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Home-grown hotel art fair Art Apart, for its upcoming eighth edition, is leaving the swanky hotel rooms it is accustomed to and moving to Isetan Wisma Atria.
Art Apart founder and director Rosalind Lim serves up a bold new take on the fair which, since its start in 2013, has been held in hotels such as Parkroyal on Pickering and Conrad Centennial Hotel.
Holding it at Isetan Wisma Atria, in the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road, was "an opportunity and a strategy", she says. It will help the fair reel in a diverse crowd, from the serious art lover to the curious passer-by taking a breather from his shopping.
"The greatest advantage of being located in a mall is that it can create more awareness of art appreciation among shoppers. And, hopefully, shoppers will also find an art piece worth investing in," says Ms Lim, 65.
The fair has been given 6,000 sq ft of space, roughly the size of seven three-room Housing Board flats.
It will run over two months - from next Monday to Aug 28 - instead of the usual three days. The $10 admission fee has been scrapped and workshops and talks will be free too.
Even as the fair breaks out of its usual mould by moving away from hotel rooms, it has not strayed from its core objective, says Ms Lim. It will continue to provide a cosy, laidback ambience for visitors to enjoy art in, something that sets it apart from other players in the crowded art fair scene.
The homey set-up closes the gap between art and people. In a 'home' setting, people can also see how art can be displayed - maybe on top of a cupboard, beside a coffee or dining table or hung on pillars or leaning against a wall."
The artworks in this edition will be focused on artists from North Asia and South-east Asia.
The fair will showcase the works of 97 artists from countries such as Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore as well as lithographs of pieces by greats such as French artist Henri Matisse.
Prices range from $280 for a limited-edition lithography print from Matisse or Austrian painter Egon Schiele to $35,000 for a large painting by a mid-career artist.
A version of this article was first published on Straits Times.