Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is proud to present “RICHARD KOH FINE ART & ARNDT PRESENTS”. The exhibition will feature few giants of the international contemporary art scene: Sophie Calle from France, Gilbert & George (born in Italy and the United Kingdom respectively), Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn, native New Yorker George Condo, Brazilian Vik Muniz and Belgian Wim Delvoye. “RICHARD KOH FINE ART & ARNDT PRESENTS” will be on at our gallery from 10-31 Jan 2012.
Having previously been invited to exhibit in some of the most important institutions in the world including Guggenheim, MoMA, and the Whitney Museum in the USD, Tate Modern and the Hayward Gallery in the UK, and other public museums, these artists and their work will be familiar to most. Delvoye was a favorite at the inaugural ArtStage Singapore with a gothic architecture-inspired crowd pleaser on display, Calle has made headlines over the years, Condo secures new followers even as times change, intertwining the topics of art history and creative practice – as does Vik Muniz. Hirschhorn remains true to his own (rickety) track and Gilbert & George, of course, offer the wonder of a profound artists collaboration ongoing for more than forty years.
More notably, the exhibition will feature works from iconic shows: e.g. Gilbert & George’s illustrious and perhaps legendary 2009 ‘Jack Freak Pictures’ in Berlin and Paris. Sophie Calle’s critically acclaimed 2007 Venice Biennale ‘Prenez soin de Vous’ (Take Care of Yourself) series.
‘Jack Freak Pictures’ take their place in the collected works for Gilbert & George as both massive consolidation of the theme and feelings, which they have explored in their art for over forty years. In his essay published in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition the British writer Michael Bracewell describes these pictures as “the most iconic, philosophically astute and visually violent works that Gilbert & George have ever created…”
‘Prenez soin de Vous’ is the final sentence of a break-up email that Calle received in June 2004 and never answered. She feels that this awkwardly written, unspontaneous text is entirely characteristic of the way men write letters to women, and asked other women to analyze it according to their specific expertise, 107 women in total. They include a criminologist, a clairvoyant, a diplomat, etc. Each woman contributes to this co-creation by scrutinizing, deconstructing and dissecting the text. By translating the women’s interpretations into 3-dimensional space, the artist plays down the work’s cerebral side and accentuates its playfulness, thus creating a vivid aesthetic object.
This is a diverse group with work ranging from conceptual art to experiments in painting, yet these artists are all of similar standing, watched for their impact on the current day. Their art is viewed not only as individual pieces, but also in the context of their careers and creative outputs up to now, as well as the context they are created and shown within, respective to markets, trends and the activities of the artists’ peers. For a Singapore and Asia based audience, local access to a private showing of pieces from these seven artists is an extremely special opportunity to which only international travel to the most popular fairs, biennales and blockbusters can come close. Indeed for the moving circle of contemporary art watchers an exhibition of this kind of selection, in conjunction with a major fair, is the very reason for their travel to the island - established artists on show in a new environment to fresh eyes, their art to be experienced all over again with potential to spark continued appreciation, conversation and inspiration.
