Happy 2021!

Artemis Art wishes one and all a Happy New Year! Albeit about a couple weeks or so late, we thought that this would be a good opportunity to look back at 2021, and provide an idea of what you can look forward to from us in the year ahead. 

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that 2021 turned out to be a challenging year for pretty much everyone and every industry the world over. This certainly was true of the visual art industry, a year that many thought would see us emerging from the lows of 2020, only to be a further prolonging of difficulties (for a good chunk of the year, at least).

As most of you should be aware by now, Artemis Art decided to not run a brick and mortar gallery for the time being, after closing down our Publika space in early 2021. Instead, we made the decision to operate virtually online and through social media; physically as well through collaborations with galleries abroad and project-based activities. And so, it ended up being that 2021 was a fairly busy year for us.

Since a lot of what we did was, so to speak, “under the radar” of physical presence, we thought we would do a quick summary in this update. 

Our activities for 2021 essentially fell into one of three categories:

• • Art Fairs
  • Collaborations
  • Projects

Art Fairs 

While we didn’t do nearly as many art fairs as we did before the pandemic, we did participate in a handful, either directly or through collaborations.

Due to obvious travel restrictions, Artemis Art couldn’t be in Manila for Art Fair Philippines 2021, which was done on a hybrid basis, both online and with physical exhibitions held concurrently in participating galleries. And so we collaborated with Manila-based Mono8 Gallery to show works by Indonesian artist Taufik Ermas (as part of their All to the Present group showcase for the fair).

Artemis Art took part in a new segment called HERE/THERE, where our selection consisted of three Yogyakarta-based artists: Dedy Sufriadi, Jumaldi Alfi, and Taufik Ermas. Each had one artwork physically exhibited in Hong Kong, while the balance of works were exhibited virtually via our website. Visit our Art Central Hong Kong 2021 feature page for more details.

To cap off our 2021 art fair participation was Artemis Art’s debut in ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, where we featured a solo showing by emerging Indonesian visual artist Dedy Sufriadi. Our participation was a collaboration with fellow Malaysian gallery Richard Koh Fine Art, which feature a solo outing by Justin Lim. We couldn’t attend this one in person either, but instead manned it remotely with help from our deft assistant.

Exhibitions 

Although operating without a permanent space, Artemis Art continues to put together exhibitions for the artists that we show, consisting of online exhibitions as well as collaborations with galleries in the region. 

The first collaboration Artemis Art did for 2021 was with Julia Gallery in Taipei, Taiwan, where artist Dedy Sufriadi participated in a 3-artist group exhibition entitled “Flowing Text and Characters – The Sense of Sight Written to Painting“. Joining Dedy in this group exhibition were US-based Daniel Diaz-Tai and fellow Indonesian artist Eddy Susanto. The exhibition ran from March 6 to May 2, 2021, held at Julia Gallery’s space in Taipei.

Despite not being able to travel outside of Indonesia, Dedy Sufriadi had a busy 2021. The year the artist’s first solo exhibition, Tabula Rasa, held in Beijing, China from April 2 to May 9. Tabula Rasa featured a collection of recent works that provided a good survey of Dedy’s complete body of work, covering several style sets in the artist’s wide repertoire of contemporary abstracts. 

Meanwhile in the Philippines, artist Taufik Ermas has been gaining some attention from the art scene there through Artemis Art’s ongoing collaboration with Manila-based Mono8 Gallery. Taufik was one of the participating artists in their group exhibition Confluent Bearings, which took place from 7 – 27 July 2021, together with artists Atsuko Yamagata, Gabby Tiongson, Jomike Tejido, Iabdiou Piko, and Ros Johnson.

Closing out 2021 was another collaboration with a gallery in the Philippines, this time with Vinyl On Vinyl, with whom Artemis Art has collaborated several times before. Fragile Notions, a group exhibition that took place from November 20 to December 20, 2021, featured Dedy Sufriadi, Syahbandi Samat, and Taufik Ermas, alongside Filipino artist Gabriel Tiongson. 

