Gillman Barracks has been opened for one year and while it’s easy to complain about the art gallery enclave’s inconvenient location, absence of shaded walkways in the scorching equatorial sun, and lack of bars or cafes that would make it more of a destination, one should not forget that the art galleries there are promoting some top notch artworks.
Meanwhile, in town there are many more options to tempt visual arts lovers and of course with the F1 Grand Prix right around the corner, there’s also a variety of offerings to keep music lovers busy too.
BLOUIN ARTINFO picks some of the best events this month in Singapore:
1. Feast your eyes on a blockbuster exhibition with the first pop-up from Pinacothèque at Fort Canning Center. The Parisian private museum will open its first international outpost in Singapore in early 2015 and will for now hold pop-up exhibitions, the first of which will showcase 40 works by great masters to whet your appetite. “The Art of Collecting, Masterpieces from the Pinacothèque de Paris” will include works by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Monet, Picasso, and Warhol among others.
Running September 14 to December 31.
2. Give some love to Gillman Barracks and check out our favorite exhibitions there this month:
ARNDT Gallery - “SIP! Indonesian Art Today” brings together a number of top contemporary Indonesian artists. FX Harsono, Agus Suwage, Christine Ay Tjoe, Entang Wiharso, Rudi Mantofani, Handiwirman Saputra, Eko Nugroho, and Indieguerillas are just some of the 16 artists to be featured. This exhibition promises to be stimulating visually, and a good summary on the current state of contemporary art in Indonesia
Running September 14 to October 20.
Tomio Koyama Gallery -“Yuichi Inoue.” The late artist was one of the most important Japanese calligraphers who emerged on the international scene in the 1950s at the time when Abstract Expressionism was gathering pace in the West. The gallery will present ten of his works exhibited at Sharjah Biennial 11.
Running September 14 to 28.
Sundaram Tagore - “Antropos: Navigating human depth in Thai and Singapore contemporary art.” Curated by independent curator Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani, this ambitious show will gather the works of 11 emerging and established Thai and Singapore artists. The show investigates “how boundaries between the physical and psychological spheres of the human body converge.” Sufian Hamri @ TR853-1 (aka TraseOne) will stage a live graffiti performance during the show’s opening.
Running September 13 to October 13.
3. Catch “Next to Normal,” Pangdemonium’s second production of the year. The sensitive and dark musical about a suburban housewife coping with mental illness is emotionally confronting and includes a wonderful cast led by West End actress Sally Ann Triplett.
4. Visit “Qiu Jie” at Art Plural Gallery. The exhibition will feature 30 works by the established Chinese artist, who moved to Switzerland in 1989. His intricate pencil drawings are inspired by a variety of imagery (from advertising and newspaper clippings to paintings and photos), with the artist mixing a narrative of west and east, past and present. His mainly black-and-white works with touches of red, highlight the complexity of today’s Chinese society trying to balance centuries of traditional history with contemporary Western popular culture. Running September 13 to October 26.
5. The Esplanade has been offering a series of Footwork workshops conducted by professional instructors. This month, be swept off your feet with lessons for LA Salsa (September 27), Argentine Tango, or Cuban Salsa (September 29).
6. Coinciding with the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn celebration, make a family trip to catch “The Legend of the White Snake” by Zheijian Wu Opera Research Center, which is known as one of the best troupes for this well-known Chinese opera.
7. Every year, the organizers of the Singapore Grand Prix go out of their way to attract top headliners to perform for the spectators in what has become the biggest party on the F1 circuit. This year is no different with Rihanna, Tom Jones, Justin Bieber, The Killer, Bing Bang from Korea, and Owl City. The power-packed festival runs September 20 to 22.
8. For some quiet reflection, take time to see the paper-cut works by Mikito Ozeki at Ikkan Art Gallery at Helutrans. The Japanese artist uses a cutter like a pencil on paper surfaces to create intricate abstract and figurative artworks that echo the centuries-old Japanese paper-cut art, kiri-e, yet are resolutely contemporary in their subject matter.
Running until October 12.
AS FIRST PUBLISHED ON SEA.BLOUINARTINFO.COM