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SAATCHI GALLERY ANNOUNCES INAUGURAL PARTICIPATION IN SINGAPORE ART WEEK 2023, WITH INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED BRITISH ARTIST PHILIP COLBERT

Saatchi Gallery will be the first and only UK gallery to participate in SAW 2023 along the iconic Marina Bay Sands waterfront, marking Philip Colbert’s first-ever exhibition in Singapore

From 6 – 15 January, Saatchi Gallery will present a first-of-its-kind pop-up installation at the 11th edition of Singapore Arts Week 2023 with internationally recognised British artist Philip Colbert. This must-see outdoor art installation will mark the first time Saatchi Gallery has participated in Singapore’s burgeoning art scene – the first and only UK gallery to do so. It also celebrates Philip Colbert’s first exhibition in Singapore, following widely successful exhibitions in neighbouring Asian countries.

The free-to-visit installation will include four sculpture commissions towering over 2 meters tall, and one over 3 metres. The stainless-steel painted sculptures will be on view along the iconic Marina Bay waterfront promenade as part of Singapore Art Week 2023.

Widely referred to as the ‘Godson of Andy Warhol’, Philip Colbert creates colourful cartoon-like sculptures as a representation of the artist’s own alter-ego. Colbert has created a global cult following for his cartoon lobster persona and his masterful hyper-pop history paintings. His work powerfully explores the patterns of contemporary digital culture and its relationship to a deeper art historical dialogue.

“This unique installation supports Saatchi Gallery’s charity mission to champion artist and render contemporary art accessible to all, bringing an incredible British artist like Philip, and his magnificent sculptures, into Singapore’s vibrant and exciting artistic landscape.” – Georgina Greenslade, Head of Communications & International Development at Saatchi Gallery.

“I’m very excited to be showing this series of sculptures in the iconic Marina Bay in Singapore, with the mix of water and the reflection of the cityscape there couldn’t be a better backdrop for the Lobster. Among the sculptures, there are a few works I’m showing for the first time. The Lobster Spam can & the Lobster painter. Singapore is a city I have been drawn to for a number of years and I am really happy to have collaborated with Saatchi gallery to bring this project to life. They have played an important part in my development as an artist and I’m excited to be collaborating with them again to realise this very ambitious sculptural project.” Philip Colbert, artist.

“As Principal Patron of The Saatchi Gallery we’re committed to making art, culture and creativity accessible to all. We’re therefore delighted and excited to see Philip Colbert’s sculptures here in Singapore, our key regional hub in Asia, and look forward to them being a key part of Singapore Art Week,” Richard Morewood Asia CEO, M&C Saatchi.

Singapore Art Week 2023 includes over 130 art events across the island and online, featuring new works and transnational collaborations including with Saatchi Gallery. In addition, virtual art experiences will enable audiences all over the world to access and discover the exciting art community in Singapore and beyond. The collaboration between Saatchi Gallery and Singapore Art Week supports Saatchi’s charitable mission to champion artists and render contemporary art accessible to all. Singapore’s signature visual arts season represents the unity and pride of a diverse and vibrant arts community. Its 11th edition will celebrate the practices of Singapore artists with an eclectic mix of online and physical visual arts programmes and experiences across the island.

Audiences all over the world can access and discover the exciting art in Singapore’s arts and cultural institutions and beyond, or engage in enriching discussions, talks, public art walks and tours. A catalyst of creativity, Singapore Art Week continues to be a spotlight, gathering and launchpad for the arts community in Singapore.

About

UK based Gallery BEERS London is pleased to present Bitter Nostalgia, with artists Hyangmok Baik and Adébayo Bolaji, at Saatchi Gallery, opening on 30 November through to 26 January 2023. Public admission to the exhibition on the Ground Floor of the Gallery will be free.

The pairing of South Korean painter Hyangmok Baik (b. 1990) and British-Nigerian Adébayo Bolaji (b. 1983) offers a celebration of nostalgic themes as critical, thoughtful, and challenging. Both artists transcend factuality to incorporate concepts of memory, emotion, the past, and our processes of recollection as individuals and as the greater public.

