Affordable Art Fair
Nov 19-21. F1 Paddock Building, Marina South. $10 at the venue.
Always wanted to buy an original artwork, but thought you could never afford one? Well now you can at the inaugural Affordable Art Fair, where over 60 galleries will be showcasing works from emerging and upcoming artists, with the price of works ranging from $100 to $10,000. “Affordability is always very important for people and AAF is all about reaching out to people to demystify the perception that you cannot afford unique, original artwork at a price that is affordable to your budget,” says fair director Camilla Hewitson. “We currently have AAFs in many different cities around the world such as London, New York and Sydney, but never before in Asia. Singapore, with its diverse museum and gallery scene, growing arts industry and strong economy, is the perfect place to launch our first Asian edition.” Local galleries such as Utterly Art, Vue Privée and OVAS Art Gallery will be exhibiting alongside international galleries such as Spain's Villa del Arte bringing forth a wide medium of works from the likes of Singapore’s Pop artist Justin Lee and France’s Francoise Nielly in the form of sculptures, paintings, photography and screen prints. 

MADE FOR SAM
Ongoing. Singapore Art Museum. 71 Bras Basah Rd., 6332-3222.
OK, for those who really can’t spare even $100, there’s still hope. The Singapore Art Museum recently launched the MADE FOR SAM project in partnership with 40 local visual artists and hip designers including Donna Ong, Justin Lee, Colin Seah (Ministry of Design), Little Ong (fFurious), Chris Lee (Asylum) and Jackson Tan (Black Design). Available for sale are limited-edition conceptual works in the form of tote bags, greeting cards, erasers, pencil cases and mugs—not exactly high art, but hey, these objets d’art (prices range from $5-108) are as affordable as it gets. “This is an out-of-the-box way of thinking about the museum,” says SAM’s director Tan Boon Hui. “MADE FOR SAM expands the footprint of the museum by bringing the art of contemporary life into the walls of the museum.”
 

Trans-cool TOKYO
Nov 19-Feb 13, 2011. Singapore Art Museum. 71 Bras Basah Rd., 6332-3222.
If you’re a fan of the likes of Takashi Murakami and all things kawaii in the Jap art world, the upcoming Trans-cool TOKYO is an absolute must. With over 40 works curated from the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo across painting and sculpture, to performance, photography and video, the works by masters like Yoshitomo Nara and Yayoi Kusama (see this week’s cover image) explore the Japanese identity in response to the onset of the information age and the greater freedoms and uncertainties that are available in contemporary society.
 

Art Stage Singapore
Jan 12-16, 2011. Marina Bay Sands, 10 Bayfront Ave., 6688-8868. www.artstagesingapore.com
Promising cutting-edge and forward-thinking contemporary artworks in the form of photography masterpieces by American fashion and art photographer David LaChapelle, alongside Asian masterworks from the collections of Indonesia’s foremost collectors Deddy Kusuma and Budi Tek and China’s Yang Bin and Qiao Zhibin, Art Stage is the brainchild of Lorenzo Rudolf, whose previous engagements include Art Basel and Art Miami. “It will be a show which puts the art in a context,” he says. “The main criteria will not only be trends and easy saleability. Art Stage Singapore shows the art in an Asia Pacific context by presenting interesting and stunning artistic positions and galleries from all over the area and supporting the best Asia Pacific emerging galleries. It will be Asia’s meeting point and get-together of the art world.”
 

Singapore Biennale 2011
Mar 13-15, 2011. National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Rd., 6332-3659; Singapore Art Museum, 71 Bras Basah Rd., 6332-3222; Old Kallang Airport, 9 Stadium Link.
This is what art enthusiasts have been waiting for the last two years. The third installment of the Singapore Biennale under the latest artistic direction of Singaporean Matthew Ngui promises another round of diverse regional and international contemporary artworks that promise to engage the senses, set in three distinct venues, most notably the Old Kallang Airport, which should add more context to the artworks. “We are working to present an eclectic mix of artists and works that we hope will engage the public on a number of levels,” says Ngui. “The process of selecting artists involves looking at their practice, from the artists’ initial seeds of idiosyncratic thought through their creative development of this, given the time, space, collaborators, materials and resources.” Highlights include Danish artist Michael Elmgreen and Norwegian artist Ingar Dragset’s collaborative site-specific installation works like Short Cut, which explore the power structures in architecture, institutions and public space; and Tatzu Nishi’s Engel installation view, which challenges the perspectives of the ordinary and the perceived by building hotel rooms in
unexpected places.