Home is where the art is: S'pore artists get a space - and a stake - in luxury shophouses

Tenants of four conservation shophouses in Geylang and River Valley have been living with works by home-grown artists on their walls. The pioneering partnership is the brainchild of boutique co-living developer Figment, which leases out living spaces in luxuriously appointed shophouses. It is held in conjunction with Singapore Art Week, which runs this year from Jan 14 to 23.

And in an unusual move, the artists - Nature Shankar, Leow Wei Li, Yen Phang and Khairullah Rahim - will each get 10 per cent of the rental profits from the respective shophouse their works are displayed in, for the next five years or until their works are sold.

Artist Leow, 27, whose works are displayed in Gallery House at Lorong 24A Geylang, agrees. "In a gallery, there is limited time to spend with an artwork. However, the co-living space at (Figment's shophouses) creates more time and space for viewers to relate to the works. I'm excited that (my art) can be a part of the intimate, everyday life of others," she says.

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