By definition, nostalgia is a term with arguably pejorative connotations. To view the world through ‘rose-coloured glasses’ suggests an inability to remain critical or unbiased. Further, we’ve become trained sceptics; our cynicism is applauded, whereas unbridled optimism or joy is seen as somehow lacking in critical-thinking or judiciousness. How does this reflect in the ways in which we record our past and personal histories?

It is often seen as the artist’s duty to record a more empathetic view of our life and times. But at what point do we become wary of such ‘sentimentalized’ versions of history? The musician sings; the author writes; the poet records in verse and line. But a painter’s duty is to recollect and record their emotional connectivity to a personal as well as a public sphere. Perhaps painting itself is a sort of ‘act of defiance’, whereby the mechanics of creation arise from an action and reaction to so-called cold factuality.

As a global community, we seem keen to shutout recent recollections of a pandemic, global warming, the LGBTQIA+ or BLM movements and/or reactionary groups, gun control, the death of HM the Queen, and various uprisings or other global catastrophes. Is it natural to want to recollect our pasts as inherently good? Or rather, to find and celebrate the goodness without reverting to schmaltziness?

Both Baik and Bolaji aim to celebrate activism and our historicity through a critical lens and exuberant palette. Each artist handles these themes in related, albeit distinct methods, and this exhibition endeavours to explore this further.

Further information on the exhibition and/or either of the artists kindly contact Kurt Beers or send an email to [email protected]or phone +44(0)2075029078.

ABOUT HYANGMOK BAIK

HYANGMOK BAIK (b. 1990, South Korea) lives and works in Seoul, South Korea. He graduated in 2019 with a MA in Fine Art from Hongik University. Solo exhibitions include: I Know What You Did Last Summer, OTI Hong Kong (2022); The Garden of Eden, OTI LA, Los Angeles (2021); Forgotten by Us, BEERS London, London (2021); Imagine Utopia, Gallery Stan, Seoul, South Korea (2020); Wanderlust, Gallery Marron, Seoul, South Korea (2019); solo show at Gallery Meme, Seoul, South Korea (2018) and; a solo show at Gana Art Space, Seoul, South Korea (2016). Group exhibitions and fairs include: Art Busan, Gallery Stan, Busan, South Korea (2022); Yeonhee Art Fair, Seoul, South Korea (2019); KIAF, South Korea (2019); Yohood, Shanghai, China (2019); Gallery Ili, Seoul, South Korea (2019); Art Busan, Busan, Korea (2019); Mercielbiss, Busan, Korea 92019); Stan Art Center, Seoul, South Korea (2019); Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan (2019).

ABOUT ADEBAYO BOLAJI

ADEBAYO BOLAJI (b. 1983, London) lives and works in London and graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Solo exhibitions include: In Pursuit of Flow, UH Arts, Hertfordshire (2021); The Power & The Pause, BEERS London, London (2021); Between Two Worlds, Galerie Kremers, Berlin (2020); Topia: A Reinvention of the Self, Serena Morton Gallery, London (2019); Babel, Galerie Proarta, Zurich (2019) and Rituals of Colour, Public Gallery, London (2018). Group Exhibitions include: Hues, Hannah Traore Gallery, New York (2022); Optimistic: The Power of Now, Serena Morton Gallery, London (2018) and New Contemporary V Old, Galerie Proarta, Zurich (2017). Fairs include: Untitled Miami, BEERS London (2021); Future Fairs Online, BEERS London (2020) and; art KARLSRUHE, Galerie Proarta (2020). Bolaji is a multidisciplinary artist who has also trained as a Lawyer, Actor and Writer who has had prominent speaking engagements with Penn State University as well as Mall Galleries. Additionally, Bolaji belongs to the prominent Soho House Collection as well as the Hogans & Lovells Collection.

