Singapore Art Week puts women artists from the region to the fore

"It's going to be a big women's moment!"

"It is hard to generalise what the current situation is for women artists in Southeast Asia,"

"Countries with less institutional support or where censorship and conservative social norms persist tend to be more challenging for women artists. It also depends on the individual art practice and how provocative it is to the conservative and patriarchal home contexts."

Singapore Art Week features concentrated celebrations of Southeast Asian women artists, including the book You Are Seen: Women's Contemporary Art Practice in Southeast Asia and the Fear No Power exhibition at the National Gallery Singapore. Audrey Yeo and Yeo Workshop published You Are Seen and will present Indonesia's Citra Sasmita. The initiatives build on decades of efforts to recognize women artists while exposing varied regional conditions. Krystina Lyon notes that countries with limited institutional support, censorship, or conservative social norms present greater challenges, and that individual practices and provocation levels affect artists' reception. Conversations about gender and feminism are more evident than a decade ago.

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events