In 2018, 'Writing in the Rain' was featured in the public art programme 'Midnight Moment', where it was screened nightly on the billboards at New York City's Times Square for one month. Yet whether displayed in front of millions of people at the world's most iconic square or set within the intimate spaces of a gallery, Harsono's message for the public remains consistent. It speaks to the global importance of recovering repressed histories, cultures and identities. "Humanitarian problems are universal," the artist adds. "My work is not made to show anger nor to blame anyone for this mass murder, but to remind us that this should not happen again in the future."
And, importantly, it comes with a second, smaller show that’s far more than a mere add-on. Titled “Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue,” it’s a view of the Vietnam War era through Vietnamese eyes, the eyes of people on the receiving end of aggression. In the 1960s — before identity politics, before postcolonial studies — few museums would have thought to do such a show, but it absolutely needed doing.
Art Basel’s Asian Art Gets to Hong Kong via New York and Los Angeles
New York Times, March 2019
Mr. Pich and Ms. Chung (who now lives in Houston) are represented by Tyler Rollins Fine Art in New York, a gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, half a block or so from the West Side Highway. It’s no longer unheard-of for artists from one end of the earth to be represented by dealers from the opposite end. “Huge kudos to Tyler for doing this,” Adeline Ooi, the Asia director of Art Basel, said in a telephone interview from Hong Kong. “His sole commitment to Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific is unparalleled.”
"Editor's Picks: 19 Things to See in New York This Week"
Artnet News, April 2018
“The artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery features Body Remembers, a series of 10 large-scale photographs, and the single-channel video, Vigil. The works debuted to wide acclaim as part of Moffatt’s solo presentation for the Australian Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. This marks the first time they have been shown outside of Venice.” – Eileen Kinsella
"It's No Longer Ok to Say 'Next Year': How Art Basel Hong Kong Became an Essential Stop on the Global Fair Circuit"
Artnet News March 2018
“‘It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true: the fair functions as a ‘bridge to Asia’ for many living outside of the region,’ says New York-based dealer Tyler Rollins. Further, he says the fair plays an important role inside Asia. ‘I have been able to introduce artists from my southeast Asia-based program to collectors and curators from China and Japan as well as to the many Americans and Europeans who come to Hong Kong at this time.’ In the past few years, Rollins says he has tried to feature artists from southeast Asian countries that are underrepresented and present a more in-depth focus on their practices. This year’s booth included three mini-shows for Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/USA), Sopheap Pich (Cambodia), and Pinaree Sanpitak (Thailand).” – Eileen Kinsella
"Art From Angkor Wat at Asian Civilisations Museum"
The Straits Times, April 2018
“On Sunday (April 8), the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) opens a showcase of ancient Khmer art from the Guimet Museum in Paris. Angkor: Exploring Cambodia's Sacred City runs until July 22... Alongside the museum exhibition, contemporary Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich presents two new works of art in his signature wood-and-metal wicker style.” – Akshita Nanda
"Highlights of the Sydney Biennale"
WAtoday, March 2018
“At Artspace Tiffany Chung's large-scale embroidered textile maps the escape routes and migration trajectories of Vietnamese refugees 1975-1996, alongside a series of watercolour paintings featuring scenes of layered archival photographs.” – Linda Morris
“Yes, Sir/Ma’am! No, Sir/Ma’am! Right Away, Sir/Ma’am!”: Filipino painter Manuel Ocampo in New York"
“Manuel Ocampo has maintained a dynamic presence on the international art scene with a reputation for fearlessly tackling the taboos and cherished icons of art history and religion... In ‘Yes, Sir/Ma’am! No, Sir/Ma’am! Right Away, Sir/Ma’am!’, Manuel Ocampo returns for his fourth solo exhibition at Tyler Rollins Fine Art in New York... What makes Ocampo’s ongoing solo stand out is its emphasis on collaboration, not only between materials, media and concepts, but also between other artists. Tyler Rollins has provided its gallery space as Ocampo’s temporary studio, where ongoing works are shared with and accelerated by artists based in New York, Europe and the Philippines.” – Megan Miller
"16 Years in Film: Renowned Artist to Exhibit in Lismore"
Northern Star, April 2018
“The Lismore Regional Gallery has added another high calibre exhibition of work to its carefully curated list with work by one of the most important Australian contemporary artists, Tracey Moffatt. The highly successful filmmaker and photographer was one of the few Australian artists to have established a global market for her work with around 100 solo exhibitions... The Art Gallery of NSW regards her as 'probably Australia's most successful artist ever'.” – Jasmine Burke
"Tracey Moffatt at the University of the Sunshine Coast Gallery"
Artforum, March 2018
“In 1984, Audre Lorde issued a declaration to her white, straight feminist associates: ‘The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.’ In this small but rich survey of key works from the 1980s and 1990s, Australian artist Tracey Moffatt demonstrates her fondness for doing just that—using the tools of Western popular narrative to tell unresolved, unsettling fictions that somewhat resemble the artist’s own biography.” – Emily Wakeling
"Art on the move: From boardrooms to brothels"
Southeast Asia Globe, March 2018
