Writing the Modern: Selected Texts on Art & Art History in Singapore, Malaysia & Southeast Asia 1973 – 2015
Softcover, 428 pages
Retail Price: $59.90

(only available for purchase at nuspress.nus.edu.sg)

T.K. Sabapathy has been writing on the art of Southeast Asia for over four decades (1973–2015), as a critic, curator and art historian. This collection of his work, representing the scope and depth of Sabapathy’s output, and highlighting his most important and influential writings, is also a survey of the vast changes in the landscape of art in the region over the period.

A historian and educator, penetrating critic and ardent advocate, Sabapathy’s early scholarly engagements were marked by clear commitments to the art historiography of the Hindu-Buddhist traditions of Southeast Asia. He later emerged as an eloquent proponent of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art. His art historical methods, critical documentation, deep dialogue with artists and detailed explication of their works have helped define Singapore and Malaysian art. His extensive studies of Southeast Asian art and artists have helped set the course of art discourse in the region.

This publication provides an opportunity for more focused (re)reading, review and renewed consideration of T.K. Sabapathy’s rich body of work, to further fuel modern and contemporary art writing, research and exhibition-making.

Medium at Large: Shapeshifting Material & Methods in Contemporary Art
Hard cover, 128 pages
Retail Price: $30

Medium at Large explored the idea of medium in contemporary art, probing some of the most fundamental and pressing questions of art – its making, and also our experience, encounter and understanding of it. The exhibition at Singapore Art Museum (SAM) revelled in the rich expanse of materials that contemporary artworks can be made of, and from, with artwork media ranging from oil paint to rattan, human hair, bullet shells, as well as ‘dematerialised’ media like sound and language. Encompassing 31 Southeast Asian and Asian contemporary artworks that were largely drawn from SAM’s permanent collection, the exhibition examined the fluid nature of art as concept, process, method, and material.

This fully illustrated exhibition catalogue features five curatorial essays that reflect upon a range of issues surrounding contemporary art, such as the notion of time as a material, the relationship between painting and photography, the meaning of material(s), and how contemporary art is collected in a museum.

After Utopia: Revisiting the Ideal in Asian Contemporary Art
Hard cover, 112 pages
Retail Price: $30

In naming his fictional island ‘Utopia’, writer Thomas More conjoined the Greek words for ‘good place’ and ‘no place’ – a reminder that the idealised society he conjured was fundamentally phantasmal. Yet, the search and yearning for Utopia is a ceaseless endeavour. Predicated on a sense that the world is not enough, utopian principles and models of worlds have been perpetually re-imagined, and continue to haunt our consciousness through the centuries. Drawing mainly from the Singapore Art Museum’s permanent collection, as well as artists’ collections and new commissions, the exhibition After Utopia sought to ask where and how we have located these expressions of both our innermost yearnings as well as our contemporary realities. This fully illustrated catalogue features critical essays as well as artwork captions by the curators of After Utopia: Revisiting the Ideal in Asian Contemporary Art.

Time of Others
Hardcover, 148 pages
Retail Price: $25

Time of Others features works of artists responding to social, historical and geopolitical concerns at this present juncture of living in a more interconnected world today, where notions of boundary, difference and Otherness have also become more complex. A survey of contemporary art from the Asia Pacific region, the exhibition is co-curated by Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), National Museum of Art Osaka (NMAO) and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), and will travel to the four museums from 2015 to 2016. This fully illustrated exhibition catalogue features essays and artwork captions by the international curatorial team of Time of Others.

The Time of Others catalogue was published by Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), National Museum of Art Osaka (NMAO), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and the Japan Foundation Asia Center.

President's Young Talents 2015
Softcover, 184 pages
Retail Price: $30
ISBN: 978-981-09-7074-1

The President's young Talents exhibition and award series is Singapore's premier mentoring and commissioning programme. Inaugurated by the Singapore Art Museum in 2001, it recognises young Singaporean artists whose practices chart new dimensions in contemporary art. The 2015 President's Young Talents is the series' sixth edition, and features new commissions from Ang Song Ming, Bani Haykal, Ezzam Rahman, Loo Zihan and Ong Kian Peng. Coinciding with Singapore's 50th year of independence, the exhibition celebrates artistic innovation and the pioneering spirit of contemporary art. The catalogue features a dedicated section for each of the five finalists; it includes interviews, mentors' perspectives and a curatorial essay, as well as showcasing both the artists' past works and their new commissions, offering a comprehensive overview of, and insight into, the practice of Singapore's most exciting and visionary young artists.

Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize 2014
Hardcover, 205 pages
Retail Price: $40
ISBN: 978-981-09-3817-8

The triennial Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize was inaugurated in 2008 by the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation and Singapore Art Museum. Recognising the most outstanding contemporary work by both emerging and established artists over the last three years, the prize puts the spotlight on compelling works of visual art from across the Asia Pacific region. This comprehensive exhibition catalogue features works nominated and exhibited during the third edition in 2014. A total of 105 works were nominated from 24 countries and territories, and a juried panel selected 15 finalist works which were shown at the museum. Staying true to contemporary practice, the entries for the 2014 edition demonstrate a diversity of medium, innovative approaches to genre and materials, and strong conceptual ideas. The critical essays and artist and nominators’ statements in this volume address topical issues and collectively shed light on the region’s contemporary art landscape and also on concerns and conversations relevant in society today.

Still Moving: A Triple Bill on the Image Box Set

Contents:

Afterimage: Contemporary Photography from Southeast Asia
ISBN: 978-981-09-2217-7
Time Present: Photography from the Deutsche Bank Collection ISBN: 978-981-09-2218-4
Image & Illusion: Video Works from the Yokohama Museum of Art ISBN: 978-981-09-2219-1

Publication date: 2014
Retail price: $60 for all 3.
Each catalogue also retails at $25 each.

Still Moving: A Triple Bill on the Image is a compendium of three publications, focusing on the nature of the image as explored in the art of photography and new media, seen through three co-curated exhibitions at the Singapore Art Museum. In Afterimage: Contemporary Photography from Southeast Asia, artists use non-traditional photographic techniques to articulate concerns about the cultural, political and social landscapes of the region. In Time Present: Photography from the Deutsche Bank Collection, renowned international artists show the multiple possibilities of photography in history over time. Image & Illusion: Video Works from the Yokohama Museum of Art features new media works that expand their subject matter beyond the limits of the medium and representation. This compendium offers an illuminating perspective on both emerging and established photographic practices internationally. It features over 40 photographers and artists such as Andreas Gursky, Cai Guo-Qiang, Dinh Q Le, Gerhard Richter, Gary-Ross Pastrana, Hiroshi Sugimoto, John Clang, Takashi Ishida, Tadasu Takamine and Yee I-Lann.

Singapore Biennale 2013: If the World Changed
(Hardcover, 268 pages)
Publication date: 2013
Retail price: $60
ISBN: 978-981-07-8026-5

Singapore Biennale 2013 features the works of 82 artists and artist collectives from the Southeast Asian region and beyond, with a 27-member curatorial team who, with their combined expertise, have harnessed the unique energies of Southeast Asia to shape the region’s premier contemporary art exhibition. The focus of the Biennale also goes beyond the major metropolitan centres to present a greater diversity of artistic practices that reference urgent and key issues in our contemporary world.

The fully illustrated catalogue features curatorial write-ups on each of the 82 artworks, an introduction by art historian T. K. Sabapathy and an essay by Amitav Acharya. Shedding light on the collaborative curatorial process, the publication also includes creative textual and visual responses  by the 27 curators that offers a cross-section of their diverse perspectives, strategies and approaches in curating "If the World Changed".

Terms & Conditions
Hard cover, 100pages
Retail Price: $25.00 (include GST)
ISBN: 978-981-07-6842-3

The phrase Terms & Conditions often refers to a fixed set of guidelines at the basis of any official contract or agreement. While these extensive specifications are sometimes overlooked in everyday practice, their implementation can have quite powerful implications by dictating the precise nature of representation and interaction between people, entities and countries. The words terms and conditions taken apart from their clerical connotations convey fluid and precarious concepts such as the nature of definitions (terms) and circumstances (conditions) over time.

Tackling several conceptual veins, the exhibition observes relationships between power, control and representation and how power impacts perceptions of identity, location, history and memory. Many artists with roots in the Arab world work simultaneously across different geographic, physical and cultural contexts, making it difficult to define or constrain them to a narrow set of specifications. Contemporary art draws on a rich variety of artistic practices, enabling artists to navigate and speak within multiple contexts, undermining attempts to restrict how identity and representation are expressed.

Terms & Conditions presents an open-ended debate into how history and social realities are represented, with an emphasis on the Arab world. The exhibition draws upon seminal works from the Barjeel Art Foundation, the Abraaj Group Art Prize Collection, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Musée national del l’histoire et des cultures de l’immigration, CNHI Paris, and collections of private individuals and artists.

The catalogue provides a nuanced glimpse into the exhibition and its artists with write-ups, interviews and essays. Offering insight into the layered themes of the show, the book examines the relationships between power, control and representation, highlighting how power impacts perceptions of identity, location, history and memory with a focus on The Arab world.

