The inaugural edition of ART SG is Southeast Asia’s largest ever art fair and Asia Pacific’s biggest art fair launch in a decade, taking place from 12–15 January 2023 at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, offering a meeting point in Southeast Asia for collectors and buyers from the region and beyond to convene and engage with one of the world’s most dynamic cultural landscapes.
LATITUDE 28 brings together a curated selection of works by South Asian artists Gopa Trivedi, Sanket Viramgami, Wardha Shabbir, Waseem Ahmed and Waswo X. Waswo South Asian artists who rethink existing paradigms surrounding contemporary art. Gopa Trivedi’s (b. 1987, Lucknow) attempts to re-infuse and often re-contextualize miniature court styles by fusing traditional painting methods with new media. Sanket Viramgami’s (b. 1988, Gujarat) works are imbued with different artistic conventions from miniaturist traditions, in particular the Persian school, with a tracery of elements from traditional Indian crafts such as Kantha and what appears to be the Gond visual language. Sudipta Das (b. 1985, Assam) deliberates over the idea of belonging and memories in Hanji paper forms elucidating the emotional distress of migration and displacement. Wardha Shabbir (b. 1987, Lahore, Pakistan) takes forward the technique learnt during her years of practicing Miniature Painting, influenced by the gardens from her surroundings and contemporary architecture, the organic compositions to portray a plethora of women’s experiences. Waseem Ahmed’s (b. 1976, Hyderabad, Pakistan) rich vocabulary of images in his neo-miniaturist works often refer to mythology or history, and his work bridges our cultural heritage and the turbulence of our time. Waswo X. Waswo (b. 1953, United States of America) fuses miniature art practice with digital black and white photography and portrays his travels in India with humour and self – deprecation. Chandan Bez Baruah (b. 1979, Assam) uses his digital photographs as references for the woodcut prints, sensitively working with a postmodern approach towards landscape in a process which seamlessly blends New Media methods of recording with the age-old craft of woodcut printmaking. Chandan’s artwork was exhibited in the NEW/NOW sector of Art SG 2023.
