Singapore Expats

Any thoughts from people who have actually bought an original Asian painting here:

- Where can you find Asian paintings in Singapore?
- What were your considerations and what did you look out for?
- How was your experience?
- Did you regret your buy?

That's a pretty general question - "Asian art" encompasses such a wide range of types of art and artists. What specifically are you interested in? I'm a painter (no I'm not trying to sell my own paintings!) but I get around to galleries and such and have been involved with one of the local contemporary art groups. More info?

Singapore has some excellent water color painters, with distinct signatures in their art form. I like the street painter myself, take a look here http://www.lifineart.com/khor.htm

MabelSoe wrote:
Where can you find Asian paintings in Singapore?

I'd say that it'd depend on your definition of an "Asian painting"? Would it be one about Asia (these usually encompass cliched oil paintings of Buddha's face, monks walking somewhere, batik-clad Asian ladies with large baskets on their heads, etc.)? Or paintings by Asian artists?

I can't help you with the former, but for the latter, you can try these places for a start:

http://www.theartshouse.com.sg/shop.html

http://www.goodmanartscentre.sg

http://www.singaporebiennale.org (next one is in 2013)

http://www.affordableartfair.sg

These are local art centres/events that also sell works by local artists.

There are lots of local art galleries, of course. But I find what they sell to be overpriced and (frequently) hideous. But, naturally, art is subjective...

Personally, I have a number of works by local and regional artists, including Donna Ong (http://www.donnaong.com), Alan Oei (http://www.evilempire.asia), Iskandar Jalil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iskandar_Jalil) and Lee Man Fong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Man_Fong). All are remarkable works that I would never part with.

If you really are passionate about art and wish to buy works by local or regional artists, I'd strongly recommend that you read a little more about Southeast Asian art first and attend as many arts events as you can, before selecting which artists' works you'd like to purchase.

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I've heard most of those types are.