ABOUT BEERS LONDON

BEERS London opened in the summer of 2012 and has since forged an international reputation as one of London’s leading spaces for cutting-edge contemporary art. The gallery maintains an active, forward-thinking programme, exhibiting artists at various career stages. While primarily focused on painting, the gallery frequently exhibits sculpture, photography, textile, and ceramics. Gallery Director Kurt Beers has written two books: 100 Painters of Tomorrow released in 2014, followed by the award-winning 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow in 2019, both published by Thames & Hudson. Together, Beers and Thames & Hudson are preparing for a third book in the series: 100 Photographers of Tomorrow.

INSTALLATION VIEWS

About

Saatchi Gallery collaborates with curators to select works direct from the studios of artists in order to present a range of diverse & experimental artworks to a larger audience.

Artists featured in Studio: Response [#3] are:
Karolina Albricht,
Ralph Anderson,
Olivia Bax,
Benjamin Cohen,
Mark Corfield-Moore,
Ian Dawson,
Olly Fathers,
Charlotte Kingsnorth
Jonathan Lloyd West,
Giulia Ricci,
Theresa Weber,
Imogen Wetherell

INSTALLATION VIEWS

About

This free-to-enter exhibition celebrates the life and work of a relatively unknown artist, George Westren. The show represents a positive outcome to a emotive story that gained worldwide news attention in the summer of 2022.

In June 2022, George Westren became the unlikely subject of a viral news story reported by TV, radio and print media across the world. Westren, a relatively unknown artist living in a tiny housing association flat in Spitalfields, East London, had sadly died in July 2021 during the UK’s Covid lockdown. A year later, in June 2022, a neighbour stepped in to prevent George’s portfolio of intricate op art drawings from being destroyed by a home clearance firm. The artwork went viral on Twitter where Westren’s story – of humble beginnings, homelessness, addiction and eventual salvation through art – touched hundreds of thousands of people.

Funds raised through the sale of a small run of prints helped to preserve, catalogue and exhibit Westren’s artwork. The exhibition is curated by Alan Warburton, the neighbour who rescued the works. Saatchi Gallery are pleased to have the support of George Westren’s family in showcasing this selection of works that represent twenty years of dedicated endeavour.

As Westren himself said, making these intricate designs kept him ‘on the straight and narrow’ after many years struggling with addiction and homelessness. The artist designed and executed his work in a straightforward way: patiently plotted with compass point, ruler and pencil, then inked with felt tip pens on standard cartridge paper. Initially inspired by the work of Bridget Riley in 1999, Westren embarked on his own creative journey over the next 20 years, beginning with simple ‘tunnel’ designs, through which he ventured towards his own distinct motifs and techniques.

His pulsating stars, battling chevrons, interlocking spears and protruding 3D edges hover between subtle op art illusion and muscular, graphical clarity; all the more impressive that he worked alone, without formal art training, producing a steady sequence of work that so clearly demonstrates a precise understanding of contrast, depth and optical effects.

Westren’s love for art took him to art classes at outreach projects around London, where he forged new friendships, most importantly with fellow artist Bill Dennison and Jaime Bautista, director of SMart Network, both of whom – in Westren’s words – showed him that he might be ‘worthy of someone’s attention’.

This exhibition has been made possible due to the thousands of people around the world who saw the value of George’s work and were touched by his story, and especially those who bought prints that helped fund this project. Special thanks also go to the Westren family, SMart Network and the Ten Feet Away art group at Union Chapel, Islington, London.

ABOUT GEORGE WESTREN

Born in February 1947 to working-class parents in Ilfracombe, a seaside town in North Devon, George Westren always felt like an outsider. When he left school at 16, short lived careers in plumbing and the RAF presented challenges to his shyness and low self-esteem. Over the next 30 years, he sank into addiction and homelessness. Then, in 1999, a friend encouraged him to attend an exhibition of Bridget Riley’s work at the Serpentine Gallery in London, where he had a wake-up call. With a new motivation to overcome lifelong inhibitions and seek help for addiction, within a year Westren had secured a small housing association flat in East London. This respite from the dangers of rough sleeping allowed him to diligently create a portfolio of precise and sophisticated op art illustrations which he continued building for the rest of his life. Westren’s love for art took him to art classes at outreach projects around London, where he forged new friendships, most importantly with fellow artist Bill Dennison and Jaime Bautista, director of SMart Network, both of whom – in Westren’s words – showed him that he might be ‘worthy of someone’s attention’. Westren, like so many others during the COVID-19 pandemic, died at home, in Spitalfields, in June 2021.

