August Round-Up

Mo Art Space, Kunsthalle Wien, and more.
By Alana Malika

Portrait of Le Brothers. Image courtesy of Heritage Space.

Illusion
Lê Ngọc Thanh and Lê Đức Hải, otherwise known as the Le Brothers, present ‘Illusion’ at Mo Art Space. The twins and artists continue their artistic exploration into the implications of historical violence in Vietnam on identity construction through a collection of large paintings and six large ceramic jars. Curated by Nguyễn Anh Tuấn from Heritage Space, the conceptual project confronts the patchwork of distant and current, personal and collective events that forms the human experience.

Mo Art Space, 18 July to 15 August 2021, open from Tuesday to Sunday. 

The End of Long Bloom
Ho Rui An’s first solo exhibition in Europe, ‘The End of Long Bloom’ at Kunsthalle Wien, Germany addresses the deep roots of neoliberal ideology in the fabric of our society. The Singapore artist  interrogates criticisms of Western modernity as feelings of security in Asian Tiger Economies falter and undercurrents of imperialism emerge. The show reflects upon late capitalism by focusing on the tug-of-war between the East and the West with references to the Asian financial crisis, the Belt and Road Initiative and more.

Kunsthalle Wien, 17 July to 10 October 2021.

Day time view of NŪR. Image courtesy of Creative Folkstone Triennial.

NŪR
As part of the Creative Folkstone Triennial, Malaysian artist Wong Hoy Cheong worked with Simon Davenport and Shahed Saleem in ‘NŪR’, a pentagon scaffolding structure installed with pastel tiles that acts like a lightstruck prism at night. The project is meant to be a foreground of the local Cultural Centre and is accompanied by an ongoing exhibition taking place at the mosque courtyard unveiling the planned redesign of the temple.

Creative Folkstone Triennial, 22 July to 2 November 2021.

Guo Liang Tan, ‘Figure 1’, 2019, gauze fabric over digital prints, dimensions variable. Image courtesy of the artist and Gerðarsafn Museum.

Installation view of ‘Objects of Desire’. Image courtesy of Gerðarsafn Museum.

Objects of Desire
‘Objects of Desire’ at Gerðarsafn Museum, Iceland is a group exhibition featuring artists from Singapore and Iceland. The collection of sculptures, paintings and installations provides a meta-commentary on the meaning and recognition assigned to art-objects beyond their material value. Singapore artists Weixin Quek Chong, Daniel Hui, Luca Lum and Guo-Liang Tan join with four Icelandic artists to evaluate how institutions, careers, and social movements are created from the intangible associations we extract from artworks.

Gerðarsafn Museum, 5 June to 29 August 2021.

Gary Ross Pastrana, ‘Final Battle’, 2019/2021, collage on PVC board, 167.64 x 106.68 cm (unframed). Image Courtesy of Silverlens.

Things That Came to Light
A solo exhibition by Gary-Ross Pastrana at Silverlens Galleries, ‘Things That Came to Light’ reflects on the Philippine artist's return to collage-making during isolation. In the pandemic, Pastrana has been left to painstakingly confront the materials and concepts of his collages without the distractions of normalcy and the outdoors. Though a tedious process and confined in two dimensions, the artist acknowledges the liberation he finds in borrowing and combining images to cut, paste and reshape their symbolisms.

Silverlens Galleries, 31 July to 28 August 28 2021. Schedule an appointment to view the exhibition here.