{"id":378193,"date":"2025-12-30T23:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378193\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T23:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:15:16","slug":"why-these-collectors-are-building-a-platform-for-southeast-asian-women-artists-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378193\/","title":{"rendered":"Why These Collectors Are Building a Platform for Southeast Asian Women Artists in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art Market<\/p>\n

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Portrait of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden.<\/p>\n

Albert Irvin, clockwise from top right: Summer, 1997; Abstract, 1997; Concordia III, 1997. <\/p>\n

After 23 years based in Singapore, Krystina Lyon and her husband Mark Budden are returning to London, but they plan to take the cultural influences of Southeast Asia with them. <\/p>\n

Over the past three decades, the couple has amassed around 200 works of art that trace both the arc of Southeast Asia\u2019s contemporary scene and their personal journey as collectors. <\/p>\n

In their collection are works by Charles Lim Yi Yong<\/a>, who represented Singapore at the Venice Biennale in 2015; Maria Madeira, who gave a voice to Timor-Leste in its inaugural Venice Biennale pavilion in 2024; the British abstract expressionist Albert Irvin<\/a>; and the British Balinese artist Sinta Tantra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For their next chapter in London, the couple plans to focus their collection on Southeast Asian women artists. \u201cThe women artists in my collections are articulating histories, untold stories, and struggles that are important to understanding Southeast Asia now,\u201d said Lyon.<\/p>\n

Tentatively named the Nassim Road Collection\u2014after the street in Singapore where they lived\u2014the couple hopes it will become a platform for deeper research into the history of contemporary art in the region. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice to make it a place of encounter where students, scholars, and visitors can engage with the collection,\u201d Lyon added. \u201cWhere dialogues around gender, history, and contemporary art in Southeast Asia can continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

From decoration to devotion<\/p>\n

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Interior view of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden\u2019s living room. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden.<\/p>\n

Like many collectors, Krystina Lyon and her husband first began buying art as a way to decorate their home, with early purchases including a set of screenprints from Kee Levi.<\/p>\n

When the couple relocated to Singapore in the early 2000s, their business grew, and so did their collection. Paintings, artifacts, collectible Danish furniture: The range widened, and Lyon found herself with more time to devote to her own passion.<\/p>\n

She began volunteering as a docent at heritage and history museums, including the Peranakan Museum, the Malay Heritage Centre, and the National Gallery Singapore<\/a>. \u201cThrough them, I gained a much deeper knowledge of national histories in Singapore and in the region,\u201d she noted. <\/p>\n

Gradually, her focus shifted from heritage to the immediacy of contemporary art. The turning point came in 2014, when Lyon volunteered as a guide for a major exhibition at the now-defunct Centre for Contemporary Art. <\/p>\n

Titled \u201cNo Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia,\u201d it featured 19 works by 16 artists and collectives from 11 countries, including Shilpa Gupta<\/a>, The Propeller Group<\/a>, and Aung Myint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Clockwise from left: Three photographs by Krystina Lyon; Loke Hong Seng Poor Child Peddling Cold Drinks Under the Hot Sun,1972\/2015; Loke Hong Seng, Father and Son Pushing a Cart, 1972\/2015; Martin Parr, Burning Heather, 1981. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. <\/p>\n

Octora Chan, from top to bottom: Ad Infinitum, 2019 and Recoup 1920: wuorv egnoj, 2023. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. <\/p>\n

It delved into the diversity of art practice, exploring everything from the legacy of major political events such as the Indian Partition to the perception of womanhood and family.<\/p>\n

The show had a profound emotional effect. \u201cMy husband and I always remember walking into that exhibition and seeing Tayeba Begum Lipi<\/a>\u2019s bed made of razor blades and Sopheap Pich<\/a>\u2019s Morning Glory (2011), woven from rattan.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThese works were no longer about national narratives; they were questioning, reshaping, and telling their own stories,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Nearly a decade later, in her living room, sit two glass-encased works by Lipi: a pair of palm-sized baby shoes\u2014Lost (2019)\u2014and a set of stiletto heels\u2014Her Stilettos 1 (Day) (2019)\u2014both cut from the glint of razor blades. <\/p>\n

For the works, Lipi draws on her roots in Bangladesh, where access to healthcare is limited. The razor blade is a tool used to sever an umbilical cord, and Lipi turns that brutal necessity into a metaphor for the struggles faced by women in her home country.<\/p>\n

A collection with an academic catalyst\"\"<\/p>\n

Tayeba Begum Lipi, left to right: Her Stilettos 1 (Day), 2019 and Lost, 2019. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. <\/p>\n

What ultimately steered Lyon toward collecting women artists with intention was her enrollment in a joint MA program in Asian art histories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I began researching women\u2019s art collectives in Southeast Asia, I started to see patterns, urgencies, and resonances I hadn\u2019t noticed before,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cI realized I had to marshal my resources to build a collection with real depth and coherence.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the first works Lyon acquired by a Southeast Asian women artist was Ad Infinitum (2019) in 2021 by Melbourne-based Indonesian artist Octora Chan. Chan is known for interrogating how ethnographic portraits of Indonesian women produced during the colonial era continue to shape perceptions of gender in the region today. In Ad Infinitum, she restaged a photograph of a Legong dancer. Legong, a classical Balinese court dance, has long been performed by women. Yet under colonial rule, dancers were often stripped of their individuality and treated as objects of exotic curiosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was immediately intrigued by the layered narrative in the work,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cI was familiar with parts of Dutch colonial history in the East Indies, but this was the first time I encountered a young contemporary artist critiquing that period in a way that also engaged with current sociopolitical issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, Lyon purchased another work by Chan, Recoup 1920: wuorv egnoj (2023), the artist\u2019s first foray into tapestry. <\/p>\n

Here, Chan restages herself as the subject of an ethnographic portrait of Balinese women shown from a three-quarter back view. Golden threads glint in her earrings and hair ornaments, set against the muted tones of merino wool, imbuing the work with elegance and softness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably what they would have liked to show the colonizers\u2014not everything, just their backs,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cIt\u2019s as if she\u2019s giving them their agency back.\u201d<\/p>\n

A collection of dialogue\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Clockwise from top left: Wing Chan, Urban-fitti No 003, 2013; detail of Sinta Tantra, Birds of Paradise (Day), 2022; Gary-Ross Pastrano, Palimpsest, 2017-2021. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. <\/p>\n

Sinta Tantra, left to right: Birds of Paradise (Day), 2022 and Constellations of Being (Coral), 2022. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. <\/p>\n

For Lyon, collecting has always been about \u201cdialogue rather than possession.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reflects what I have learned from living here [in Singapore] for over three decades,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her commitment extends beyond acquiring works, as she revealed plans to lend several pieces to museum exhibitions next year in both London and Boston. But the culmination of her research and collecting philosophy will arrive next year with the publication of her book, You Are Seen: Women\u2019s Contemporary Art Practices in Southeast Asia. <\/p>\n

The volume, set to coincide with the Art SG art fair in January, spotlights 35 women artists from nine ASEAN countries. Drawing from her personal collection and spanning both emerging and established voices, the book served a crucial purpose for her. \u201cThe aim is not to speak for these artists, but to amplify the resonance of their work,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope to continue this journey through speaking, writing, and sharing the collection so that others can encounter them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art Market Portrait of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. Courtesy of Krystina Lyon and Mark Budden. Albert Irvin,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,14272,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-378193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-collector-profiles","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}