ABOUT ALAN WARBURTON

Alan Warburton is an artist living and working in London. Alan was a downstairs neighbour to George Westren for many years. In June 2022, Alan interceded to rescue the artworks of George Westren following the clearance of Westren’s home. Alan has since worked with the family of George Westren to secure the future of the works for the family and to curate this presentation of a selection of the works to the public.

About

The New Black Vanguard features 15 international Black photographers contributing to a new vision of the Black figure and reframing representation in art and fashion. This exhibition is a celebration of Black creativity both in-front of and behind the camera. Featured works include Black stylists, models, make-up artists and creative directors who are bringing a radically new set of references and experiences to image making.

The New Black Vanguard is curated by American writer and critic Antwaun Sargent who explores a new aesthetic of Black portraiture while examining the cross-pollination between art, fashion and culture in the making of images.

“This exhibition is an exploration of this generation’s Black image makers who are bringing fresh perspective to photography. Image by image, they have created a loose global network around their art that powerfully centres identity, community and desire. The artists in this show profoundly reanimate the possibilities of contemporary photography.” – Antwaun Sargent

The New Black Vanguard presents artists whose vibrant portraits and conceptual images fuse the genres of art and fashion photography in ways that breakdown long-established boundaries. The Images open up conversations around the representation of the Black body and Black lives as subject matter. Collectively, the works celebrate the Black creativity. Seeking to challenge the idea that Blackness is homogenous, the works serve as a form of visual activism delivered by emerging talents who are creating photography in vastly different contexts – be it in New York or Johannesburg, Lagos or London. The results – often made in collaboration with Black stylists and fashion designers – present new perspectives on the medium of photography and the notions of race, beauty, gender and power.

#THENEWBLACKVANGUARD

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHERS
Campbell Addy
Quil Lemons
Daniel Obasi
Arielle Bobb-Willis
Namsa Leuba
Ruth Ossai
Micaiah Carter
Renell Medrano
Adrienne Raquel
Awol Erizku
Tyler Mitchell
Dana Scruggs
Nadine Ijewere
Jamal Nxedlana
Stephen Tayo

Also including additional works by:
AB+DM (Ahmad Barber and Donté Maurice), Djeneba Aduayom, Lawrence Agyei, Rasharn Agyemang, Araba Ankuma, Bafic, Daveed Baptiste, Malick Bodian, Kennedi Carter, Jorian Charlton, Christian Cody, Faith Couch, Delphine Diallo, Rhea Dillon, Philip-Daniel Ducasse, Christina Ebenezer, Yagazie Emezi, Justin French, Alexandre Gaudin, Erica Génécé, Kenny Germé, Denzel Golatt, Yannis Davy Guibinga, Travis Gumbs, Tyrell Hampton, Seye Isikalu, Adama Jalloh, Manny Jefferson, Kreshonna Keane, Ekua King, Joshua Kissi, Casper Kofi, Olivia Lifungula, Myles Loftin, Mahaneela, Ronan Mckenzie, Tyra Mitchell, Fabien Montique, Sierra Nallo, Manuel Obadia-Wills, Travys Owen, Amber Pinkerton, Marc Posso, Caio Rosa, Silvia Rosi, Lucie Rox, Makeda Sandford, Cécile Smetana Baudier, Justin Solomon, Texas Isaiah, David Uzochukwu, Juan Veloz, Isaac West, and Joshua Woods.

EXHIBITION SUPPORTER

The New Black Vanguard at Saatchi Gallery is generously supported by Burberry.

ORGANISED BY

The New Black Vanguard is organised by Aperture, and made possible, in part by Airbnb Magazine and Tasweer Photo Festival, Qatar.