Billionaire.com: The Lion’s Share: Singapore’s Top Art Galleries and Workshops

YEO WORKSHOP

Specialty: Contemporary and conceptual artworks
Owner: Audrey Yeo
Location: Gillman Barracks, 1 Lock Road #01-01
Current exhibition: 'The Distracted Gardener and Plumbing Subverter’ by Clydesdale Thomson

With conceptual artist Pierre Huyghe and English painter Damien Hirst  — “I love his butterfly paintings; that dark and poetic idea of butterflies being attracted to bright wet paint and then getting stuck there to their death” — listed as some of Audrey Yeo’s favourite artists, it’s clear that her workshop, located in the government-sponsored art district of Gillman Barracks, is a bit left of the middle.

A gallery director in London for three years and having worked in two New York photography galleries before that, Yeo wanted to challenge the traditional gallery model when she started her workshop. “It was crucial for me as a young gallerist to not ignore what was going on in the art world in terms of re-engaging the spectators and community, and re-programming the gallery space,” she explains. “I wanted to do more than exhibit work for sale.” As such, Yeo tends to exhibit work with a strong conceptual movement, but still constructed with a deep respect for craftsmanship.

But what really sets her workshop aside is her arts club. “The Arnoldi Arts Club is actually a main focus for the gallery,” reveals Yeo excitedly. “It's arts education via some very cutting-edge, sensational international academicians, artists and curators in the gallery space, to give people understanding of the history, markets and production techniques of the contemporary art world. All the tools needed for looking at and understanding contemporary art.”