New exclusive art club targets the well-heeled

LAUNCHED at a chic masquerade party in a black-and-white bungalow, a new art collectors’ club is so new, it doesn’t even have a name yet. “To be honest, I haven’t thought much about it,” deadpans Jie Li-Elbraechter, the club’s founder. But if its name is still pending, its mission is set: To raise the level of hype around art collecting in Singapore so that more people would get into it. 

Dr Li-Elbraechter notes – as many other art observers have – that Singaporean art collectors tend to be reticent about their collections and reluctant to reveal to the world what they have. The reasons are unclear since most Singaporeans don’t think twice about showing their cars, watches and handbags.

But whatever the reasons may be, Dr Li-Elbraechter is having none of it. The China-born Singapore-based artist and curator spent months persuading various art collectors to come forward. So the recent masquerade party in Mount Pleasant was a metaphorical “unmasking” of both the club as well as some under-the-radar collectors.