Offsite Past Exhibitions
Laudi Abilama's 'Transformational Leaders'
03/09/2017 to 08/09/2017
‘Transformational Leaders’ features paintings by artist Laudi Abilama of Lee Kuan Yew, King Hussein of Jordan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Mikhail Gorbachev, King Bhumibol the Great, Charles De Gaulle, Zhou Enlai, Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, John Paul II, Aga Khan IV and Winston Churchill.
It is now clear that ageing is the biggest risk factor for a variety of diseases that together deprive life quality as people get older and are increasing health care costs in Singapore (and around the world). In fact, ageing will likely be the single most important medical issue of this century. By finding strategies to slow ageing, it will be possible to keep people healthy and functional longer. NUS Medicine seeks to accomplish this goal through recruitment of experts in the biology of ageing, world class research to understand the ageing process and first-of-their-kind clinical trials to mitigate human ageing and treat age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. For three millennia, people have been trying to slow ageing and it is now the era where this can be accomplished.
The exhibition space has been kindly donated in support of this charitable fund raising by the Fullerton Hotel.
Metamorphoses in the lens of Middle-Eastern Artists at Alliance Française of Singapore
15/03/2016 - 16/04/2016
For this exhibition celebrating Francophonie, Alliance française is partnering with Sana Gallery, Asia's first contemporary Middle Eastern art gallery located in Singapore.
The group exhibition, which runs from 15 March – 16 April 2016, showcases the work of four photographers whose influences are linked to the Francophonie, because of their origins or of their careers that have led them to live and work in France.
Because their scope of work are radically different from one another, they celebrate and show the same Francophonie as the one that Alliance française and its partners for the Festival de la Francophonie 2016 are promoting: a culture that is plural, aware of and adapting to its environment, and that calls on universal values even if geographically embedded in different countries around the world.
Thaer Maarouf and Jason Paul Tecson in Manila- Light and Space Gallery
27/06/2015 to 28/10/2015
Light & Space Contemporary, in collaboration with Sana Gallery, is pleased to present Zones of Displacement, a two-man exhibition of works by Thaer Maarouf and Jason Paul Tecson. The works in this exhibition explore themes of history, politics and landscape in relation to the artists' origins.
Thaer Maarouf (b.1972 in Shahba, Syria) strategically uses symbolism in his paintings to highlight human rights issues in the Middle East, as well as the conditions of the displaced populations affected by the regional upheaval in the Levant. Maarouf holds a Master’s degree in fine arts from the Lebanese University in Beirut, Lebanon. His work has been featured at several collective exhibits in Lebanon, Syria and France, as well as solo exhibitions in Europe and the Middle East. He is also featured in the permanent collections of Middle Eastern museums.
Jason Tecson (b.1982 in Quezon City, Philippines) creates large-scale sculptures and installations using industrial materials and found objects. His renegade approach to form and surface reflects a struggle with aesthetic precedents and the immediate landscape, resulting in works that seem to shift between monolithic power and looming uncertainty. Tecson has extensively exhibited his work in the Philippines, as well as Singapore, Thailand and Korea.
Mohamed Abouelnaga at Mizuma Gallery, Singapore
16/01/2015 to 15/02/2015
A Study on Abstraction, A broad approach to abstraction in Asia, Indonesian art and the surroundings.
The exhibition is showcasing abstract works from various generation of artists, mainly from South East Asia as its highlight. The concept of the show is to open a discussion about abstraction studies and its purpose to trace back into its own history, especially through subsequent projects, of its insertion into the broader context of Asian abstraction.
“Study on Abstraction” is featuring 16 works from 10 prominent artists from south east Asia, Korea, Hongkong and Egypt, including H. Widayat (ID), Made Wianta (ID), Nasirun (ID), Awang Damit Ahmad (MY), Lee Ufan (KR), Mohamed Abouelnaga (EG), Alan Chan (HK) and more. The show is curated by Hermanto Soerjanto, Indonesian curator and one of the important people in Indonesia’s art scene.
Hopefully the exhibition will trigger a wider discussion about abstraction’s relevancy in contemporary Asia.
Website: Mizuma Gallery
Rania Matar in Bangkok- Toot Yung Art Center
17/05/2014 - 30/06/2014
The focus of this distinguished body of work is on women and children in the Middle East, contrasting the image of the region in the media (bombings, terrorism, kidnappings) with the fact that the large majority of the inhabitants are ordinary people going on with their everyday lives.
The artist, Lebanese-American Rania Matar, explores the universality and diversity of being human, of being a mother, a child or a young woman without regard to social back ground, religion, or nationality, in a region torn by strife. She portrays her subjects as the individuals they are - infused with a beautiful spirit, focused on the everyday and determined to live their ordinary lives in a region which is anything but ordinary.
