New art fair sets up in Singapore September 2008 – International Herald Tribune

SINGAPORE ART FAIR 9 to 12 September

Asian contemporary art has seen its star rise markedly in recent years. Yet the region has yet to produce art fairs to rival those in the West like Art Basel in Switzerland, Frieze Art Fair in London, the Armory Show in New York and Art Basel Miami Beach. In the past year, two new contemporary art fairs have gained considerable attention because of their sheer size – ShContemporary in September in Shanghai and Art HK in May in Hong Kong – but they are still far from being seen as equal to their Western counterparts.

Now, a new entrant, Singapore Showcase, is also hoping to be noticed. With 23 major international galleries, it is very much a boutique fair, but those attending include marquee names in international contemporary art: Sperone Westwater and L&M Arts from New York to Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac from Paris, SCAI the Bathhouse and Tomio Koyama from Tokyo, Arario Gallery from Seoul, Hanart TZ from Hong Kong and ShanghART from Shanghai.

“It would be enormously presumptuous to say we’re going to be the Basel of Asia, but the standards that we’re trying to push here and emulate are those of the Armory or Basel, on a smaller scale,” said Mary Dinaburg, principal of Fortune Cookie Projects, the curatorial and art advisory consultancy behind the new fair, which runs Sept. 9-12 and coincides with the opening of the second Singapore Biennale.

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