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This fall, East Asia becomes a major destination in the international art circuit with a series of high-profile biennales, triennials, and art fairs in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, and Singapore — the region’s answer to last summer’s European Grand Tour. While events like Shanghai’s ShContemporary art fair and the Gwangju Biennale in Korea are likely to be the headline events, Singapore’s contributions — a new fair and a second-edition biennial — could prove to be among the most unique.

In a continent known for its sprawling geography and runaway populations, Singapore is an anomaly. Its relatively small population of 4.5 million is packed into just over 700 square kilometers, an area about the size of New York City. It is also quite young, becoming a nation only in 1965, and, perhaps most impressively, highly diverse. Locals tend to be of Malay, Indian, or Chinese descent, and there is also a large expatriate community made up of Europeans, Americans, and Australians, many of whom hold top positions in the financial industry.

In the local art scene, this international flavor is reflected not only in world-class programming — Singapore’s most prominent museums and galleries frequently host works by important artists from Southeast Asia, India, China, Europe, and the U.S. — but also in its burgeoning art market. In a region where serious buyers tend to purchase works created in their home countries — even in cosmopolitan Hong Kong, much of the art buying-and-selling tends to be Chinese — Singaporean collectors distinguish themselves with uncommonly international tastes.

So it comes as no surprise that the city-state is debuting a new international art fair this fall, timed to coincide with the second edition of the Singapore Biennale. Though modest in size, with only two dozen dealers, Singapore Showcase, taking place September 9–12, has attracted important international players including New York’s Paul Kasmin, Sperone Westwater, and Max Lang, Seoul’s doArt and Arario (which also has presences in New York and Beijing), Hong Kong’s Hanart TZ, and Bangkok’s 100 Tonson Gallery [to see photos from their pre-fair party, click here].

“Singapore has a very international, cosmopolitan environment,” says Howard Rutkowski, one of the fair’s principal organizers and a former director of contemporary and modern art at Bonham’s London. “We see a high level of sophistication and a greater understanding of the outside world. Being a crossroad for all of Asia Pacific and beyond, Singapore is a natural locus to become the center of the art market in Asia.”

Joselina Cruz, curator of the 2008 Singapore Biennale, which opens September 11, echoes Rutkowski’s assessment. “Sophisticated local audiences and international residents are quite ready for contemporary art of the range we will show,” she says. Running for 10 weeks, the biennale’s sophomore effort will feature 65 artists and the theme “Wonder.” The biennale’s artistic director is Fumio Nanjo, director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, and in a departure from usual practices in Asia, most of the featured works will not be homegrown. The more than 50 artists participating this year represent 36 different countries and include such big names as Ilya and Emilia Kabokov (Russia), Hans Op de Beek (Belgium), Jeppe Hein (Denmark), and Shigeru Ban (Japan).

In part, this international focus is born of necessity. While there are good, working Singaporean artists today, the development of the creative environment has lagged as a result of the quasi-autocratic government’s focus on the economy and political stability in the early years of the country’s short history. “For a while, Singaporean art was not very much encouraged,” says Cruz. “Performance art, for example, was banned until two or three years ago.” As a result, in the last two decades, aspiring collectors have had to invest in big names from elsewhere in the region; Singapore residents make up some of the most significant collectors of Vietnamese and Chinese contemporary art, for instance.

Despite recent efforts, Singapore’s art scene still shows room for growth. While Rukowski praises the nation’s museums, which unlike institutions in many Asian countries, benefit from strong infrastructure, he feels that the gallery system still hasn’t realized its potential. “Considering Singapore’s position as a major business hub for all of Asia, it is odd that the art market is one industry that hasn’t been developed,” he says. “However, we see the vast potential. The Singapore Biennale is a significant international art event, but it cannot exist in a vacuum. It needs to be part of a greater ecosystem, with a thriving gallery scene and projects such as Showcase Singapore working toward making Singapore an art destination for the world.”