EY Asean Art Outreach

Transcription

1 EY Asean Art Outreach Currents A moving landscape Presented by Sivilay Souvannasing

2 Sunrise by the Mekong II (detail) full image on page 24

3 About Sivilay Souvannasing Sivilay Souvannasing is a Lao contemporary artist recognized for his articulate and unrestrained painterly expression. As a native from the Southern province of Savannakhet, Sivilay spent his formative years within a close-knit agricultural community before relocating to the city to pursue his tertiary education at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Vientiane. Graduating at the top of his class, Sivilay is currently at the forefront of the country s emerging art scene where he continues to push the boundaries of convention and definition in his art practice. Informed by his own keen observations and personal experiences as constant sources of inspiration and agitation, Sivilay confronts his concerns arising from the ongoing changes in the physical and social landscapes of Laos through his oeuvre of paintings. It can be noted that his most recent body of work demonstrates a critical breakthrough and departure from representational paintings in the traditional sense, which sets him apart from his peers with his newfound creative freedom. To date, the artist has held many regional exhibitions in Laos, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, and his works are collected internationally by both institutions and private collectors, including the National Gallery Singapore and the United Nations Development Program in Vientiane. When I paint, I am my most authentic and free self. My emotions are found on the canvas. In my abstract paintings, the choice of colors, brush strokes and composition become my voice. 1

4 Foreword Max Loh 3 Introduction to the exhibition 5 About the artist and his works 6 Artworks 8 Index of artworks 30 Biography 32 The write-ups on the artist expressed in this catalog are that of the writer s own views and do not necessarily reflect the views of members of the global EY organization. Published in conjunction with the exhibition: Currents A moving landscape. Urban rhythm I (detail) full image on page 10 Designed and produced by: Ernst & Young Solutions LLP One Raffles Quay, North Tower, Level 18, Singapore Phone: Fax:

5 We are pleased to present the 21st EY Asean Art Outreach program, featuring Sivilay Souvannasing, a contemporary artist from Laos. In this latest exhibition titled Currents A moving landscape, the artist showcases 20 of his paintings that encapsulate the rapid transformation, environmental degradation as well as the growing cultural tensions in Laos. Born in Savannakhet Province, Sivilay graduated from the National Institute of Fine Arts, Vientiane in 1977, where he also received the top graduate student prize. Foreword, Max Loh EY started the Asean Art Outreach in 2007 as part of the firm s corporate social responsibility program. The program provides a platform for artistic talents in the region to display their works in our office gallery. With the aim of encouraging and supporting these young talents, it also provides an opportunity for our clients, staff, and the public to appreciate the vibrant art scene here in Southeast Asia. These series of exhibitions are held once every four to five months and features different artists from the Asean region including artists from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam. Proceeds from the sale of works will not only help the artists, but a portion will also be set aside to benefit charitable causes. Through our established position in the business community and our efforts in this outreach program, we hope to bring art closer to our network of clients and friends as well as connect us to business and government leaders in our communities. I hope you will enjoy Sivilay s works as much as we did in bringing this exhibition to you. Max Loh Managing Partner, Asean and Singapore 3

6 4 Reflections (detail) full image on page 29

7 Introduction to the exhibition Tian Qiuyan and Michelle Chan, Art Loft Asia In Currents A moving landscape, Lao contemporary painter Sivilay Souvannasing invites us into a visual and visceral feast of his most recent body of work. These abstract oil paintings are a manifestation of the artist s deep-seated interest and preoccupation with his country s rapid urban transformation, environmental degradation and growing cultural tensions. Boldly turning away from the prosaic depictions of figurative cultural settings and landscapes, his current approach to painting is a process-driven one and sets the stage for the artist to respond to the world around him through his highly charged brushwork on canvas. Within a local context, it is an unprecedented move for a Lao painter to leave behind the widely practiced narrative approach to painting as a means of artistic expression and critique. Through his deft mark-marking techniques and the use of emotive color fields, Sivilay s final paintings capture a deliberate and layered execution of addition and subtraction through his intimate and contemplative involvement with the medium. There is a sense of boldness and liberation in the way the artist spontaneously builds up layers over the canvas and then at times agitates, strips and removes the paint to reveal what lies beneath. This allows the artist to explore the dynamics of control and chaos that is instigated by the effects of urbanization and a growing alienation toward the natural environment. Since our early encounter and collaboration with Sivilay at Art Loft Asia several years ago, we have never failed to be fascinated by his innate raw talent and artistic maturity. Through the initiative of EY Asean Art Outreach, we are immensely thrilled for the artist to present this significant chapter in his creative journey to a wider audience. We hope that you enjoy Currents A moving landscape with an open and unhurried frame of mind, but more importantly, find that personal moment of connection. EY is very grateful to: Ms Tian Qiuyan and Ms. Michelle Chan, Art Loft Asia for introducing Sivilay Souvannasing to us and for their curatorial review 5

