New to art collecting? Join the Club

Victor Chia and Lourdes Samson, two of the founding members of One Piece Club Singapore, posing with a work by emerging artist Kayleigh Goh at the club's inaugural publuc exhibition.

WHEN Victor Chia started collecting contemporary art 10 years ago, he was completely at sea. "What should I buy? What's considered good, meaningful, consequential art?" were some of the questions plaguing him. He would visit galleries but was too intimidated to ask for the price of the artworks. "I thought it might be rude," he says.

It took a good 5 years of frequenting galleries and museums to gain his footing. Today, he is recognised as one of the most supportive patrons of young and emerging artists, often collecting works of those who show promise but no one's heard of.

Chia, together with 2 other active collectors, Lourdes Samson and Charmaine Wai, now hope to help other relatively new art collectors navigate the art scene by answering their most pressing questions and engaging them in important conversations about art.

The three have founded the non-profit One Piece Club Singapore, which models itself after the popular One Piece Club established in Japan in 2007. Essentially, the One Piece Club is a fraternity of art collectors that welcomes any new collector willing to commit to purchasing at least one contemporary artwork a year.

The club does not allow any artist or gallerist to become a member, so that it remains a safe space for collectors to develop their tastes and opinions without being hassled or pressured by anyone with commercial interests.

Once a year, the club would hold a public exhibition of artworks they own as a demonstration of the member's commitment to collect and a way to create conversations about their choices. True to the club's name, each member just needs to exhibit one artwork per exhibition.

The club also organises trips to galleries, museums, artists studios and seasoned collectors' homes to help them hone their eye, learn about art's investment potential, and understand the various strategies of collecting, such as collecting by themes, regions and art movements. There is no membership fee, though members are expected to chip in to help defray the costs of organising events.

Malay Boy (Posterior) (After Cheong Soo Pieng) by Zulkhairi Zulkiflee pays homage to Cheong's 1953 painting Malay Boy With Bird, but reimagined as a contemporary "mat motor" with a bike. It is one of the works collected by a member of One Piece Club.

Chia says: "We don't want to influence anyone's taste. All we want to do is open their eyes to the world of collecting, help them navigate this possibly confusing art ecosystem, and let them decide how they want to build their collection at a pace that suits them."

Samson, who has an extensive collection of South-east Asian art, says: "We also don't discriminate against anyone who's not new to collecting. Some of our members are much more experienced and have bigger collections than other members. And they definitely collect more than one work a year. But they joined the club because it offers them a place to meet like-minded individuals."

Besides Singapore, other cities have also adopted the Japanese concept: There are well-established One Piece Clubs in Jakarta, Taipei and Shanghai.

One Piece Club Singapore was officially launched in January 2020, but the pandemic thwarted its ambitions and kept it from expanding. Its recent public exhibition of members' artworks had less than a dozen works, but they included strong pieces by up-and-coming artists such as Kayleigh Goh and Zulkhairi Zulkiflee.

In 2022, Chia, Samson and Wai hope to recruit more members so that they can hold bigger and better exhibitions in future, and do more in terms of public education.

To join the club, message One Piece Club Singapore on its website (opcsingapore.org) or Instagram (@opc_singapore)