The Inaugural Illustration Arts Fest Held on 28 to 30 October and 4 to 6 November, 2016

Red Dot Diva has covered local creative events for a few years now. In the last couple of years, she noticed that the indie art scene in Red Dot Island has become even more vibrant. Generally speaking, there is now a bolder level of confidence emanating from artists and creators, as a newer generation seeks to consume a wider range of topics and forms of expression that resonate with their sense of being.

So, it is a great time for the Illustration Arts Fest (IAF) to make its debut this year. Organized by the Organisation of Illustrators Council (OIC Singapore) in celebration of its 10th anniversary, the festival will be held in two locations (LASALLE and at SWF/ The Arts House) over two weekends - 28 to 30 October, and 4 to 6 November.

Event poster by Charmumu Fiona

The event highlights the indie illustrators across Asia, that deal with more unique content and art styles. Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), LASALLE College of the Arts; and East London Comics Arts Festival (ELCAF) and Nobrow Press are also co-partners of the event, with strong support from the local creative community, like Supermama, Goodstuph and MightyJaxx - just to name a few.

There will be panels and talks by invited artists, including Jean Julien, Richard McGuire, Hideyuki Katsumata, Sonny Liew, Mattias Adolfsson and Isabel Greenberg, as well as workshops by Sonny Liew, Mattias Adolfsson and Isabel Greenberg that one can sign up for.


To get a feel of the wide range of illustration styles out there, there will be an Artists Market held on 29 and 30 October at LASALLE's Campus Green, where the public can check out and buy original books and works of art in the 50+ stalls set up there. Red Dot Diva's artist friends, Benjamin Chee of "Charsiew Space" and Ziqun AK will be having their graphic novels for sale. Many more local and regional illustrators like Stormbush aka Calvin Chua, Joon Saw, Soh Fia, Aziemah Khairunnisa, Cassandra Rushton, Peggy Teng from Malaysia and Amanda Widjaja from Indonesia, will also be having a table at the Artists Market. Red Dot Diva admits she is not familiar with most of them, but she has seen samples of their artwork online, and they are brilliant.

Event poster by Andre Wee

For those who want to get to know or meet with the featured artists, book signing sessions are available. So far, the ones announced are:

- Pann Lim ( Kinetic Singapore )/ Holycrap’s - Rubbish Famzine No.5 "In The Name Of The Father"
- Koh Hong Teng’s - "The Garden of Foolish Indulgences"
- Isabel Greenberg’s "The One Hundred Nights of Hero"
- more including Mattias Adolfsson and Richard McGuire! (Unfortunately, Red Dot Diva does not have more information and details on timing of these at this moment.)

To check out the events held at IAF, head to the official website for a list and updates.

Do note that tickets would have to be purchased separately for those events held on the different weekends:

- LASALLE - 28 to 30 October (More information of how to buy individual ticket pages from Peatix here.) Event tickets are priced from SGD 20, and day passes at selling at SGD 55.

- Singapore Writers' Festival, The Arts House - 4 to 6 November. Festival passes are at SGD 20, and they are selling out fast!



There are heaps of wonderful artistic talent to be discovered over here, and Red Dot Diva can't wait to get to know some of these people when she heads to the marketplace at IAF.

Hope to bump into some of you there too!