AGAS Presents: With the World: A Conversation with Singapore-Born Galleries

This talk was part of SEAspotlight Talks during S.E.A. Focus 2023. Click here to watch the recording of this talk online.

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Today, borders for exchange and communication are porous, if not already invisible. Art and artists flow freely between landscapes and cultures. At international art centres and institutions, dialogues on diversity and equality are very much alive. Galleries of Asian origin stand ever present, located as equal participants and contributors, influencing the tone of the global art arena. As Singapore takes focal point in the international visual arts calendar this January 2023, the panel presents positions and opinions of its leading market players.

Curated by Rita Targui, Director, STPI Gallery

Speakers

Guillaume Levy-Lambert, Co-founder, Art Porters Gallery

A serendipitous encounter with a painting in Los Angeles led Guillaume Levy-Lambert on a quest to understand and on a mission to spread art’s unique transformative power. Guillaume co-founded Art Porters Gallery with a mission of sharing happiness with art. The gallery’s focus is on emerging and mid-career artists from South-East Asia.

A conceptual artist, Guillaume is also the co-founder of The MaGMA Collection and of Art Porters Gallery.

Stephanie Fong, Founder, FOST Gallery

Stephanie Fong is owner of the eponymous FOST Gallery. The gallery name bears the combination of the first two letters of her name. She was trained as a lawyer but found her interests really lay in the arts. Armed with a Masters in art history, she established FOST Gallery in 2006 and from the outset, was committed to showing artists whose works reflect our time and place. Her aim then, as it is now, was to showcase contemporary art from around the world with a special focus on artists based in Singapore.

Jasdeep Sandhu, Founder, Gajah Gallery

Jasdeep Sandhu founded Gajah Gallery in 1996, the Yogya Art Lab (YAL) in 2012, and a third exhibition space in Jakarta in 2022, based on his dedication to promoting artists from the region and highlighting their international relevance.

Can Yavuz, Founder & Director, Yavuz Gallery

Can Yavuz is the founder and Director of Yavuz Gallery. Born in 1972 in Turkey, Yavuz grew up in Germany and obtained a degree in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. His first corporate job relocated him to Asia in 1999. Fascinated by the artistic voices in the region, he started collecting Southeast Asian Art. In 2010 he opened his first commercial gallery space in Singapore followed by a second gallery in Sydney, Australia in 2019.

Moderator

Khai Hori, Director & Partner, Chan + Hori Contemporary

Khai Hori is a contemporary art curator with extensive experience in independent, institutional, and corporate arenas. He is currently Director and Partner of Chan + Hori Contemporary, a contemporary art curatorial consultancy in Singapore. His past roles include Deputy Director of Artistic Programming at Palais de Tokyo, Paris and Senior Curator at the Singapore Art Museum and National Heritage Board Singapore, overseeing Singapore’s national collection for contemporary art and curatorial programmes.