State of the Arts: Oct 17 to 24

SINGAPORE — The winners of Singapore Art Museum’s President’s Young Talents 2015 exhibition were announced, with Ong Kian Peng and Ezzam Rahman sharing grand prize honours (the latter also bagged the People’s Choice Award). Meanwhile, DesignSingapore Council honoured 70 of the country’s pioneer designers for their contributions over the past 50 years; and National Gallery director Eugene Tan made it onto the Art Review magazine’s Power 100 list at No 99. The Asian Civilisations Museum announced it will be returning a controversial bronze statue to India and commence legal proceedings against its seller, New York dealer Art Of The Past, which is embroiled in a court case involving stolen property. A handful of sneak peeks also took place: The National Gallery Singapore revealed that the inaugural exhibition in its DBS Singapore Gallery is called Siapa Nama Kamu?, which will feature 400 artworks. The Singapore International Film Festival and the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival also unveiled their line-ups for their next editions. Elsewhere, auction house Christie’s Hong Kong announced it will put the spotlight on Singapore art in a special auction next month, and Les Miserables is set to return to Singapore after two decades next May. Esplanade’s annual da:ns festival wrapped up earlier this week, while the National Arts Council’s Got To Move dance initiative is also set to wrap up today (Oct 24). Finally, the Singapore River Festival, which includes River Nights Festival, kicked off yesterday and continues throughout the weekend. MAYO MARTIN