Singapore’s S.E.A. Focus 2025 shows how Southeast Asian art is moving in a direction that prioritizes research and intellectual imagination
While the global art market continues to be dominated by Instagram-ready art fairs and what art market columnist Melanie Gerlis calls “the experience economy” in her 2021 book “The Art Fair Story: A Rollercoaster Ride,” Singapore’s S.E.A. Focus deliberately charts a different course. Though works are available for purchase, S.E.A. Focus explicitly rejects the art fair model in favor of something more ambitious: a curated platform for meaningful discourse about Southeast Asian contemporary art.
“Other than the fact that the works are for sale, it isn’t really much of a fair to begin with,” declares curator John Chung in an interview with Angela Chen, as he now curates S.E.A. Focus on his second year. “It really manifests as a large-scale exhibition, like a festival or Biennale.”
“Disconnected Contemporaries”
Running from Jan. 18 to 26 at 39 Keppel Rd, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, this year’s S.E.A. Focus “Disconnected Contemporaries” raises multiple questions on cultural relativism.
The selection of work stimulates examination of what it means to remove the typically strict distinction between what is “modern” and what is “contemporary” art—instead, following the changes that happened in Southeast Asia during the temporal shift these movements seem to indicate.
The exhibit itself was built in way that reflected the Southeast Asian nations, a curatorial choice meant to make visitors feel like they’re floating between islands, almost like an archipelago of ideas, mirroring the geographic reality of the region it represents, and emphasizing its role as a serious cultural platform rather than a marketplace.
S.E.A. Focus 2025 reflects a marked shift in Southeast Asian artistic practice over the past decade. “Southeast Asian artists have become a lot more research-oriented,” Chung notes. “Artists are very cognizant of their place in the world and how they can be very important voices in terms of shaping ideas, perspectives, correcting the areas of history… redirecting attention to environmental issues, social political issues, and economic issues as well.”
Artists who challenge boundaries
This multi-layered, research-driven approach is evident in several presentations.
As visitors navigate the space, they’ll encounter multiple thought-provoking works, such as Lin Aojie’s map, which challenges traditional definitions of Southeast Asia. The Chinese artist, while not Southeast Asian, raises important questions about regionalization and the supposed artificial nature of political boundaries.
Chung cites an interesting concept that questions the political and economic ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) union, “What if we were to think about this geographically or historically? What if we were to do archeology and try to find the connections that the peoples of the region had with one another? If we were to examine the flora and fauna in these cases, would we get the exact same land masses, land areas, and localities that ASEAN constitutes as ‘Southeast Asia?’”
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Visitors will come across Thai artist Dusadee Huntrakul’s archaeological-inspired ceramics, which blur the lines between past and present, incorporating pop culture references alongside traditional forms. His “Universe in the Garden” series, comprising 156 photographs of insects from his backyard, speaks to our connection with other living forms—a project born during COVID lockdowns.
The rebellious spirit of S.E.A. Focus that goes beyond what is “modern” or “contemporary” shows is in 83-year-old artist Wong Keen’s work, whose installation combines traditional rice paper with modern industrial materials. “The contemporary is now,” Keen declared in an interview, demonstrating how tradition and innovation can coexist in meaningful dialogue.
Indonesian photographer Agan Harahap’s “The Border Line,” takes the form of an artist’s book, challenging conventional hierarchies of art objects while exploring colonial narratives of the “beautiful indies”—yet another example of how S.E.A. Focus privileges productive, imaginative and highly research-based discourse, over commercial concerns.
Filipino representation
For S.E.A. Focus 2025, Philippine art is represented by the returning Silverlens and Artinformal galleries.
Silverlens presents work of aunt and nephew, diaspora artists Pacita and Pio Abad. Pacita features her prints, which were serendipitously produced during a past 2003 residency with STPI in Singapore, before her passing in 2004. At present, Pacita’s works are currently being exhibited in a traveling retrospective now on its last leg in Toronto, Canada. Complementing Pacita’s works are detailed ink-on-paper drawings by Turner Prize-nominated artist Pio Abad, now based in London, England.
“The works (of Pacita Abad) chronicle a certain connection with Singapore, all made on STPI paper during her residency here. Now under the stewardship of Pio and presented by Silverlens, I think this speaks to the relationships that we have in the region—no country operates as an island. We’re all connected to one another.”
Meanwhile, Filipino artists Nice Buenaventura, Costantino Zicarelli, and Lui Medina explore what Chung calls “the tropical imaginary” through a post-colonial lens.
In an Instagram post by S.E.A. Focus, Buenaventura is said to present her processes of drawing, painting, and installation through processes that “revolve around the offloading of tensions, often between ethics and aesthetics.” Meanwhile, Zicarelli’s mise-en-scènes create works that “visually references the traditional gallery aesthetic while establishing a personal narrative.” Lastly, through geologic and geographical forms, Lui Medina “continues to interrogate form and figure using landscapes as framework.”
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As Southeast Asian art continues to grow in all directions of creativity and imaginative intelligence, S.E.A. Focus in Singapore too continues to serve as a crucial platform for better understanding these shifts.
By bringing together works from across the region under one roof, it offers what Chung describes as “an opportunity for all of the artists and all of the artworks to be consolidated and seen in one place together,” creating a space where ideas, rather than sales, take center stage.
S.E.A. Focus 2025 runs from Jan. 18 to 26, at 39 Keppel Road, Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Tickets are on sale at SGD10 each and is valid for multiple entries.