Dear friends and colleagues

Last Friday I went to Mo Space in Manila. I wanted to see the show by Nilo Ilarde and, of course, chat to my friend Mawen Ong who runs the space.

Ten or fifteen years ago there were quite a few alternative spaces in Manila. The market was very conservative and the commercial galleries were unadventurous. So, the...

Dear friends and colleagues

Many apologies for the delay in writing this week

After a long period of writing in the hills I came up to Manila and am busying myself doing gallery and studio visits. Yesterday I went to the retrospective of the most famous, or certainly the most popular, artist in the Philippines Bencab at the Metropolitan...

Dear friends and colleagues

I’ve been in bed with a fever the last week so I haven’t been out much.

Of course, I have been thinking and remembering things, but as is normal when one is ill, in a rather discontinuous and inconclusive way.

One thing I was thinking of was an exhibition...

Dear friends and colleagues

I have been taking a lot of my books out of storage, unpacking them and shelving them in my new library. Amongst them was the catalogue for the first Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art held in Brisbane in 1993.

Many participants, especially the critics and curators from South-East Asia, have talked of...

Dear friends and colleagues

Apropos last week’s letter in which I talked about the lack of an extended audience for culture, and specifically contemporary art in Singapore an old friend the New York artist Stephen Ellis responded, ‘That’s quite interesting, Tony. The Asian percentage of students at SVA [Studio of Visual Arts, New York] these days is about 40%, some classes are entirely...

Dear friends and colleagues

I want to talk about a paucity of literary culture.

Bangsa membaca adalah Bangsa berjaya.

When I was in London last month and travelling on the tube I noticed how many people were reading either books, magazines or newspapers. If you look at the snap I took...

Dear friends and colleagues

On Friday I went to the opening of Sunaryo’s sculpture garden Wot Batu in Bandung. You may remember I talked of this being built in Letter 13. But, alas, I cannot tell you about the opening, the performance, the food or the party as my plane was delayed by over four hours and I missed them all. I can tell you that half a pint of beer costs 12SGD (c. £5.50) in...

Dear friends and colleagues.

Aargh I am not in the groove yet after my break and neglected to send this on time! Apologies!

The Venice Biennale is the great show place – the market place even – where nations can display their art. It is where an artist can launch an international career or confirm one already started. Were, you may...

Dear friends and colleagues.

When I got back from a month in Europe, Geraldine Javier showed me her most recent painting. It’s not going to be shown in a gallery but be sent directly for sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. Why is she, like many other artists in Asia, doing this? No-one in Europe does this. But first let’s say something about the...

Dear friends and colleagues

I think I have surprised myself doing thirty of these letters week after week. Granted three have arrived late in your letter box, including XXIX which comes at the same time as this, but otherwise I have maintained the discipline.

But I am flying to London next Sunday and staying there for three or four weeks...