STPI: 10 years on and still going strong
PUBLISHED May 14th, 2012 01:15 pm | UPDATED May 9th, 2018 03:13 am
Birthday wishes are in order for the Singapore Tyler Print Institute who are celebrating their 10th anniversary. With the arts scene in Singapore changing at a dramatic rate – a myriad of galleries have popped up in the last two years alone – this makes STPI somewhat of a veteran of the arts scene, well in Singapore terms anyway.
During the last decade STPI has produced critically and commercially successful residencies and exhibitions, reinvigorated the practice of established artists and developed the careers of young, promising Asian artists and broken new grounds all-round.
And if that’s not enough to make you sit up and listen, then here this – Â The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York recently acquired STPI’s collaborative new works with leading artists Do Ho Suh (New York/Seoul/London) and Shambhavi Singh (New Delhi). In March this year STPI became the first gallery from South East Asia to present work by Singaporean artists Heman Chong and Ho Tzu Nyen at the prestigious Armory Show in New York (NY). Not content with pushing boundaries right here in Singapore, they are very much playing on the international field as well.
And what better way to celebrate all these wonderful achievements than with an anniversary exhibition. ‘STPI 10 Years: Celebrating the Art of Collaboration’ running from 12 May – 30 June pulls together an impressive collection of works from its own collections tracing its fascinating journey from its inception under Master Printmaker Kenneth E. Tyler to collaborations with Modern Art Masters: Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, David Hockney and Claes Oldenburg alongside works by STPI’s resident artists Heman Chong, Lin Tianmiao, Qiu Zhijie, Tabaimo and Thukral & Tagra, pivotal figures – who are shaping contemporary art in Asia and beyond.
The exhibition will give art lovers the chance to trace artistic developments and innovations in the field of printmaking and take in editioned prints, paper pulp works, artists’ books and object-based prints by significant artists of our time. Having had the opportunity to walk through the exhibition on the opening night, I was blown away by just how innovative many of these works were. It was impressive to see the fusing in of different media with the prints – for example…sculpture as demonstrated by this work by Claes Oldenberg – Profile Airflow – where a polyurethane cast relief  is used over a two-color lithograph to achieve this impressive  swimming pool-like effect…
Another work which caught my attention was this one by Robert Rauschenberg – Booster – which combines a life-sized X-ray portrait of himself combined with an astrological chart, magazine images of athletes, power drills and a chair. At the time of making in 1967 it was deemed to be the largest and most technically sophisticated print ever produced.
In work by acclaimed Indian artists Thukral & Tagra – Home Delivery – which takes a pop on fast food culture and globalization, at the heart of the piece is an inbuilt ‘mechanised acrylic structure’ which produces a playful animation effect on its surface but a message about the fast pace of our worlds behind it.
Finally, there is something disconcerting yet alluring about this work by Japanese artist Tabaimo which reeled me in. She uses layers upon layers of paper to build up layers upon layers of stories which lay embedded in textured paper, with the human nervous system having an important part to play in the inspiration for her work.
There are many, many more remarkable works like these on display as part of this exhibition. It’s a fantastic reflection of the vital role STPI has had to play on the Singapore art scene – by bringing in bot internationally revered and emerging artists alike for residencies and exhibitions. So let’s pay tribute to STPI and join them in celebrating their achievements laid out in this wonderful exhibition.
STPI 10 Years: Celebrating the Art of Collaboration runs from 12 May – 30 June at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 40 Robertson Quay, 238236. Open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am -6pm. For more information see their website here.
Written by Ms Demeanour
