Page 17 - NAFA Annual Report 2017/2018

The Grad Expectations 2017

The 2017 graduating class from the School of Art and
Design presented the fruits of their labour to the public
and industry at a combined diploma and degree graduation
show titled The Grad Expectations 2017. Between May
and July 2017, more than 550 final year works from the 3D
Design; Design and Media; Fashion Studies; and Fine Art
programmes were showcased at NAFA Campus 1 and its
Tower Block, and the Objectifs’ gallery. On the opening
evening of the graduation show, deserving diploma and
degree students received the NAFA Fine Art Graduating
Awards by the Woon Brothers Foundation and the School
of Art and Design’s Best Studentship Awards.

On 7 and 8 June, at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Galleries, the
Fashion Studies programme also showcased 67 diverse and
emerging talents from Diploma in Fashion Design; Diploma
in Fashion Merchandising and Marketing; Bachelor of Arts
(Hons) Fashion; and Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Fashion and
Marketing. Various accolades were also given out to Fashion
Studies students including the Creativity Award, Ready-To-
Wear Award, Most Improved Award, Best Branding Award,
Best Commercial Viability Award and the Best Team Award.

Overdrawn
NAFA students present

In an inter-institutional exchange between NAFA and responses to artist
Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), The University of
Melbourne, Australia, Overdrawn presents the notion Danh Vo’s work
of expanded drawing practice as a process of fusing a
variety of concepts, media and techniques. The exhibition
featured works produced by NAFA and VCA faculty In July 2017, NAFA’s School of Art and Design presented an
members, and showcased transdisciplinary practices by interdisciplinary project by 16 Design and Media; Fashion
four faculty members from each institution, including a range Studies; and Fine Art students, at the National Gallery
of practices that positioned drawing as a philosophical Singapore’s (NGS) Rooftop Studios. Responding to
approach to making art. internationally acclaimed Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo’s
NGS commission, and taking his sculptural installation as the
Held at the Lim Hak Tai Gallery in March and April 2018, point of departure, the students explored issues of distortion
the first of two reciprocal collaborative exhibitions between and separation; identity and fragmentation through a series of
NAFA and the VCA featured a distinctive array of works collages, textile designs and puzzle games.
across a range of different mediums. The exhibition
showcased works by Singaporean and Australian artists: Drawing from their experiences and challenges working on
Tang Ling Nah and her collaborators – Eng Kai Er, Audrina the project, in a peer sharing session on 8 July, the students
Goh and Jereh Leong; Eleanor Lim Shan; Tan Chwee Seng; also shared their inspiration behind their final works to an
The Machinist – Wendy Chua, Xin Xiaochang and Yuki attentive audience of friends, lecturers and members of
Mitsuyasu; Raafat Ishak; Lou Hubbard; Kate Daw; and the public. While expanding on the different visual and
Nicholas Selenitsch. Very few of the works in the exhibition conceptual aspects of the Danish-Vietnamese artist’s
use traditional drawing techniques, yet aspects of each can works and artistic practice, this NAFA-NGS collaboration HIGHLIGHTS
be described as graphic, diagrammatic and expressive, simultaneously offered an opportunity for students to engage
words that are often associated with the processes in conversations taking place in the global contemporary
of drawing. art scene.

17