Features

Art World Database welcomes and promotes the sharing of editorials, essays and papers, both scholarly and mainstream, of Southeast Asian contemporary art.

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AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Sundaram Tagore

AWDB Speaks to Sundaram Tagore to celebrate 25 years of his global contemporary gallery, and its commemorative exhibition in New York City. Founded in 2000 with a mission to foster cross-cultural dialogue, the gallery has been pivotal in introducing underrepresented voices into global conversations, including artists from Southeast Asia and its diaspora.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Hendro Wiyanto and Bambang Witjaksono

AWDB speaks to the curatorial team of ARTJOG 2025, constructed around the theme ‘Amalan’ (“practice” or “deed”). Since its founding in 2008, ARTJOG has established itself as a key platform for contemporary art in Indonesia, distinguished from commercial fairs by its emphasis on direct engagement with artists and community networks in Yogyakarta.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Desmond Mah on the occasion of SG60

AWDB speaks with artist and curator Desmond Mah preceding the launch of ‘The Other Singaporeans: Stories of Home and Identity’ on 16 August at JW Projects in Singapore. The group exhibition, curated by Mah, brings together artists whose ties to Singapore span naturalisation, former citizenship, migration, or diasporic connection, and reframing national identity among artists.

AWDB Spotlight – Metis Art Interview with Krystina Lyon

AWDB speaks to renowned Burmese artist Htein Lin regarding his ongoing solo exhibition ‘Escape’ at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Known for blending painting, performance, and installation with personal and political testimony, Lin’s practice has reflected the lived reality of Myanmar’s struggle throughout his career.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Anthony Chin

AWDB speaks to renowned Burmese artist Htein Lin regarding his ongoing solo exhibition ‘Escape’ at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Known for blending painting, performance, and installation with personal and political testimony, Lin’s practice has reflected the lived reality of Myanmar’s struggle throughout his career.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Htein Lin

AWDB speaks to renowned Burmese artist Htein Lin regarding his ongoing solo exhibition ‘Escape’ at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. Known for blending painting, performance, and installation with personal and political testimony, Lin’s practice has reflected the lived reality of Myanmar’s struggle throughout his career.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Moses Tan

AWDB speaks to Singaporean artists Moses Tan whose work communicates the melancholia of queer experiences. Tan’s practice encompasses drawing, video, and installation, often employing subtlety and abstraction to articulate narratives of desire and identity.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2025

Launched in 2003 and held annually ever since, the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (SAAP) is recognised as the most established and prestigious annual art award in Asia-Pacific. Returning for its 2025 edition, SAAP has shortlisted 35 talented artists, including 13 from Southeast Asia (SEA).

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with James Prapaithong

AWDB speaks to James Prapaithong, a London-based Thai painter whose filmic works explore memory, isolation, and longing. His paintings, often focused on capturing light, trigger a nostalgic response from the viewer, his soft and blurred style creating a vagueness that is crucial for universal understanding.

AWDB Spotlight: ‘Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her’

A woman’s identity is shaped not only by her biological sex but also profoundly by social and cultural factors. As Simone de Beauvoir powerfully stated, “One is not born, but becomes a woman.” The group exhibition ‘Disobedient Bodies: Reclaiming Her’ features eight female artists from seven Asian countries—Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with James Prapaithong

AWDB speaks to James Prapaithong, a London-based Thai painter whose filmic works explore memory, isolation, and longing. For Condo London 2025 Prapaithong presents a duo exhibition with artist Pam Virada titled ‘Pillows’ presented by Nova Contemporary drawing from Yasujiro Ozu’s cinematic “pillow shots”.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Mella Jaarsma

AWDB speaks to Mella Jaarsma, a renowned Dutch artist based in Indonesia for the past 40 years recognised for her exploration of cultural and racial diversity. She works across various mediums, perhaps most notably within costume, performance, and food.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Yen Hui Teng

AWDB speaks with Yen Hui Teng, curator and manager at Singapore Art Museum (SAM) in light of the ongoing exhibition ‘Everyday Practices’. The exhibition showcases a diverse range of contemporary art from Southeast Asia, bringing together both older and recent acquisitions from the museum’s extensive collection across many mediums.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Moe Satt

AWDB spoke to Myanmar-born artist Moe Satt following his participation in the Bangkok Art Biennale 2024. During a three-day durational performance, he stayed inside a t-shirt, which was later cast and displayed as an installation. Throughout this process, the audience was invited to write their hopes and wishes for Myanmar on the shirt.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Pio Abad

AWDB speaks to Filipino-British artist Pio Abad following his Turner Prize 2024 nomination. His work centres on colonial histories and resulting cultural losses, particularly informed by his upbringing in the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Mulyana

AWDB speaks with Mulyana, an Indonesian artist who uses crochet across installation, costume, and sculpture to create fantastical marine worlds. Together with his alter ego MOGUS, his unique exploration of sea-life serves as a foundation for delving into broader artistic concepts.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Wyn-Lyn Tan

Art World Database speaks to Wyn-Lyn Tan about her practice and her current participation in TERRA II, a group exhibition set across historical buildings in Burgundy, France. Curated by Jenn Ellis and Emie Diamond, the featured artists are asked to consider the theme terroir, which is closely coupled with place and environments.

AWDB SPOTLIGHT: Interview with Khairulddin Wahab

AWDB speaks to Khairulddin Wahab, an artist from Singapore whose paintings explore cultural and colonial histories through the natural world. Sourcing archival and found images, his work aims to re-enchant nature against colonial classification of Southeast Asian environments.

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