R
E
V N
E
X
T
*This is a sponsored post.
A mainstay of the annual Singapore Art Week, the IMPART Collectors’ Show returns for its fourth edition this January under the title “Leap of Faith.” Organized by the Singapore-based arts education nonprofit Art Outreach, the 2021 IMPART Collectors’ Show takes a new virtual format for the first time in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Capitalizing on digital media’s ability to transcend real-world logistical challenges, particularly during the pandemic, “Leap of Faith” consists of virtual tours of rarely exhibited works in the private residences and offices of six notable collectors based in Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, Mumbai, and Geneva. In a series of video interviews, collectors Jim Amberson; Woffles Wu, Lito and Kim Camacho; Wiyu Wahono; Sangita Jindal; and Eric and Suzanne Syz divulge their approaches to art collecting, their relationships with artists, and tips for people looking to build their collections. “Leap of Faith” grants unprecedented public access to important private collections—and the minds behind them.
MOFFAT TAKADIWA, English Deleted, 2016, computer and laptop keys, dimensions variable. Photo by Colin Wan. Courtesy Art Outreach, Singapore.
Jim Amberson, Singapore
Based in Singapore since 1998, Jim Amberson is an avid collector of Southeast Asian contemporary art and currently sits on the Asia-Pacific Acquisition Committee of London’s Tate Modern. His collection includes Maria Taniguchi’s Untitled (2015) brick painting, from an ongoing series of labor-intensive canvases featuring repetitive patterns of blocks with minute differences in shade that simultaneously gesture to the non-representational and process-based grids of Minimalism and meditate on the temporality of artistic practice. Amberson also owns spiritually and historically inspired bamboo and rattan works by eminent Cambodian sculptor Sopheap Pich, and a commissioned wall sculpture of discarded computer components by Zimbabwe artist Moffat Takadiwa.
Woffles Wu, Singapore
A plastic surgeon by profession, Dr. Woffles Wu is also the founder of the private Museum of Contemporary Chinese Art, which has significant holdings of pieces from 1989 to 2009 relating to the legacies of the Cultural Revolution. Several of Xu Zhongmin’s large-scale mechanical installations belong in Wu’s collection, such as Trekking Around the Mountain (2006), composed of translucent marching figures, and the specially commissioned Adam and Eve (2008), a conveyor belt of silver female bodies signifying rebirth.
Lito and Kim Camacho, Manila
Having met in New York in the 1970s, Lito and Kim Camacho began seriously collecting art when they moved back to the Philippines in 1981, amassing an impressive selection of works by Asia-Pacific artists. Among their treasures are a sizeable number of pieces by Japanese superstar artist Yayoi Kusama, whose floor-to-ceiling mirror and light installation Ladder to Heaven (2006) evokes an infinitely tall glowing ladder. The Camachos also operate an artist residency on their farm, with alumni including Indonesian artist Eddi Prabandono.
Wiyu Wahono, Jakarta
Among the foremost contemporary art collectors in Indonesia, Wiyu Wahono distinguished himself in the 1990s when he started seeking out experimental practitioners who were not considered commercially successful at the time, such as Yogyakarta-born performance, video, and installation artist Jompet Kuswidananto and the Bandung-based collective Tromarama. His collection now spans multidisciplinary pieces by international artists, including Venezuelan-American artist Ernesto Klar’s Relational Light (2010), an installation comprising smoke, projections, and custom tracking software that modifies the light environment.
Sangita Jindal, Mumbai
Sangita Jindal has long been a patron of India’s contemporary art scene as the founder of the Jindal Arts Centre in Mumbai and as president of Art India magazine. In her collection is conceptual artist Shilpa Gupta’s installation of 100 etched-steel book covers, Someone Else (2011). Gupta selected first edition covers of books that had been published anonymously or pseudonymously, such as titles by the Brontë sisters, who took male noms de plume to circumvent 19th century sexism.
SHILPA GUPTA, Someone Else, 2011, stainless steel books with MS shelves, 373 × 150 cm. Courtesy Sangita Jindal.
Eric and Suzanne Syz, Geneva
Over the past three decades, Eric and Suzanne Syz have collected approximately 300 works by more than 100 international artists, from photographers Cindy Sherman and Wolfgang Tillmans to conceptualist Rosemarie Trockel. Noteworthy pieces include Elaine Sturtevant’s painting Warhol Flowers #8 (1969/70), a recreation from memory of Andy Warhol’s signature floral silkscreen prints, and Susan and Mark (1983) by the Pop icon himself of the collector and her newborn son.
ELAINE STURTEVANT, Warhol Flowers #8, 1969/70, synthetic polymer and acrylic on canvas, 28 × 28 cm. Courtesy Suzanne Syz.
