New Releases Old Friends

STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery presents New Releases Old Friends, a compelling group show that brings together prominent international artists Angela Bulloch (Canada/Germany), Richard Deacon (UK), Janice Kerbel (Canada/UK), Tobias Rehberger (Germany) and Pae White (USA) for the first time. Running from March 22 to May 4, 2025, the exhibition spotlights new facets of their respective practices, with fresh works by Bulloch, Kerbel and Rehberger premiering in Singapore alongside earlier works by Deacon and White—all developed in close collaboration with STPI’s Creative Workshop during their residencies with the esteemed Visiting Artists Programme (VAP).

In the exhibition’s title, Old Friends further highlights STPI’s creative ethos, which pulses around the collaboration, camaraderie, and challenge of the artist-workshop relationship at its heart. Empowered by the workshop team’s “never say no” attitude, invited artists would propose radical ways of using printmaking and papermaking processes to achieve their vision, leading to intense experimentation and breakthroughs that push the boundaries of the mediums. STPI continues to stand as a valuable institution in the vibrant regional art scene, championing Singapore as a vital hub for artistic exchange with international players.

“New Releases Old Friends is an ode to community, and the longstanding friendships STPI has made since our establishment in 2002. The exhibiting artists who have crossed paths with the Gallery and the Creative Workshop are not just challenging the boundaries of printmaking and papermaking, but also weave new narratives into Singapore’s art scene.” —Emi Eu, Executive Director, STPI 

Highlights from New Releases Old Friends include the 53rd Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion awardee Tobias Rehberger’s “stained” tablecloth series, which will be draped over a table with chairs, inviting the audience to sit and gather. He used 3D modelling to produce 2D cross-section images which look like stains, as part of his broader practice to disrupt our initial perception of everyday objects and their functions.

1997 Turner Prize nominee Angela Bulloch and the workshop pioneered a “laser-off” technique for her Non-Euclid Intercontinental series, where a digitally manipulated image by the artist was fed through a laser-cut machine. The machine removed layers from a paper primed with ink to produce images that tease at the interplay of the digital and the material, the two- and three-dimensional, which are recurring themes in her practice.

As an extension of a project working with synchronised swimmers to choreograph a pool performance, 2015 Turner Prize nominee Janice Kerbel examines the “language” of swimming pool designs by shaping papers to various pool shapes that sits between visual and type. The artist catalogues the “typology” of pools, reimagining the ways we can read the visual forms surrounding us.

1987 Turner Prize awardee Richard Deacon first did a residency in 2011, where he experimented with “printing” on water through the process of creating large-scale marbled paper, which were then fashioned into three-dimensional sculptures. Inspired by Housing Development Board (HDB) flats, the public housing blocks found in Singapore, these structures demonstrate the artist’s sculptural sensibilities while also pushing paper to exceed its surface purpose to become an art-making material in its own right. 

Part of the exhibition’s title is inspired by San José Museum of Art’s honoree Pae White’s solo show, Friendship is Magic with STPI in 2021. During her residency, she allowed herself to wander around Singapore and be guided by her relationships formed with the workshop team. This created UNLOST, a series that comes from a larger series of flocked works simulating multicoloured, overlapping threads, inspired by White’s notable thread installations where she would criss-cross the material throughout the exhibition space to create density.

The exhibition continues STPI’s worldbuilding as an established institution for print and papermaking experimental practices since 2002, while emphasising the gallery’s commitment to foster long-lasting connections between Singapore and the international art community.