SPACE BY MIAJA

Miaja Gallery, an inspired new gallery by French designer Isabella Miaja, opens this October in Bukit Timah. Collaborating with both international and local artists and artisans, the gallery features limited edition works that are a smooth blend of contemporary art and innovative design.

Guillaume Roche, Exclos Series Steel. PHOTO CREDIT Benoit Martin

Isabella, a pioneer in stylistic design, founded Miaja Design about 20 years ago. Now  an internationally recognised design house, Miaja have designed for Sofitel SO Singapore, Desert Palm Resort Dubai and even the Trump Residences.

Realising a life-long pursuit of synergetic approach towards art and design, Isabella hopes to bring together the best artisans from countries that strengthen the cultural link between her native European heritage and her adoptive Asian home. On her visions for Miaja, Isabella says, “by providing a platform for artisans, designers, and craftspeople dedicated to design and art, we feel we can inspire collaborations between artists and demonstrate how one can live with art every day.”

Gallery curator Isabella Miaja.

Nestled on the first floor of a three-floor shop house in Bukit Timah, Miaja’s inaugural exhibition will run from October 1 to 30. The month-long exhibition features two sculptors from France – Guillaume Roche and Fabienne Auzolle – and two painters – Allen Tang from Singapore and Kim Xu from Shanghai.

Fabienne Auzolle, Red Sun, 160cm diameter, Ceramic and Textile.

Roche’s stainless steel sculptures are a combination of powerful lines and aerial movements. Seeking out form between the contrast of raw shapes and polished minimalist contours, his work is best described as having captured ‘stillness after the storm.’ A graduate of the National School of Applied Arts of Paris, Roche was recently selected for the Prix Liliane Batterncourt – Pour L’Intelligence de la Main.’

Auzolle hand-sculpts delicate clay and enamel onto antique jewellery. Working exclusively from her studio in Brittany, she incorporates flora and fauna into her sculptures, having been raised around gardens and greenhouses.

Kim Xu, DanChun Qui, 70cmx90cm, Oil on Paper Mixed Media.

Drawn by her fascination of medieval sculptures of ‘vierges noire’ in the Auvergne part of France, Auzolle carves depictions of women and angels with ever-so-slightly smiling faces, implying a sense of mystery. Auzolle was also recently selected for Prix Liliane Batterncourt – Pour L’Intelligence de la Main.’

Allen Tang, Forgotten Promise, 142cmx123cm, Oil on Perspex Sheet.

Singaporean Tang seeks liberation from real forms and details and instead visualises a delicate transformation of colours, from diaphanous to compact. His exceptional technique is accredited to intensive research and experimentation, by blending his own recipes of paint, applied directly to Perspex. Proportion and layering is key to his work.

Xu, moved to Shanghai from his hometown Suzhou to pursue his passion of art and fashion. His work centres on beauty, passion, love and despair. Using both traditional Chinese ink and Western oil painting techniques, Xu is seen as China’s most important up-and-coming contemporary artist.

By Sharifah Shahirah   |   Images courtesy of Miaja Gallery

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