Dear friends and colleagues

I have to admit I remain somewhat bemused.

Talking to artist friends in the Philippines recently they all remarked how rarely curators and critics make studio visits to them.

This is not the first time I have heard this complaint. When I first came to...

Dear friends and colleagues

The Art Fair Philippines has only been running since 2013. Dissatisfied with other fairs in the country, three young collectors (Trickie Lopa, Dindin Araneta and Lisa Periquet) set out to make something that was both more selective and much cooler. The first thing you would notice when entering their fair is that it is in a multi-story car park, the second that on...

Dear friends and colleagues

As I said last Tuesday, I want to talk about three artist’s projects, including one I curated and one I am appearing in.

Firstly, two suggestions or observations.

One, that in an area with very little state support for art and where collectors are generally...

Dear friends and colleagues

My friends in Indonesia and the Philippines tend to be dismissive of Singaporean artists, believing them to lack passion and to be unduly molly coddled with residencies and Arts Council grants. That isn’t fair: there are several interesting and serious artists in Singapore. Singapore is a very strange place, and as a supposed model of the technocratic future...

“You’re going to Bali?”

“Yes.”

‘Weren’t you there last year too?

“Yes, twice.”

“You lucky bastard. I’d love a holiday in the sun like that.”

Dear friends...

“…after the pope visit.’

Dear friends and colleagues

Once when I worked in Sotheby’s I asked one of my colleagues there what his favourite city in the world was. He was a well-travelled man with a real love of art and I expected him to say, “Venice,” or “Paris,” or “Salzburg.”...

Dear friends and colleagues

I am in Malaysia, but only in spirit. In reality I am still looking at the same mountain in the Philippines as last week and the same laptop, still writing the same book. As you can see from the snap, the mountain is always changing, clouds or mist blowing over and round it, its colours changing with the...

Dear friends and colleagues

I had hoped to send a report of a reunion meeting of the SBW (Surrounded By Water) group. But with the pressure of Christmas and the New Year that has been postponed. Therefore, the most notable things I have looked at this last week are the mountain opposite where I am staying in the Philippines and my laptop as I try and write. I attach a snap of the mountain but...

Dear friends and colleagues

It has for a long time irritated me that the art magazines publish so little on art in South-East Asia where I now live. As they seem uninterested in running regular reviews or articles it seems the best I can do is, starting from today, send a weekly report. There are many good artists here that deserve some...