Art Stage Singapore Trumpets a Successful Debut

SINGAPORE—The first edition of Art Stage Singapore ended on Sunday and reported strong sales and a lively atmosphere, logging a total of 32,000 visitors who came to see contemporary artwork shown by 121 galleries from 26 countries. Fair director Lorenzo Rudolf — who helmed Art Basel from 1991 to 2000, founding Art Basel Miami Beach and later Shanghai's ShContemporary — said in a statement that "it was important that we created a quality fair with a strong Asian identity that would put Singapore on the art world's map."

Many prominent artists did indeed find Singapore on the map and attended the fair, including Takashi Murakami (whose "Snow Moon Flower" triptych sold for $2.2 million), Yoshitomo Nara, and David LaChapelle, whose show of photography at Sarthe Fine Art's booth sold out, according to dealer Pascal de Sarthe. "The art fair was at once global and intimate," LaChapelle said in the fair statement. "It did not intimidate like some art fairs can. It reminded me of the early days of the Sundance Film Festival when there was such optimism and Art Stage Singapore didn't make me feel like a whore either, like some art fairs can!"

Western art by well-known artists like LaChapelle was much sought-after work at the fair, though there was a definite Asian focus. An island nation and international finance center, Singapore is unusually diverse, with a population of Malay, Indian, and Chinese descent, and a large expatriate community of Americans, Europeans, and Australians. Other notable sales included Li Chen's four bronze sculptures of wind, fire, thunder, and rain from the "Soul Guardian" series, which sold for $480,000. Chen, who is based in Shanghai and Taiwan, is known for large-scale sculptures infused with Zen thought and spirituality. Russell Young's "Marilyn Crying, 'What Do I Wear in Bed, Why Chanel No. 5, of Course'" sold for $59,000, Geraldine Javier's "Three Dead Trees" went for $55,000, and Ranbir Kaleka's "Cul-de-Sac" was purchased for $54,000.

A space featuring eight Singaporean artists, "Remaking Art in the Everyday," also attracted collectors' interest. A piece by Jane Lee sold for $24,000, and her work also caught the eye of French collector Sylvain Levy.