By Mark Westall • November 15, 2022Share —
FAD controlled to save time with Alan Koh Fair Director Affordable Art Fair (AAF) Singapore. After a three-year hiatus, AAF Singapore’s 15th edition returns to the city-state this week Nov. 18-20 at the F1 Pit Building. AAF Singapore will be the first foreign art fair to be held in the city-state since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of mass events in 2020 and 2021. With 80 foreign galleries from 21 countries, this year’s fair will feature thousands of works through more than 650 emerging and established artists.
Will this AAF be particularly different from the last one in 2019? Each edition of the screen is different because the programming is adapted every year.
For the previous edition, Affordable Art Fair Singapore took a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dorsett Hospitality International and Hong Kong virtual art firm The Collective will bring us a traveling art installation in augmented reality. fairs in Hong Kong, Melbourne, London and soon in Singapore
There will also be a site-specific installation by Sunaina Bhalla, the interactive and tactile art area for young people through Art Wonderland called “Absurd Gallery” and workshops by the Visual Art Centre. These activities cater to visitors of all ages and are popular, especially on weekends when families bring their children to instill a love of art from an early age.
We provide more than 650 artists, 360 of whom are offered for the first time. Thus, the exhibited works will be fresh, different and exciting.
What have you done in the last 36 months? Our last exhibition in Singapore in November 2019. We were unable to hold an industry showcase in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and cancellation of mass events due to local COVID regulations.
Therefore, Affordable Art Fair Singapore and its other fairs around the world turned and focused on our online fairs and our virtual marketplace AffordableArt. com, which were open 365 days a year. We encourage our art-loving audience to furnish their homes with art, especially when many were running away from home during the pandemic.
For our gallery community, we have supported them digitally through those channels and promoted them in our newsletters and social media channels to increase exposure and sales.
As a fair director, I have contacted our friends at the gallery, I have visited their spaces to talk about how we can help them in those difficult times.
With the Hong Kong editions and Frieze’s opening in Seoul for the first time, where do you think Singapore stands in world art in Southeast Asia?Singapore has a strong presence in Southeast Asia and is well located as a regional arts hub. Affordable Art Fair has been in Singapore since 2010, making it the oldest foreign art fair in the country. I can say that the market has been favorable. We have noticed that 20-30% of new art buyers have their art collection adventure with us and in fact there is a strong calling and appetite for arts and culture.
In addition, we are also seeing more art occasions in the country, such as the Singapore Biennale, the Singapore Clay Festival, and SG Art SG Art Week to be held in 2023. We have noticed that more art and artists leave Singapore in the last 12 years.
He is known for attracting younger creditors/millennials, even members of Generation Z. Do you have a plan for digital/NFT? In Singapore, you don’t see much NFT art presented through galleries. I feel like the galleries and creditors here prefer to be interested in the art they can see and hang in their homes.
What are the five things ahead of you at AAF Singapore?
What are your favorite art spots in Singapore?
Affordable Art Fair Singapore, 18-20 November 2022, F1 Pit Building, 1 Republic Boulevard, Singapore 038975 General Admission Friday, November 18, 12:00 to 18:00 Saturday, November 19, 11:00 a. m. to 7:00 p. m. Sunday, November 20, 11:00 a. m. to 6:00 p. m. Arty-Licious Night Friday, November 18, 6:00 p. m. to 9:00 p. m. Tickets on sale: tinyurl. com/affordableartfairsg22
Marc Westall
Mark Westall is the founder and editor-in-chief of FAD magazine, founder and co-editor of Art of Conversation, and founder of @worldoffad
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