Few know the contemporary Asia-Pacific art market as well as Magnus Renfrew. He was a founding director of Art HK in 2007, the fair that became Art Basel in Hong Kong—the largest art fair in Asia—in 2012 and with his longstanding ties to the Asian art market, he parlayed that influence into partnering with UBS to launch ART SG. ART SG’s second edition earlier this year welcomed a record attendance of over 45,000 visitors becoming Southeast Asia’s most significant global art fair, featuring a dynamic line up of 114 galleries from 33 countries and territories from around the world. Renfrew is now leader in a movement which might see Singapore supplant Hong Kong not just as an economic centre but an artistic one as well.
As a cultural entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience, how do you feel the industry has changed and have most of the developments been for the better?
The art world has internationalised and broadened from a Euro- and American-centric view of the world to become much more multipolar. Museums in the West have, over the past 10 years or so, become much more self-aware of the exclusionary nature of their institutional collecting and exhibition programming. A great deal of progress has been made but there is more to be done.
On the market front, one of the biggest changes over the past 20 years has been the geographical expansion of the market. Asia has now become an incredibly important part of the global art market and will continue to develop as economies across Asia develop. Art fairs have played an important market and cultural role in promoting cross-cultural collecting and in broadening awareness of work produced from different cultural and aesthetic backgrounds.
Is it at all possible to compare the work of a Renaissance master, and the modern works produced today?
All art was once contemporary. Artists try to make sense of the world and their place within it. The artist Paul Gauguin gave a title to one of his works in the late 19th century that encapsulated this timeless drive to understand the human condition: “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?”
The Bored Ape NFT that was totally hot has since “died ignominiously” — in your opinion, what differentiates (leaving out the medium), something like Bored Ape versus Green White by Ellsworth Kelly or Untitled (Stoffbild) by Blinky Palermo?
The short-term exigencies of the market are not always the best way to evaluate the lasting meaning and impact of an artwork. Whilst the NFT phenomenon led to a certain level of indiscriminate over-excitement, the correction has led people to have a much more meaningful engagement with work being produced in digital media and that is a good thing.
There is good and bad work, interesting and uninteresting work, sincere and insincere work produced in all media. The most important thing is to try and understand what an artist is trying to say, how they are expressing it, and whether it resonates with you through an element of shared human experience.
It has been 5 years since you wrote Unchartered Territory: Culture and Commerce in Hong Kong’s Art World (2017). China’s government control in HK since then has been unprecedented — is there more internationalism or less today?
The world has only just emerged from the pandemic. Whilst it is clear that Hong Kong has retained a crucial place within the international art world with the opening of M+ and with galleries and auction houses doubling down on their real estate in the city, the art market in Asia is not monolithic. There are multiple centres across Asia and the market is constantly evolving. Asia is home to half the world’s population and there is room for all.
As controls tighten in HK, is Singapore about to replace that territory as a major hub for art?
It is not a binary calculus. Singapore’s success is not dependent on anyone else’s challenges. It is important for any scene to define its positioning positively. There is an expression I like, which is: “Chase the dream and not the competition.”
Singapore is the natural hub for Southeast Asia, which has a population of 650 million — similar to that of Europe — and is home to many of the fastest-growing economies in the world. With its historical position as a key stop-off on the maritime Silk Road between India and China, Singapore has always had a 360-degree outlook that takes it beyond the outdated binary narrative of “East meets West”. This means that it is the perfect location to engage with some of the important conversations that are changing perspectives on what “global” truly means in the 21st century.
In addition, Singapore is the leading hub for tech and biotech in Asia as well as increasingly the location of choice for the world’s wealthy. In 2016, there were 70 family offices, and today there are well over 700. The art market tends to follow the money. The National Gallery of Singapore and Singapore Art Museum have world-class exhibition programming, and the city is home to a major biennale, incredible artists, a vibrant gallery scene, and an increasingly active collecting community.
How do you perceive ART SG among the other international art fairs?
ART SG is the leading international art fair for Southeast Asia and has huge potential to develop over the coming years. We have got off to a solid start but things take time. All of the elements are there for Singapore to become a key cultural and art market hub over the coming years, and we are proud to be a part of the art community in Singapore and Southeast Asia. We are building the scene together.
You have been twice been named by ArtReview as one of the 100 most influential figures in the international art world, does this sort of labelling hone or hinder your edge (and eye)?
Great art fairs are about great teams. I am privileged to work with incredibly passionate, gifted, and committed people. I also feel remarkably lucky to have the opportunity to work with our stakeholders, galleries, artists, curators, and collectors who make the art world go round. For me, it is a constant and fascinating learning experience.