Featured Artists: Adel Abdessemed, Adel Abidin, Jananne Al-Ani, Kader Attia, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Mona Hatoum, Raafat Ishak, Huda Lutfi, Moataz Nasr, Zineb Sedira, Hassan Sharif, Sharif Waked, Raed Yassin and Akram Zaatari

The President's Young Talents 2013
Hard cover, 243 pages
Retail Price: S$40
ISBN: 978-981-07-5657-4

Inaugurated by SAM in 2001, the President’s Young Talents (PYT) is Singapore’s premier commissioning exhibition, featuring the island’s most promising artists under the age of 35. Selected by an independent curatorial committee of local art professionals, this year’s PYT features new commissions from Boo Junfeng, Liao Jiekai, Zaki Razak, Grace Tan, Ryf Zaini and Robert Zhao Renhui.

The catalogue features a dedicated section for each of the six artists, including curatorial essays and artist interviews, as well as showcasing previous works and the new PYT 2013 commission, offering a comprehensive overview and insight into the art-making processes of some of Singapore’s most talented contemporary artists today.

Visual Culture 02: Urban Peels
Magazine, 124 pages
Retail price: $16.90
ISSN: 2251-1504

An exhibition-in-print project by SAM, Visual Culture acknowledges the rise of predominantly visual forms of media, communication and information exchange in recent years. In this second issue, local artist Djohan Johari was specially commissioned to create works in response to SAM’s permanent collection. The result is a tongue-in-cheek commentary and a picture book on urbanity and change through the perspective of Singapore’s street names.

The Collectors Show: Weight of History
Hardcover, 120 pages
Retail Price: S$25
ISBN: 978-981-07-5006-0

The Collectors Show presents compelling works of contemporary art from private collections in Asia. This third edition of The Collectors Show is titled Weight of History, featuring 23 works that show how artists perceive, and re-conceive the multiple facets of history in the Asia-Pacific region. The knowledge, narratives and records of the past, range from the personal to the social, the spiritual to the art historical. Weight of History examines, through the eyes of artists, how the past has shaped, and continues to shape present day societies, as they engage with and evaluate their local traditions and contexts of culture in a globalised world.

This publication includes detailed artwork write-ups and contributions from art collectors on their visions on the collecting of contemporary art today. With full-coloured plates of remarkable contemporary artworks that are seldom exhibited, it also offers a rare view into the world of private art collection.

Tomorrow, Today: Contemporary Art from the Singapore Art Museum (2009-2011)
Paperback, 440 pages
Retail Price: $30
ISBN: 978-981-07-1880-0

Tomorrow, Today: Contemporary Art from the Singapore Art Museum (2009-2011) is a must-read guide to SAM's contemporary art collection. The works featured were brought into the collection from 2009 to 2011, following SAM's transformation into a contemporary art museum. There are over 300 fully illustrated artworks, including significant and iconic pieces from emerging artists and senior art practitioners from the Southeast Asian region, as well as China, India and Japan. This guide is an accessible resource for all artists, curators, critics, writers and art lovers interested in the region and Asia's contemporary art scene.

Seeker of Hope: Works by Jia Aili
Paperback, 92 pages
Retail Price: $25.00
ISBN: 978-981-07-2691-1

Sold Out

Singapore Contemporary Artists Series
Lee Wen: Lucid Dreams in the Reverie of the Real
Soft cover, 222 pages
Retail Price: $30.00
ISBN: 978-981-07-1881-7

Singapore Contemporary Artists Series: Lee Wen: Lucid Dreams in the Reverie of the Real is a richly illustrated publication that charts the wide oeuvre of one of Singapore’s most internationally recognised artists. Many of these are featured in the publication alongside early works, documentation of overseas performances alongside rarely-seen installation works.

Echoing the experimental and playful spirit of Lee Wen’s practice, five writers have also collaborated to produce a series of interconnecting, dialogic texts – a textual conversation that places the ‘body’ of the multidisciplinary artist on the examination table for scrutiny. Additionally, exhibition curator, Khairuddin Hori, contributes an essay that provides a context for Lee Wen’s practice and development in Singapore.

The Singapore Contemporary Artists Series focuses on documenting and providing critical commentary on the practices of significant contemporary artists from Singapore. Dedicated to enlarging discourse and scholarship on contemporary art, the series also serves as an accessible introduction to the vibrant contemporary art scene in Singapore.