Projects 

Another area that kept Artemis Art busy in 2021 was carrying out an exhibition project for Nando’s Malaysia. This was the second time we have been their gallery partner to put together Nando’s YOUthReka Expand Your PERi-meters, an exhibition celebrating their winners alumni for Nando’s Art Initiative competition, the first one being in 2019 (check out our Instagram account for more).

For Expand Your PERi-meters 2, a few things were done differently, the main difference being that the exhibition was a hybrid one, taking place both physically at WhiteBox, Publika, as well as virtually here on our website. This translated to the exhibition being better documented. The live exhibition took place from December 9 – 16, 2021, with the online/virtual exhibition happening concurrently but with an extended run until January 20, 2022. 

As much as the online experience of viewing art has improved over the years, nothing beats seeing art in person. Therefore, a hybrid exhibition allowed enthusiasts to view the artworks in person during the live cycle of the exhibition, allowing the exhibition an extended lease of life through the online presentation.

While the second iteration of Expand Your PERi-meters had a smaller number of participating artists, the range and quality of works seemed a step above the first time around. Expand Your PERi-meters 2 featured digital artist Chew Song Kee’s solo, plus a group exhibition featuring April Wong, Freeda Jane Madius, Jimmy Teow Hai Way, Lim Si Ting, Nik Mohd Shahfiz, Ong Hieng Fuong, and SM Raja.

Artemis Art was more or less the one-stop outsource partner to produce this exhibition, beginning with artist management all the way to curatorial work and exhibition production. This was similar to the work done for the first Expand Your PERi-meters exhibition, with the added scope of producing promotional videos, social media engagement, and of course, designing, producing and hosting the online exhibition. While Nando’s Malaysia has made the decision to discontinue their annual art competition, they are still very much committed to the advancement of the arts, and we certainly look forward to having the privilege of once again working with them in future.

2022: New Year, New Challenges

Although movement restrictions due to the COVID19 pandemic have been relaxed somewhat, Artemis Art will continue to operate without a permanent space for the foreseeable future. Our experience in 2021 has proven that the current model of operations provides us with a level of flexibility that would not be possible if we had to maintain our own space. And as we had outlined, working as a virtual gallery didn’t mean we were any less busy!

Any new year brings with it new things to look forward to, and of course, new challenges. So what can enthusiasts expect from us this coming year? 

Our planned activities thus far consist of collaborative exhibitions and art fair participations. 

Art Fairs

While Manila continues to be a promising market for Artemis Art, due to ongoing international travel hassles, we will not have a direct presence in Art Fair Philippines again this year. Instead, we will be collaborating with Mono8 Gallery to present recent works by Indonesian artist Taufik Ermas. AFP 2021 is scheduled to take place February 23 to March 2 this year, very likely following the same hybrid online/physical model introduced in last year’s edition.

Closer to home, Artemis Art will be one of the participating galleries in Art For All, an initiative by Art Expo Malaysia that’s scheduled to be held 24 – 27 February at GMBB in Kuala Lumpur. We have an interesting line-up of artists planned, which will be announced as the fair approaches closer.

There are a few other art fairs for the year, and we’ll provide updates as to where and when these will be at a later date.

Exhibitions and Projects

As far as exhibitions are concerned, we already have a handful planned for at least the first half of 2022. The first is a collaboration between Artemis Art and Julia Gallery in Taipei, where young Indonesian artist Rangga A Putra joins two Taiwanese artists in a group exhibition entitled Aesthetic Images from Order to Reverse Order, taking place from January 20 to February 27. 

Domestically, among the artists we plan to show this year include Ajim Juxta and Kimberley Boudville, both of whom will be having solo exhibitions later this year. More details as the dates for these exhibitions come closer. 

But perhaps the highlight of our exhibition/project program for 2022 is the participation of Dedy Sufriadi in this year’s edition of Personal Structures in Venice, Italy, organized European Cultural Centre, taking place in parallel with the Venice Biennale, from April 23 all the way through November 27. We’re very excited with the prospect of having one of our artists take part! More details as we get closer to the start of this momentous exhibition event.