungi.
Ivan David Ng (b.1991, Singapore) went to Baltimore, Maryland in 2012 to pursue his undergraduate education in Painting. Approaching sculptural forms with a painter’s sensibilities, Ivan is an interdisciplinary artist interested in ideas surrounding landscapes and the image, geology and histories, creation in play and autobiography. He has exhibited in Maryland, Connecticut, Vermont, Colorado, North Carolina and Singapore. He has been recipients of a variety of scholarships and grants such as a Starr Foundation scholarship, a Merit Scholarship by Anderson Ranch Art Center, a Way and Gate Foundation Senior Thesis Grant, the Maryland Institute College of Art Chair’s Award Research Grant and the Singapore Ministry of Education Teaching Scholarship, a full undergraduate sponsorship.
Kiwha Lee Blocman (b.1976, Korea) currently based in Singapore but raised on four continents, namely in the cities of New York, Sydney, Seoul, Boston and London. Her work deals with evolutionary themes about bonding and breaking interchangeably through space. Lee Blocman says, “My paintings are in dialogue with the history of painting as well as the science of seeing.” At UNSW Art & Design and the University of Technology, Sydney, she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication (honors) and latterly worked on multimedia and online work for Apple Japan as a member of the L.A. based Media Arts Lab. Lee Blocman completed the Advanced Painting Intensive at Columbia University, NYC in 2015. In 2016, she was selected for an Artist Residency Program in Oaxaca, Mexico as well as the Chautauqua School of Art's Studio Residency Program in upstate New York for painting.
Leow Wei Li (b.1994, Singapore) graduated from Lasalle College of the Arts with a Bachelor in Fine Arts (First Class Honors). She works with paint and pencil, and at times expands her explorations of visual metaphors with digital software. Her works are often influenced by subjects in urban environment, particularly plants in architectural spaces. She has recently exhibited her works at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and the Athens Digital Art Festival in 2016. She is also a recipient of Samsung Future Master 1st runner-up Award in 2015. She has also been awarded the LASALLE and Ngee Ann Kongsi Scholarships.
Wang Chenying Rebecca (b. 1991, China) moved to Singapore at the age of 5. She has been trained at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and has just graduated from Slade School of Fine Art at UCL with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art. Familial relationships and daily living activities are the two strongest driving forces in her works over the years. She is currently investigating questions such as the reliability of memories, unspoken tensions, grieve and daily failures through making paintings on used fabric, soft sculptures and ceramics. In 2009, Wang received the Highly Commended Award in the Youth Category at the 28th United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year Ceremony.
Zulkhairi Zulkiflee (b. 1991, Singapore) is a visual artist and educator whose art practice involves representations of the body based on the inquiry of knowledge production, the social agency, distinctions/taste, and the notion of ‘Malayness’. He has participated in exhibitions such as Eyes To Think (2014) at Sangkring Art Space, Yogyakarta, the 27th Festival Les Instants Vidéo (2014), NOISE Singapore THE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME (TAP) (2015), FIELD DAY, An Assembly of Artistic Experiments (2016), and The New York Art Book Fair (NYABF) (2016). Zulkhairi has also curated the show, Dancing On The Spot (2016), an experimental group showcase that subverts the idea of artistic presentation.