The Collectors Show: Chimera
Hardcover with Jacket, 110 pages
Retail Price: $30
ISBN: 978-981-07-1092-7

The Collectors Show brings together notable works of Asian contemporary art from private collections around the world. A tribute to the art patrons of today, the exhibition offers an insight into the breadth and remarkable richness of private art collections, and the unique and highly personal visions and passions that shape them.

This publication presents both artist and collector statements about the works featured in The Collectors Show: Chimera.

The Singapore Show: Future Proof
Hardcover with Jacket, 112 pages
Retail Price: $30
ISBN: 978-981-07-1093-4

Future Proof features almost 40 artworks from exciting young Singapore artists whose strong and consistent presence in the local and international contemporary art landscape has helped enliven the local creative scene and inspired many other local artists. The works featured look at the performance of the body and identity in the context of Singapore, and also of subcultures that flourish beneath the mainstream. Following social, political and cultural shifts, the confidence and incisive focus of these artists
are undeniable.

This catalogue contains essays by Khairuddin Hori, Tan Boon Hui, David Chew and Zaki Razak that explore the various premises that have influenced the practices of these artists and the development of contemporary art in the last three decades.

Visual Culture 01: The Portraiture Issue
Magazine, 98 pages
Retail Price: $16.90
ISBN: 2251-1504

Visual Culture is an exhibition in print project by SAM published twice yearly. As part of SAM’s shift towards contemporary art, this publication project acknowledges the rise of predominantly visual forms of media, communication and information exchange in recent years. It is an emergent field of inquiry that combines aspects of art history, cultural anthropology, critical theory, philosophy as well as media and performance.

The inaugural issue explores the theme of portraiture in photography. The dual nature that resides within the medium, of what is ‘real’ and what is ‘represented’, is a source of inquiry that is examined through photographic composition. By looking at the plethora of photographic images constructed, from early 20th century ethnological photographs to contemporaneous ones made digitally, Visual Culture 01 aims to provide possible ways of looking at the medium in order to make its readers think more intently about photography and its place within contemporary art.

Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize 2011
Hardcover with Jacket, 157 pages
Retail Price: $40
ISBN: 978-981-07-0284-7

From Australia to Mongolia, New Zealand to Pakistan, the contemporary art of the Asia Pacific stands out for its complexity, richness and sheer diversity. The Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) Foundation Signature Art Prize is a juried award that recognises the region's single most outstanding contemporary visual artwork produced in the preceding three years.

The APB Foundation Signature Art Prize 2011 catalogue is a handsome hardbound and fully illustrated publication that features the 130 artworks nominated for the second edition of the Prize. It serves as an excellent survey to some of the most important artworks to emerge from the Asia Pacific region in the last three years, including key works by established and emerging artists. The catalogue also features a curatorial essay, write-ups and statements by the 15 finalist artists and nominators, offering fascinating insights into their works.

Hyung Koo Kang:
The Burning Gaze
Paperback, 120 pages
Retail Price: $25
ISBN: 978-981-08-9994-3

Hyung Koo Kang: The Burning Gaze documents and charts the practice of the highly regarded artist that has spanned over two decades. An interview with the artist reveals his motivations and intentions, while the essays in the exhibition catalogue closely analyse the unconventional techniques and skill that go into his paintings, resulting in his hyper-realistic portraits. Over 30 recent paintings are featured, including new works that have never been published before, along with caricature sketches and clay sculptures that the artist has used in his process of mastering the art of portraiture.

Singapore Contemporary Artists:
Amanda Heng: Speak To Me,
Walk With Me
Paperback, 228 pages
Retail Price: $30.00
ISBN: 978-981-07-0087-4

Singapore Contemporary Artists Series: Amanda Heng: Speak To Me, Walk With Me offers acomprehensive view of Heng’s diverse practice.The publication features essays which studyher work from various domains of inquiry bycurators, scholars and art commentators. Withmore than 50 full-coloured artwork plates anddocumentation images from her vast oeuvre, thepublication explores topics such as the receptionof performance art, national identity, participationin art-making, feminist art and collaborativepractices in Heng’s works.

The Singapore Contemporary Artists Series  focusses on documenting and providing criticalcommentary on the practices of significantcontemporary artists from Singapore. Dedicatedto enlarging discourse and scholarship oncontemporary art, the series also servesas an accessible introduction to the vibrantcontemporary art scene in Singapore.

