On the 20th of June, Art Works Gallery will be holding a charity art auction in collaboration with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. A number of top lots will be auctioned, including works by both international and Singapore-based artists. Leading up to the auction evening, visitors will have a chance to view the artworks in a preview exhibition running from the 18th- 20th of June. Featured artists include Andy Yang, Zhang Fuming, Danielle Solk, Sylvie Kettle, and RizRizRizz. Cassi Young, Global Fine Art Director at Art Works, will be leading the auction, bringing with her a wealth of experience from Christie’s and Bonhams in London. All proceeds from the auction will be going toward UNHCR and the critical work they carry out across the world.
The evening will be raising much needed funds and awareness for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, a global organization dedicated to protecting rights and building a better future for people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. UNHCR currently protects and cares for over 123 million people across the world, in over 130 countries. Alongside providing immediate relief and aid for those in need, UNHCR work with countries to improve and monitor refugee and asylum laws and policies. With numbers of refugees alarmingly increasing over the years, of the 123.2 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, 73.5 million are internally displaced, 36.8 million are refugees, 8.4 million are asylum seekers, and 5.9 million are others in need of international protection. With ever growing numbers, UNHCR also continues to support former refugees who have returned to their home country, people that have experienced displacement within their own country, and people who are either stateless or whose nationality is disputed.
Top lots of the auction include Andy Yang’s Benevolence (2020), an expressive piece in memory of the artist’s friend Eugenia Gajardo. Andy Yang (b. 1973) is a celebrated Singapore-based artist who works across a range of mediums to explore the parameters of the visuality of painting. Drawing from a well of emotions and driven by intuition, Yang’s practice is both poignantly expressive and harmonious. Yang has participated in a number of exhibitions at The Private Museum, as well as multiple performances at major institutions such as the ArtScience Museum (Ceremony, 2019), the Asian Civilisation Museum (Mindfulness, 2017), and the National Museum of Singapore (OIC Moon Grazing, 2013). On the painting itself, Yang has shared, “Benevolence (2020) reflects on a friend who forged her own gold standard of resilience, wielding it like armour against life’s fiercest adversities. Yang remembers how their conversations often drifted to those rare souls who offer the quiet grace of presence—no solutions, just solidarity. The kind who listen not to fix, but to witness; not to speak, but to hold space.”
Andy Yang, Benevolence, 2020
Alongside Yang’s vibrant work, the striking woodcuts of Zhang Fuming (b. 1989) will be presented in the auction. Fuming’s practice is rooted in the traditions and process of woodcut printing, employing the precision and raw immediacy of the medium in order to articulate richly layered social commentaries. All three of the works included in the auction have been shown in Props and Poses, an exhibition held at AC43 Gallery in 2022 that critiqued the contemporary pursuit of materiality and social rank. Fuming was inspired by the artificial compositions that drive the imagery of social media, experimenting with the awkwardness of such arrangements and the tension between such artificiality and functionality. Fuming has swiftly become a household name in Singapore, with works featured in multiple solo and group exhibitions across Singapore. In 2024, Fuming was also the recipient of the prestigious Young Artist Award for contributions to the visual art scene in Singapore and to the practice of printmaking.
Zhang Fuming, Jade Plant, 2022
Other works in the auction include Danielle Solk’s Nebula (2025), a supernova of abstraction and colour. Sylvie Kettle’s Pyramid Beings (2024) brings the viewer on a journey through Kettle’s sprawling dreamscapes, inspired by the rhythms of nature and the divine feminine. Finally, RizRizRizz’s print, You Are My Happiness, captures the satirical and exuberant playfulness of the artist’s practice. Drawing from his own lived experience, Rizz’s works often explore the female form alongside animals and floral imagery, constructing layered compositions with his signature wild, textured brush strokes.
Sylvie Kettle, Pyramid Beings, 2024
The exhibition preview will open on 18th June 2025 at Art Works Gallery and will run until the auction on 20th of June, 2025.
Jordan Tan holds an MA in History of Art from the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art. With a passion for fine art and the art market, Jordan plays a key role at Art Works by researching and interpreting trends across the primary and secondary markets, delivering valuable insights and business intelligence for the fine art department.
