Three trends in contemporary art from Southeast Asia
Contemporary Southeast Asian art is a project in the making rather than a foregone conclusion. While the conceptual rigour and aesthetic beauty of much art from this region is indisputable, the recent surge of interest in it is often confined to highly selective categories of art practice such as painting. This growth has not been matched by a corresponding expansion in critical acknowledgement. Contributing factors include the lack of properly resourced public museums and platforms for presenting art across the region to act as a counterweight to the commercial market. In this situation, the dynamism of artist-led initiatives and spaces have come in to fill the gap, although the long term sustainability of this approach is still debatable.