"I was in the unique position of being simultaneously an insider and an outsider to the Middle East: an insider who spoke the language and understood the culture and the people, but also an outsider who has been living in the West for many years and who can see it all with fresh unbiased eyes. What I saw was very different from what was being shown and broadcast. I saw beauty, hospitality, warmth, resilience, dignity, and a strong desire to keep going despite everything.
I was humbled by the women who brought safety and stability to their homes and their children, and who just kept going everyday with the simple tasks of their daily lives. I was fascinated by the ordinary and the mundane within the
extra-ordinary," says Rania Matar.
The images selected for this exhibition are from multiple bodies of work of the artist
Rania Matar at the French Alliance of Singapore
08/03/2014 - 30/03/2014
The focus of this distinguished body of work is on women and children in the Middle East, contrasting the image of the region in the media (bombings, terrorism, kidnappings) with the fact that the large majority of the inhabitants are ordinary people going on with their everyday lives.
The artist, Lebanese-American Rania Matar, explores the universality and diversity of being human, of being a mother, a child or a young woman without regard to social back ground, religion, or nationality, in a region torn by strife. She portrays her subjects as the individuals they are - infused with a beautiful spirit, focused on the everyday and determined to live their ordinary lives in a region which is anything but ordinary.
"I was in the unique position of being simultaneously an insider and an outsider to the Middle East: an insider who spoke the language and understood the culture and the people, but also an outsider who has been living in the West for many years and who can see it all with fresh unbiased eyes. What I saw was very different from what was being shown and broadcast. I saw beauty, hospitality, warmth, resilience, dignity, and a strong desire to keep going despite everything.
I was humbled by the women who brought safety and stability to their homes and their children, and who just kept going everyday with the simple tasks of their daily lives. I was fascinated by the ordinary and the mundane within the
extra-ordinary," says Rania Matar.
The images selected for this exhibition are from multiple bodies of work of the artist
Raouf Rifai in Bali, Indonesia- Metis Gallery, Seminyak
10/11/2013 - 11/07/2014
In the “Carnaval of Darwiches,” Sana Gallery presents an extensive collection of contemporary art and masterpieces by a doyen of Lebanese artists, Raouf Rifai. Rifai’s Darwiches are an extensive body of work created by the artist over the past several years.
Rifai’s dedication to the Darwich resembles that of Paul Klee and his angels. Like Klee’s angels, Rifai’s Darwiches are many and varied. They share some common characteristics, foremost the fact that they are all rooted in human existence: They have weaknesses and flaws, a myriad of expressions, attitudes and emotions; they are the simple common man and the Sufi mystic; they are secular and spiritual; they are handsome and ugly; they are stupid yet at the time wiser than everyone around them; they are full of worries or playful; they cry yet derive humor from everyday tasks; In short, we recognize ourselves in them, they are us.The paintings selected for the exhibition paint a wide canvas of the Middle East’s social and political conundrums.
“The Middle East in its reality resembles a circus, or a theatrical play, where you have your heroes and villains monsters and angels, as well as the brave and the cowardly," says Rifai, “I want to give them all a role, and highlight how society and politicians under-estimate the common man at their own peril.” “My art’s main subject is Humanity; It is nourished by the history of our civilization and our heritage.”
Raouf Rifai in Kuala Lumpur- TJ Fine Arts Gallery
05/10/2013 - 26/10/2013
In the “Carnaval of Darwiches,” Sana Gallery presents an extensive collection of contemporary art and masterpieces by a doyen of Lebanese artists, Raouf Rifai. Rifai’s Darwiches are an extensive body of work created by the artist over the past several years.
Rifai’s dedication to the Darwich resembles that of Paul Klee and his angels. Like Klee’s angels, Rifai’s Darwiches are many and varied. They share some common characteristics, foremost the fact that they are all rooted in human existence: They have weaknesses and flaws, a myriad of expressions, attitudes and emotions; they are the simple common man and the Sufi mystic; they are secular and spiritual; they are handsome and ugly; they are stupid yet at the time wiser than everyone around them; they are full of worries or playful; they cry yet derive humor from everyday tasks; In short, we recognize ourselves in them, they are us.The paintings selected for the exhibition paint a wide canvas of the Middle East’s social and political conundrums.
“The Middle East in its reality resembles a circus, or a theatrical play, where you have your heroes and villains monsters and angels, as well as the brave and the cowardly," says Rifai, “I want to give them all a role, and highlight how society and politicians under-estimate the common man at their own peril.” “My art’s main subject is Humanity; It is nourished by the history of our civilization and our heritage.
© 2014-2020 by Sana Gallery
Pop-Up Shows in South-East Asia