“Over the past five years, contemporary Asian art has made its mark over the world,” says Niru Ratnam. “From big museum shows in the west (like Cai Guo-Qiang at New York’s Guggenheim in 2008) through to auction prices that were previously unimaginable for non-western artists, the region’s art has come out of obscurity in a big way. Artists like Ai Wei Wei, Subodh Gupta and Lee Ufan are now some of the most sought-after names by major collectors.

Beneath these big now-established names is a vibrant emerging scene of young artists who are the first generation to see an older generation succeed and be taken notice of around the world. This seems to have given them the confidence to approach contemporary art in an experimental, confident way whether it is painting, installation or new media.

Biennials and prizes like the Prudential Eye Award play a greater role in the region that commercial galleries (unlike say, New York or London) so young artists can be arguably more experimental and ambitious as they are not making works for the sole intention of selling them via a commercial space. These initiatives have also joined up different art scenes so it is possible to take an overview of contemporary ‘Asian’ art whilst of course recognising that there are local inflections to say, the Singaporean art scene or the Indian art scene.”

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