With 87 exhibitors from 16 countries, this year’s fair is the largest to date. And after seven years, it has also effectively shed its image as a small-town Singapore dealers’ event – it currently attracts more and better international galleries, and local galleries now total less than a third of the exhibitors. But despite delivering greater numbers of dealers, principally from Asia (the Korean representation is particularly noteworthy this year), ARTSingapore is still striving to establish a clear identity. While local marketing makes much of the fair’s smattering of ‘brand-name’ Western artists – like Andy Warhol, Fernando Botero, Sigmar Polke – organiser and director Chen Shen Po emphasises the event’s Asian bent, confirming that many galleries are stocking Chinese art in response to worldwide demand. Though Singapore is only half a day’s flight from Beijing, selling Chinese art outside of China nonetheless makes commercial sense, as Singapore provides a logistically friendly Asian buying environment to international collectors. ‘We are probably the only fair in Asia where the first language of business is English, so buying Chinese art in Singapore is easier for the non-Chinese than in China,’ Chen says. 

Potentially more unique to the fair than its Chinese representation is its South-East Asian selection. Regional art – particularly that of Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines – is now gaining recognition after being on the fringe of the global market, due to the popularity of Chinese and Indian art. As a result, Singapore, the region’s leading trading hub, offers an ideal platform for the group as a whole. Moreover, cultivating a specifically South-East Asian or Pacific-region identity – including hot but underrepresented Aboriginal paintings – will serve ARTSingapore well in the long term, as art fairs continue to set roots around Asia. ‘It is a chicken and egg situation,’ says Chen. ‘We would like to focus increasingly on art from the lessrepresented parts of Asia, but in order to focus more, we need to grow more first.’ 

Notwithstanding its still evolving identity, the fair is well worth visiting. Particular highlights include Melbourne’s Ballan & Pannan Galleries, which sell Aboriginal works; Hong Kong’s Osage Gallery, with its roster of avant-garde mainland talent; and Japan’s Gallery Marugame, which features Masaaki Matsuda’s eerie pieces. With $20 million worth of art on offer, anticipated sales of more than $5 million and a 25 per cent-larger exhibiting area, ARTSingapore is the place to be for art afi cionados the first weekend of the month.  ARTSingapore is at Suntec Singapore from 4 to 8 Oct.

Chinese artist Yue Minjun's 'Noah's Ark' pictured