8 About the artist and his works Michael KM Chan Living in the Lao People s Democratic Republic where change is undeniably on the heels of the country s economic and social reform, Sivilay Souvannasing is a Lao contemporary artist who keenly observes and responds to the world around him through his paintings. He challenges and distills the potential of painting as a way to navigate the tension between the resistance and acceptance of change found in his country. As an artist, he renders an insightful maturity and complexity to his work unsurpassed by his peers. Sivilay finds the connection between self, the medium of paint and the canvas to be a compulsive and intuitive one. Growing up within a farming community in Southern Laos, Sivilay reveals in an interview that from a young age he would paint and draw on any surface like walls, table, chairs, and used materials like clay and wood to create objects. His father had recognized his passion and talent, and encouraged him to enroll in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Vientiane. Sivilay received formal training in Fine Arts and graduated at the top of his cohort. At present, Sivilay stands as one of the most recognized Lao contemporary painters of his generation and it would be important to give his work some explanation of its context and relevance. During his early career, Sivilay often cites May Chandavong and Picasso as key figures that have influenced his artistic style and approach towards painting. In 2010, he produced a notable body of work presented at a solo exhibition Layered brilliance where the Champa flower, Lao s national flower, was consistently improvised as a way of composing his paintings into a sea of complex imagery. The flower s outline and unfolding petals provided a guideline for him to paint on the canvas, and within them these paintings gave the audience fragmented glimpses of the everyday life in Laos. Distorted scenes from the urban city and the tranquil countryside melded together as a witty response towards what he observes and feels is happening to Lao culture. Layered brilliance also demonstrated the critical mind of the artist and his penchant for social satire and commentary. Shortly, Sivilay was invited to explore a new project during an eight-week artist residency with M Gallery in Singapore. This led to a fuller development with his solo exhibition Emotions in 2012 where his experience in Singapore fueled his existing concerns on urbanization and alienation from the natural environment. The final paintings formed a series of urban landscapes treated with a looser painterly style and softer color palette, illustrating the city as a place that is Golden plains II (detail) full image on page 22 6

9 almost dream-like, utopian and on the move. In this body of work, it can also be noted that the artist revisited his treatment of space, restricting the outlines and form of his urban subject matters to only isolated areas on the canvas. At the same time, the artist refrained from leaving a prescribed narrative in his paintings, allowing more room for the audience and himself to explore and interpret the paintings as receptacles for meaning. This development to intentionally leave out a strong narrative voice is an exceptional choice for a Lao contemporary painter. He remains an enigma and a rising star in the emerging Lao art scene for straying away from the conventions of painting that is widely deemed acceptable. In Currents A moving landscape, the artist gives us full disclosure of his most recent breakthrough after recent years of exploring gestural abstraction to develop a more introspective practice. He has developed a new language for himself to express his on-going struggles over an altering urban condition and its fragile coexistence with nature. In this latest body of work, the artist discards representation completely and focuses on the process of painting itself as a physical event that is captured in time. We are drawn instead into the artist s exploration of how to paint rather than the what. In a way, this process-driven approach of spontaneity allows the artist to push the materiality of paint as a means to demonstrate and encapsulate the energy of control and chaos, which he deems is a far more liberating approach than that of the pictorial. The final paintings themselves are objects oscillating between the process of creation and destruction, with its unpredictable summation of paint whereby the artist compulsively builds up layers and then at times strips them away to reveal hidden textures and patterns. Through this physical engagement with the canvas and the medium, Sivilay works across varying scales of canvas to create a series of abstract landscapes charged with flowing energy and reverberation. In some ways, these works have managed to capture the essence of the transitory nature of a country in flux, and in a broader sense, the serendipitous nature of life. It leaves little room to say that Currents A moving landscape represents some of Sivilay s most resolved work to date with its exquisite balance and harmony. As an artist with an exclusive voice and deeply personal point of view, we look forward to more compelling works from Sivilay in his endeavor to test boundaries and cast new meaning to how we view world around us. With its social and cultural significance, his works are found in the collections of international private and corporate clients, as well as institutions including the National Gallery Singapore and United Nations Development Program. 7