“A fire is smouldering in the belly of Sir Stamford Raffles. Open to the elements, his ribs lay bare beneath the sky like the bars of a grill. Crouched over his blazing entrails, Indonesian maids in Javanese court sarongs prepare traditional kueh kapit, a thinly folded wafer eaten across the ocean-faring nations of Southeast Asia. This provocative artwork by Singaporean artist Jimmy Ong is the centrepiece for the latest art walk by OH! Open House, a Singapore-based group that leads art lovers and laymen alike through the streets of the city-state in search of art that has been uprooted from the crisp, white walls of galleries and museums.” – Paul Millar
"10 of the Most Eye-Opening Artworks at Art Basel Miami Beach"
Artnet News, December 2017
“An artist who was born in the Philippines and then rose to prominence in the 1980s LA art world, doing shows alongside figures like Jim Shaw and earning a place in the 1992 Documenta and 1993 Venice Biennale, Manuel Ocampo specializes in sophisticated, often furious satirical paintings that evoke such earlier satirists as Daumier and Hogarth.” – Andrew Goldstein
"The 15 Best Booths at Art Basel in Miami Beach"
Artsy, December 2017
“The New York gallery presents a solo selection by Manuel Ocampo, a Filipino artist who cut his teeth in Los Angeles before returning to his home country. Ocampo works in a postmodern mode that jumbles references, and could care less about the distinctions between high and low. He represented the Philippines at the 2017 Venice Biennale, where his figurative paintings were displayed in a grid, almost like tarot cards.” – Molly Gottschalk and Scott Indrisek
“18 New Dealers to Watch at Art Basel in Miami Beach”
Artsy, December 2017
“Tyler Rollins founded his New York gallery over a decade ago, where he presented solo exhibitions of artists from Southeast Asia who did not yet have representation in the U.S. Today, he remains committed to the region, propelling one of few such gallery programs in the country. Curator Ian Alteveer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art credits Rollins for his ‘support of some of the most compelling and engaged artists from South and Southeast Asia,’ and notes that the gallery introduced him to the works of Tiffany Chung, Pinaree Sanpitak, and Sopheap Pich, whose sculptures were shown at the Met in 2013.” – Margaret Carrigan and Casey Lesser
“At the beginning of 2017 The Metropolitan Museum of Manila (MET) presented a major exhibition by internationally-acclaimed Filipino artist Ronald Ventura. Curated by Patrick D. Flores, Shadow Forest: Encounters and Explorations showcased a variety of Ventura’s works, presenting his complex and ever-evolving style that mixes figurative images, folklore, graffiti and pop culture, and incorporates a wide array of techniques and material explorations.”
“21st Biennale of Sydney Announces Complete Roster of Artists”
Art Asia Pacific, December 2017
“Kataoka stumbled over exactly what is meant by the biennial’s opaque name and curatorial premise, ‘Superposition: Equilibrium and Engagement,’ but a mix of international stars including Haegue Yang and Tiffany Chung, along with many lesser known artists that will be shown at seven of the city’s exhibition spaces—the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the Sydney Opera House, Artspace, Carriageworks, Cockatoo Island and the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art—seems to promise a strong presentation.” – Michael Young
“FX Harsono Video Work To Be Shown Nightly in Times Square during January 2018”
Asia Society, December 2017
“‘Asia Society is thrilled to be partnering with the Times Square Alliance to feature FX Harsono's Writing in the Rain in Times Square,’ said Boon Hui Tan, Vice President of Global Arts & Cultural Programs and Director, Asia Society Museum. ‘In addition to the vivid imagery of his video, Harsono’s focus on identity and belonging will surely resonate with the thousands of local residents and international tourists who visit Times Square every day.’”
“Learning About Tactics of Resistance Through Southeast Asian Art”
Hyperallergic, December 2017
“Renowned as the father of activist art in Indonesia, Harsono is adamant on giving voice to marginalized social groups… By selecting a diverse group of visually compelling, locally contextualized, and socially engaged works, After Darkness succeeds in showing the multiple ways that artists from Southeast Asia have renegotiated painful histories.” – Banyi Huang
“Sunshower: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now”
The Brooklyn Rail, November 2017
“Some of the participating artists have achieved international recognition—Dinh Q. Lê, Ming Wong, and Rirkrit Tiravanija—but the strength of the show lies in works by less well known artists, many of whom are pioneers of contemporary art’s development in their home country, such as FX Harsono, leader of the Indonesian New Art Movement.” – Vivian Li
“Unwanted Populations”
Art Asia Pacific, November 2017
“Tiffany Chung, whose family was part of post-1975 mass exodus of Vietnamese refugees, has returned to the ordeal to offer a new response. To do so, Chung employs data in the form of cartographic drawings. Upon these, she renders patterns, many of which are minute in scale, mapping out what appear at first glance to be dazzling stitchwork or organic microcosms akin to those found in a petri dish or under a microscope. These are superimposed upon the familiar shapes of continents and coastlines. It is only upon closer inspection that each pattern—sometimes each dot—represents a statistic that Chung has painstakingly researched, itself a recorded moment where agony or injury has occurred.” – Scott Norton
“Crumble, Crumble, Toil and Trouble”
Plural Art Magazine, December 2017
“The House is Crumbling, the latest installation by renowned Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak, specially commissioned for the National Gallery Singapore’s Light to Night Festival 2018, is a visual and sensorial treat.” – Pauline and Usha
“Heri Dono: Rebel from an early age”
The Jakarta Post, January 2018
“Heri is arguably one of Indonesia’s most seminal artists. In the early 1990s, he made history as the first Indonesian to break into the global art scene. Having held over 50 solo exhibitions and participated in over 216 group exhibitions at home and abroad since 1982, he is known for artworks presenting strong criticisms of violence, and social and political turmoil in Indonesia.” – A. Kurniawan Ulung
