UNTAPPED 2021
The Visual Arts Development Association, Singapore (VADA) presents UNTAPPED 2021
Guest curated by Syed Muhammad Hafiz
Exhibition Dates: 15 - 30 January 2021
Exhibition Venue: 51 Waterloo Street, #02-01, Singapore 187969 Opening Hours: 12pm - 7pm daily
Special Event: 19 January 2021, artists and curator on-site
One of the most challenging things facing any young artist is negotiating the art world during the early stages of their career. A confluence of factors is needed for young artists to survive, besides talent and skill. Social networks, timing and even luck are just some of these factors that could prolong or cut short the survival of an artist.
Patronage of the arts comes in various forms and, in any thriving arts landscape, the private sector ideally needs to be at the forefront. The UNTAPPED exhibition series was conceived with this in mind – to highlight the patronage of emerging artists, matchmaking them directly with patrons and collectors eager to support the next generation. With more than 50 artists having gone through the programme, it was an unenviable task to exhibit only a fraction of them for this exhibition. Having said that, this group of artists was selected due to their sustained commitment towards their craft and practice.
2020 had been a challenging year for everyone - even more so for artists sustaining their practice here. Thus, the works on display speak to the various issues and challenges raised over the past year. The extended period in relative isolation laid bare the introspective nature of Rifqi’s monoprints and Wei Li’s mixed media paintings, while Fyon’s and Zestro’s works provide a constructive counterpoint to Ben’s ceramic explorations – the perennial debate over our utilitarian perception of the clay medium. However, not all were created in isolation and, here, Tze Yang’s and Ivan’s paintings share a similar thread in mining the everyday – the former with his astute observations of people going about their daily activities and the latter, with his sensitivity towards unorthodox materials and leftovers from the painting process.
Collectively, this group of artists has displayed a tenacity that has contributed to various conversations about art and its role here in Singapore. Whether it is essential or not is beside the point. What matters to us is that these artists are here, now, and they have provided us with enough to continue our optimism for generations of artists to come.
- Syed Muhammad Hafiz, Guest Curator