Singapore Visual Artists is a comprehensive repository that celebrates the work and achievement of artists whose passion and creativity have captured, contextualised and re-imagined the rich cultural past, present and future of Singapore. The directory profiles living artists across different generations and various visual art practices—drawing, painting, print, sculpture, moving image, photography and performance art.
Packaged as a collector's edition, and served as a promotional tool in generating higher visibility for Singaporean artists, it is also positioned as an accessible point of entry for audience home and abroad, as well as the general public to provide an introductory understanding of the local art industry. Accompanying the publication will be two essays that help to frame the artists’ profiles in the context of the visual arts development in Singapore.
The publication is to: —use an organisational ring folder. Pages now are encouraged to be taken out for educational and curatorial research purposes; —enable reader easy forward and backwards reference; and design a tab system to differentiate individual sections. Commissioned by the National Arts Council of Singapore and launched by Minister for Culture, Community & Youth, Ms Grace Fu, on 22 January 2016 in conjunction with the 20th-anniversary celebrations of the Singapore Art Museum. The National Arts Council was established in September 1991 to nurture the arts and make it an integral part of life in Singapore.
The 600 pages, 2-kilogramme publication chronicles over 280 local artists and their representative works, indexed by their main art forms. A neutral and unobtrusive design were developed to complement the many different artworks featured in the directory. With the pared-down design, an emphasis was placed on textures, layers and tactility. The traditional ring-binder was reimagined in a contemporary manner, utilising unconventional materials; a clear, glossy and flexile PVC was selected for the cover, creating an interesting contrast to the cold steel rings and the warm textured oatmeal-coloured paper. The design which each page has an individually written number, lends an intuitive structure that aids the viewers in accessing necessary information without drawing attention away from the artworks. written number, lends an intuitive structure that aids the viewers in accessing necessary information without drawing attention away from the artworks.
