UBS presents ART SG – Southeast Asia’s largest ever fair - with a new commission by leading Singapore artist Dawn Ng

• UBS is the Founding and Lead Partner of ART SG, the inaugural edition of ART SG will welcome 160 leading galleries on the shores of Singapore in Jan 2023
• UBS to unveil a new site-specific commission by leading Singaporean artist Dawn Ng at the UBS Lounge, exploring time, memory, and the ephemeral
• UBS Art Collection to launch its latest book in Asia – Reimagining: New Perspectives, published by Monacelli Press (Phaidon) – featuring recent acquisitions reflecting the profound developments affecting our society
• UBS and The Fondation Beyeler to host an in conversation between UBS Art Collection artist Hiroshi Sugimoto and Hans Ulrich Obrist as part of the ongoing Artist Talk program
• UBS share key takeaways from surveyed HNW collectors in Singapore in the recent report A Survey of Global Collecting in 2022 published by Art Basel and UBS.

For the first edition, taking place 12 – 15 January 2023 at Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore, the UBS Art Collection has commissioned Dawn Ng to create a site-specific, immersive installation which will be unveiled at the fair in the UBS Lounge for clients and guests. The installation will be presented alongside a video, paintings and photographs by the leading Singaporean artist. The UBS Art Collection will also present the debut in Asia of its latest publication, Reimagining: New Perspectives, which commemorates the evolution of the collection’s curatorial direction in recent years.

August Hatecke, Co-head Global Wealth Management APAC and Country Head Singapore at UBS said “Having a long and substantial record of contemporary art patronage, UBS is proud to be the Founding and Lead partner of ART SG – a new international art fair and the largest-ever held in Southeast Asia with over 160 leading galleries. Against the backdrop of an increasing global interest in the arts scenes across Asia and the growth of Singapore's collectors, we are delighted that this new forum will serve as a critical meeting point for international galleries and collectors, providing access to the most important artworks being produced today. Our collaboration is in keeping with UBS’s support of cultural endeavors and sponsorships of art fairs globally, providing a platform for our clients to make further connections through art by drawing on our global ecosystem of partners, clients and communities to share ideas, bring opportunities to life and make a real impact.”

A site-specific installation by Dawn Ng, commissioned by the UBS Art Collection, will be presented in the UBS Lounge. Ng’s practice, which encompasses diverse mediums including video, painting, photography, installation, and sculpture, explores time, memory and the ephemeral. Forever Now (2023), leads visitors through a tunnel with a specially composed soundscape of falling water. At the end of the tunnel, visitors encounter a mirror-reflected space with a meditative video. This time-lapse video is part of a seminal body of work in which Ng freezes dyes, acrylic paint, and powder pigments into ice blocks and then records the melting process. While it is mesmerizing to watch the block melt into streams of overflowing colors, there is a startling finality when it ultimately disintegrates into thin air, and time seems to literally evaporate.

Dawn Ng, UBS Art Collection artist said “the installation Forever Now draws viewers away from the bright lights and the sensory overload of the fair, to give them a moment when times slows down. For the commission, I envision the experience to anchor viewers to a particular moment and stillness.”

Mary Rozell, Global Head UBS Art Collection, commented, “Forever Now by Dawn Ng embodies the close collaboration and long-lasting relationships with artists that are a signifying characteristic of the UBS Art Collection. For over 60 years, UBS has collected contemporary art with over 30,000 works by artists from more than 70 markets with a mission to collect the art of our time in the regions where the firm does business. While UBS’s general collecting principles have largely remain unchanged over the decades, our latest book Reimagining: New Perspectives, is an expression of the new direction we have taken with our collection and our larger social engagement over these last seven years.”

Visitors to the UBS Lounge will also have the opportunity to browse through copies of Reimagining: New Perspectives, which details the evolution of the collection’s curatorial direction. Presented for the first time in Asia, the book features works acquired within the past seven years by artists who offer new and diverse perspectives, based on their distinct backgrounds and experiences. These artists, including Mika Tajima, Danh Vo and Haegue Yang, invite us to reimagine our world through work that addresses the developments affecting our society, including environmental, social, and technological movements. The publication is available to order from Phaidon's website.

Free to the public, UBS and The Fondation Beyeler will host a conversation between UBS Art Collection artist Hiroshi Sugimoto and Hans Ulrich Obrist as part of the Artist Talks program at the Art SG Talks Theatre (exhibition hall, level 1) on Thursday, 12 January from 6-7pm and will be live-streamed on www.ubs.com/hiroshisugimoto and on UBS Global Art’s Facebook channel.

UBS regularly releases insights into the art market through its role as co-publisher of the annual ‘Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report' and ‘A Survey of Global Collecting in 2022’. The latter was recently published with insights on collecting across 11 key global markets, including Singapore. Key takeaways from a deep dive report on Singapore that is available on request include:

• High net worth collectors surveyed across all markets increased their spending. In the first six months of 2022, the median expenditure of Singapore collectors was USD 164,000, surpassing the entire year of 2021 at USD 129,000. 81% of Singapore collectors surveyed were optimistic about the global art market’s performance over the next 12 months when polled mid-year in 2022.
• While 39% of surveyed collectors in Singapore were only buying the work of artists familiar to them or who they had bought before in 2022, 14% of the Singapore collector sample were exclusively focused on only purchasing new artists they had discovered this year, which was more than double the global average of 6% and the highest among the 11 regions surveyed.
• The majority of HNW collectors surveyed in Singapore are willing to pay a premium of up to 25% more for sustainable collecting options.

A Survey of Global Collecting in 2022 is free to download at ubs.com/collecting.

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