Singapore Biennale 2011 Catalogue
(Three Ring binder in slipcase, 308 pages)
Publication date: 2011
Retail price: $60
ISBN: 978-981-08-8050-7

Featuring write-ups on each of the 63 Biennale artists, essays from invited academics and insightful notes from the Biennale curatorial team, this fully illustrated publication goes beyond the scope of the traditional exhibition catalogue. Presented in the form of a distinctive binder and slipcase folio which allows individual catalogue sections to be taken out or added in, the handsome publication is specially designed by New York firm Goto Design. In line with the Biennale's exploration of the notion of "Open House", the catalogue also features a special section focussing on the art-making process. The catalogue includes contributions from Chua Beng Huat, David Elliott, Patrick Flores, Hou Hanru, Susie Lingham, Matthew Ngui, Ruth Noack, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Russell Storer, Trevor Smith, Yao Souchou and numerous other writers.

Video, an Art, a History 1965 – 2010
A Selection from the Centre Pompidou and Singapore Art Museum Collections
(Hardback, 272 pages)
Publication date: June 2011
Retail price: $80
ISBN 9789810884932

This accompanying publication to the exhibition Video, an Art, a History 1965–2010. A Selection from the Centre Pompidou and Singapore Art Museum Collections brings together studies on video art from Western Europe, the Americas and East Asia. It also introduces recent investigations into video as an emerging artistic practice in Southeast Asia. Ten essays in this publication comprise critical studies alongside country surveys. Fifty entries in this publication include the selection of video and installations featured in this exhibition, of which 38 works are from the Centre Pompidou and another 12 from the Museum. Extensively illustrated, this rare gathering of some of the most definitive works in video art is designed to address a wide audience ranging from specialists to the general public.

Negotiating Home, History and Nation
Two decades of contemporary art in Southeast Asia 1991 – 2011
(Soft cover, 275 pages)
Retail price: $80
ISBN 978-981-08-8104-7
Available at Singapore Art Museum Merchandise Counter

An extensive research catalogue that forms a variety of viewpoints and investigates key themes in Southeast Asian art history today, the contributors are predominantly Asian-based, offering new ideas about visual art from a part of Asia that is not well known beyond its own borders.

This is a valuable resource for anyone who wish to bring home the visual brilliance and conceptual purpose of recent Southeast Asian practice showcased in the exhibition.

Essays by Tash Aw, Khairuddin Hori, Agung Hujatnikajennong, Iola Lenzi, Susie Lingham, Apinan Poshyananda, Eileen-Legaspi-Ramirez, Nora Taylor and Tan Boon Hui.

Camino A La Modernidad. The Path to Modernity: Mexican Modern Art
(Soft cover, 215pages)
Retail Price: $$49.90 (Inclusive of 7% GST) SOLD OUT
ISBN: 978-981-08-4221-5

This book traces the major artistic developments in Mexican modern painting from the 1900s to the 1950s, through some of the most compelling artworks that were created during this significant era of Mexican history. The Mexican Revolution (1910) transformed the country and much of its artistic expression, and Camino a la Modernidad. The Path to Modernity: Mexican Modern Art features more than 70 artworks from important private collections and state institutions, including works by artists such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Roberto Montenegro, Rufino Tamayo and Friday Kahlo. This bilingual book in English and Spanish includes concise artwork commentaries and more than 30 artist biographies, and is a suitable introduction to the paintings of modern Mexico.

This book offers a comprehensive survey of Natee Utarit’s practice from 1992 to 2009, and is the first to trace the significant developments and changes in the artist’s career. With more than 70 beautiful full-colour plates accompanied by detailed commentaries, essays and an artist interview, readers can gain an intimate insight into the artist’s practice as well as new perspectives on the tradition of painting in Southeast Asia today. A suitable publication for both researchers and art lovers, Natee Utarit: After Painting is also an ideal reference tool for exploring the art of the region.

This book features essays from prominent contemporary Thai thinkers and commentators such as curator Ark Fongsmut and filmmaker Ing K, and a critical selection of more than 100 photographs from his vast oeuvre from 1997 to 2007. Comprising both black-and-white documentary photographs of social realities and vibrant full-coloured images from his iconic ongoing Pink Man series of work, Phenomena and Prophecies traces Manit’s unique practice of artistic strategies that are both photojournalistic and highly conceptual, and signature to his practice of the past decade.

Singapore Contemporary Artists: Vincent Leow
(Soft cover, 139 pages)
Retail Price: $30.00
ISBN: 978-981-08-6693-8

The Singapore Contemporary Artists Series documents and provides critical commentary on the practice of significant contemporary artists from Singapore. Enlarging discourse and scholarship on contemporary art, it introduces the vibrant contemporary art scene in Singapore. Vincent Leow is the first book in this series, documenting and charting the artist’s career through essays and personal responses from artists, curators and art historians on his key works.

All publications are on sale online at www.selectbooks.com.sg.

For school purchases or enquiries, email [email protected].