admin_haridas, Author at Haridas Contemporary

Catch ‘The Other Lives of Painting’ curated by Michelle Ho
On View Now @ ADM GALLERY till 21 March 2025

Featuring paintings by Jeremy Sharma
And other works by Sookoon Ang, Kiat, Nicholas Ong & Joanne Pang

A continuation of ADM Gallery’s 2019 exhibition ‘Reformations: Painting in Post-2000 Singapore Art’, which explored artists’ engagement with the materiality and methodologies of painting.

“Creating a sense of dislocation that mirrors the way in which we engage with images in an increasingly media-saturated world, Jeremy Sharma’s body of work can be seen as an exercise in merging the domains of film, literature and popular culture, using painting to blur the boundaries between these realms of knowledge. In this series, the artist refrains from privileging one particular interpretation or narrative over another, disrupting traditional modes of storytelling and visual representation. Instead, Sharma’s focus is on the shifting frames or reference that move across the works, each painting acting as a site of transition where contexts and symbolic meanings migrate and transform.” – Michelle Ho

Melissa Tan Achieves Artist Record High at Art SG 2025

Straits Times reports sale of Melissa Tan’s monumental triptych The Fates: Klotho, Lachesis & Atropos (2024) to regional private museum for an artist record high.

Read Full Article here: https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/record-breaking-prices-for-spore-women-artists-at-tremendous-art-sg-and-sothebys-sales

Art & Market Editor, Ian Tee (@ianteestudio), reviews Melissa Tan’s current body of work in her latest exhibition at Haridas Contemporary. An insightful piece for anyone who is interested in understanding more about the formal qualities in the works. The piece serves as an excellent complement to independent curator, Tan Siuli’s (@the.itinerant.curator) essay in the exhibition eCatalog.

We just turned ONE! Thank you to everyone who helped us reach this milestone. It goes without saying that starting a business is never easy, let alone an art gallery in Singapore. The support we received over the past year has been truly humbling. For this, we are immensely grateful and would like to thank the following people who have been essential to our journey.

To all the artists who have entrusted us with their artworks and presentation in our humble-sized gallery. For allowing us into your studios and homes, and to meet your family members. Special thanks to the neighbors who graciously ‘endured’ the corridor viewings due to space constrains. Yes, HDB corridor viewings are a thing!

To all the writers and suppliers for their skills and services rendered. Your words and care have provided valuable insights into the artists’ practice.

To collectors and friends who have supported the gallery in various ways. Thank you for your every like, acquisition, follow, visit, recommendation, share, and feedback. Your support has enabled a young gallery to flourish and emerging practices to be discovered.

To date, we have organized seven exhibitions including five solo exhibitions by Singapore-based artists, of which we are immensely proud. Whatever growth or challenges that might arise in the next year, we remain motivated and excited about the future. And to share our excitement, we would like to take this opportunity to announce – Haridas Contemporary will make its debut in the art fair circuit at ART SG 2025 – Futures sector.

Cipher presents a series of works created during the pandemic, when Sharma spent most of his time at home, looking at images of the world outside through his computer screen. The artist collected images from the news and various media sources, and layered and collaged them using Freehand software, where he processed the raw images by subtracting details so that only vague outlines of the forms remain. Sharma’s artistic intervention determines the degree of abstraction of each composite image, and in how he chooses to fill in certain areas with colour to create rhythm and suggest new forms.

The result is a composition that retains vestiges of the original images, coalescing into a new one in our mind’s eye. These works hover tantalisingly between figuration and abstraction: we can half-decipher parts of it, but full legibility eludes us, like a code that must be cracked – a visual cipher.

A sharp and concise piece for anyone who is looking to catch up with Sharma’s artistic trajectory.

Congratulations to Melissa Tan on unveiling her new public artwork, The Darkness which Reveals at the new Siglap MRT station, as part of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) Art in Transit programme.

Also, congratulations to the other artists involved in the project including Bani Haykal (Tanjong Rhu Station), Sit Weng San & Tania De Rozario (Katong Park Sta.), Sim Chi Yin (Tanjong Katong Sta.), Ang Sookoon (Marine Parade Sta.), Moses Tan (Marine Terrace Sta.) and Bruce Quek (Bayshore Sta.)

Commuters will be able to enjoy the artworks of all mentioned artists when Stage 4 of TEL officially opens on 23 June.

The origin of ‘Siglap’ may be traced to a 19th century solar eclipse that occurred in tandem with Tok Lasam’s arrival by ship under the cover of darkness. Siglap is derived from the Malay word, ‘Gelap’ which means darkness that conceals.

The Darkness which Reveals references the method in which the terrain of the moon is studied. In space the strength of light can help determine the distance of objects far away. This work utilized mapping data which shows the moon’s uneven surface and shadows. The metal perforations are transmuted from these shadows. Just as the moon reflects sunlight, the reflective metal mirrors this phenomenon, providing an illusion of iridescence.

Darkness is reconsidered, not as concealing, but as revealing information and fragmented stories of Tok Lasam’s arrival by sea.

Image Credit: Artist Melissa Tan with her work, The Darkness Which Reveals, at Siglap station. ST Photo: Kua Chee Siong

We are delighted to share a discerning review of Jeremy Sharma’s recent solo exhibition in Artforum’s May 2024 Issue, Vol. 62, No.9. The exhibition ran from 13 Jan – 9 Feb 2024.

Review excerpt, “Even where the content of their imagery engages with history or politics, the paintings as an ensemble eschew taking any definite stance. They are not about catching a moment or halting time, or dissecting lives lived through social media, as with other painters using photography. Sharma does not seem to be concerned with fidelity to the photograph. What comes to the fore is touch or texture; and, reflecting on this, one realizes that even in Sharma’s video and sound works, there is always a palpable sense of surface.”

Haridas Contemporary is delighted to announce representation of dynamic Singaporean painter, Esmond Loh (b. 1995).

Loh works primarily in painting. His current body of work explores the theatrical. Taking inspiration from his memory and imagination, he creates dramatic and ambiguous scenes that combine both abstract and figurative elements.

He graduated in 2019, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from the Slade School of Fine Art in London, United Kingdom. He won the prestigious UOB Painting of the Year Award in Singapore in 2012 when he was 17 years old, for his first attempt at oil painting titled Just Let Me Sleep. He also won awards in the same competition in 2018 and 2020 respectively. His works are part of private collections in Singapore, Malaysia and the UK.