“My works stem from personal experiences so naturally whatever’s around me would seep into my works,” says leading Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak, who I have recently interviewed for Culture360.
With a deep knowledge of materials, as well as a strong conceptual vision, her artworks address motherhood, womanhood, and a deep investigation of the self – often with references to her native Thai culture.
Here is the link to the interview
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My second piece for the Financial Times looks into three independent art spaces in Singapore.
The article is for a special supplement focused on Southeast Asian art, coming out in conjunction with the Singapore Art Week.
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The Financial Times has just published two articles of mine on a special supplement focused on Southeast Asian art, coming out in conjunction with the Singapore Art Week.
In this first piece I highlight the presence of Mynmar art at the art fairs in Singapore this January. It’s part of my ongoing investigation on Myanmar art within the current complicated political scenario of the country
Read More![The third edition of Ramallah Art Fair at Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah [Instagram/ramallah_artfair]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Untitled-1.png?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The first article published this year is about the third edition of an atypical but important art fair that takes place in Ramallah, Palestine.
It’s the second year that I follow tis partly physical partly virtual art fair, and this time I spoke with the fair’s director for Middle East Monitor.
How to define this year? I’d say, the first six months were spent living to the fullest, going deep into feeling and emotions, both positive and negative. The second half of the year was spent working blissfully, in alignment, building on the life force that was experienced in the first part of the year.
With living through so much heightened emotion, my heart was never empty. That included some very tough moments, which taught me that beauty is always the cure. In the hardest moments, when you are called to rise up to the occasion, keep carrying on, emboding a stoicism of sorts, you can still look up and notice how the sky and the earth looked like their were painted by El Greco. An yes, we might not measure up to the challenge – not immediately. We might still feel the urge to run away and not endure it. Not to sacrifice oneself – which in the Latin root of the word means “make sacred”. But we can still do our best to keep practicing what’s right.
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The Italian weekly magazine Internazionale has published my piece “Gli artisti resistono in esilio”, on the Burmese artists working in exile. Once again, I’m humbled and honoured to get the chance to be a vehicle for the voices of Burmese artists, and testify their incredible strenght and resilience.
Here is the link to the piece online
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My series on the behind-the-scenes of arts writers’ lives for Plural Art Mag continues with a conversation with Kim Tay.
Tay is a long-standing founding member and Gallery Director of The Artling, an online gallery, art consulting firm, and web magazine.
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We have read over and over again about the routines of our favourite artists, what time they wake up, and how much time they spend thinking about their art compared to creating works. We have seen pictures of hidden corners in their studios and learnt about their favourite brand of oil paints and their go-to factories to realise installations.
The same goes for curators. We might know the books and theories they reference, and we have become familiar with what drives art collectors. But what is definitely less explored are the joys and sorrows of being an arts writer.
That’s why here at Plural we decided to start a series where we speak with some of the most eloquent arts and culture editors from the region to explore the behind-the-scenes of being a writer.
We kick off the series with Chloe Chu, former Managing Editor at one of the most respected publications in the region and beyond: ArtAsiaPacific (AAP).
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I have written about Indonesian emerging artist Victoria Kosasie – whose work I discovered thanks to the Bandung Contemporary Art Awards – for the November/December issue of ArtAsiaPacific.
Undoubtedly one of the most important magazines about contemporary art in Asia, writing for ArtAsiaPacific has always been a goal of mine since starting researching Southeast Asia more than 10 years ago. This is my second piece for them.
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I wrote once again on the Myanmar art scene for the webmagazine Southeastasia Globe. It’s my first collaboration with them, and it was great to put together a piece which included a number of interviews to artists and other figures in the art world such as Chaw Ei Thein, Louis Ho, Moe Satt, Bart Was Not Here, Nathalie Johnston, Ilaria Benini and Richie Nath.
Most of them had to flee the country, but they were able gave me a picture of the developments of the art scene over the last few years, and how these were abruptly stopped by the recent military coup.
![Le Monnaye de Paris, ASIA NOW’s location [Naima Morelli]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1e6e4d869ad62566-photo-e1667220053301.jpeg?resize=1197%2C795&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
With its two leading art fairs, Paris + Art Basel and ASIA NOW, as well as exhibitions scattered around the city, Paris Art Week 2022 had an extensive presence of Middle Eastern artists and galleries, and paid strong attention to the current situation in Iran.
I wrote the story for Middle East Monitor.
Here is the link to the article
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It always feels good to be published in Italian, and on paper as well! This is my second time to write about contemporary Southeast Asian art for the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, and the issue I’m looking at is particularly important to highlight for the international community.
I have started to interview a number of Burmese artists who fled the country since the military coup, which happened on 1 February 2021, and other figures in the Myanmar art scene. Their experience is incredibly valuable, and while I speak with them, I also learn what was becoming of the art scene in Burma, and the incredible culture they hailed from.
This new research will take the shape of different articles on different magazines. The cover of the cultural Saturday pages of Il Manifesto, called “Alias”, was entirely dedicated to Burma, and they featured two pieces of mine.
Here is the link to the article online
Naima Morelli is an arts writer and journalist specialized in contemporary art from Asia-Pacific and the MENA region.
She has written for the Financial Times, Al-Jazeera, The Art Newspaper, ArtAsiaPacific, Internazionale and Il Manifesto, among others, and she is a regular contributor to Plural Art Mag, Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye as well as writing curatorial texts for galleries.
She is the author of three books on Southeast Asian contemporary art.
Reach out: contact [at] naimamorelli.com
