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...

Dear friends and colleagues

I really like Balinese food: it is much spicier than other food in the region, but it did for me this time, which is why I am sending this missive a week late.

I was making a brief visit to Bali prior to going to Jogja, and before my digestive system was so outraged, I managed to make two good studio...

Dear friends and colleagues

A long time ago… well twenty six years ago, to be exact, I was in Paris. I had been sent by Art in America to review what seemed a very interesting show at Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The director of ARC, Suzanne Pagé had just been made director of the museum and had asked a number of artists to make site-specific works in response to the...

Dear friends and colleagues

Periodically whilst I have been teaching an introduction to contemporary art at Ateneo University I wander into their gallery. What interests me most is an exhibition of modern Filipino prints on show. The highlight is a wall of prints by Fernando Zobel from the Fifties. It was he who effectively founded the musuem by donating works both by himself and...

Dear friends and colleagues

Quite clearly, I will never be a journalist when I grow up!

As you may recollect I promised to talk about the show at ARK gallery in Jogja by Freddie and Isabel Aquilizan, but I neglected to take proper photographs!

I have a snap of the private view from...

Dear friends and colleagues

Art Jog. We call it an art fair, but it is really a salon, like the Royal Academy Summer Show. If that sounds stuffy – and it probably does – let’s call it an annual art fair run by artists instead. There are no gallerists in nice suits or black dresses waiting in booths to sell you things. It is always a mix of old and young, established and “upcoming”...

Dear friends and colleagues

It has taken seven years, but I have finally done it: I went to JB.

JB is what we call Johor Baru the town just over the water from Singapore

I have known Zakii (Ahmad Zakii Anwar) who lives there for many years and have always been meaning to make the...