10 8 Winds of change I (detail) full image on page 14

11 Currents A moving landscape Artworks by Sivilay Souvannasing 9

12 001 Urban rhythm x 100 cm 10

13 Urban rhythm II 100 x 100 cm

14 Serenity 100 x 100 cm

15 Breaking new ground 130 x 130 cm

16 005 Winds of change I 130 x 130 cm 14

17 Winds of change II 130 x 130 cm

18 007 Winds of change III 80 x 60 cm 16

19 Utopian Dream I 100 x 80 cm

20 009 Utopian Dream II 100 x 80 cm 18

21 Horizon 80 x 60 cm

22 Hope 130 x 115 cm

23 Golden plains I 130 x 130 cm

24 013 Golden plains II 130 x 130 cm 22

25 Sunrise by the Mekong I 100 x 80 cm

26 015 Sunrise by the Mekong II 100 x 80 cm 24

27 Flight 200 x 200 cm

28 Paradise 100 x 100 cm

29 Encounter 130 x 130 cm

30 Bloom 100 x 80 cm

31 Reflections 130 x 130 cm

32 30 Hope (detail) full image on page 20

33 Index of artworks 001 Urban rhythm I 100 x 100 cm 008 Utopian Dream I 100 x 80 cm 015 Sunrise by the Mekong II 100 x 80 cm 002 Urban rhythm II 100 x 100 cm 009 Utopian Dream II 100 x 80 cm 016 Flight 200 x 200 cm 003 Serenity 100 x 100 cm 010 Horizon 80 x 60 cm 017 Paradise 100 x 100 cm 004 Breaking new ground 130 x 130 cm 011 Hope 130 x 115 cm 018 Encounter 130 x 130 cm 005 Winds of change I 130 x 130 cm 012 Golden plains I 130 x 130 cm 019 Bloom 100 x 80 cm 006 Winds of change II 130 x 130 cm 013 Golden plains II 130 x 130 cm 020 Reflections 130 x 130 cm 007 Winds of change III 80 x 60 cm 014 Sunrise by the Mekong I 100 x 80 cm 31

34 Sivilay Souvannasing 1983 Born in Savannakhet Province, Lao People s Democratic Republic Education 2006 Graduated in Painting, National Institute of Fine Arts, Savannakhet 2010 Graduated in Painting, National Institute of Fine Arts, Vientiane Solo exhibitions 2012 Emotions, M Gallery Singapore 2010 Layered brilliance, M Gallery Singapore Selected group exhibitions Art of Asean Our exhibition, Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Art exhibition at National institute of Fine Arts, Vientiane 2014 Mosaic: A Lao art collective, M Gallery Vientiane We are Lao: Contemporary art in Lao Today, Art Trove in collaboration with M Gallery Singapore A joint exhibition by Lao and Thai artists, National Institute of Fine Arts, Vientiane 2013 Motives and movements, organized by Embassy of the Republic of Philippines at M Gallery, Vientiane 2012 The lure of Mekong, M Gallery Singapore Asean art exhibition, South Thailand 2011 Group exhibition, Mask Gallery Vientiane Crosswinds: An exhibition upon completion of an eight weeks residency in Singapore, M Gallery Singapore Voices, M Gallery Singapore 2010 Transition, M Gallery, Singapore Back to Lao history, ITEC Vientiane A different outlook: Life Amidst UXO, Cultural Hall Vientiane 2009 Lao contemporary art exhibition, Mask Gallery Vientiane Contemporary art exhibition, M Gallery, Vientiane, Singapore Awards 2011 Top graduate student prize at National Institute of Fine Arts, Vientiane Collections National Gallery Singapore United Nations Development Program, Vientiane A traveling group exhibition by Lao and Vietnamese artists held in Hanoi and Vientiane Horizon (detail) full image on page 19 32

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