HONG KONG.- Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, announced today the company will host its first selling exhibition of outdoor sculpture in Asia with the support of the National Parks Board and Singapore Tourism Board from 23 October 2012 to 31 January 2013. Sotheby’s, with many years’ experience staging monumental sculpture exhibitions in the US and the UK, will take a proven formula further afield when it presents 16 works by award-winning international sculptor Zadok Ben-David against the magnificent backdrop of Singapore Botanic Gardens. The exhibition is partly sponsored by Bank Sarasin, and will be free and open to the public.

Discussing the exhibition, one of the first collaborations of this scale and nature in Asia, Patti Wong said: “During this period of dramatic growth in the art market, collectors in Singapore have been transacting with ever-increasing enthusiasm, particularly in the field of outdoor sculpture. We are grateful to the Singapore Tourism Board and the National Parks Board for providing us with an exceptional opportunity to stage an exhibition which will create a unique art experience for discerning collectors across the entire region.”

Lynette Pang, Executive Director for F1 & Sports and Arts & Entertainment, Singapore Tourism Board, commented: “We are pleased that Sotheby’s, one of the leading forces in the international art market, has chosen Singapore to be the site for their first Asian outdoor sculpture selling exhibition. This exhibition adds to the exciting diversity in our events calendar and complements Singapore’s dynamic visual arts landscape. By augmenting our historical Singapore Botanic Gardens with this high quality visual arts event, this exhibition serves as an opportunity to reach out to the world’s collecting community, and also foster an appreciation of the arts amongst Singaporeans and international visitors alike.”

Born in the Yemen, educated in Israel (at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design) and in London (at St Martin’s School of Art), London-based Zadok Ben-David’s work reflects his twin fascinations with magic and Darwinian Evolution. Man’s relationship with animals and nature are recurring themes in his sculptures, which, playing with illusion and scale, constantly surprise. Having represented Israel at the Venice Biennale in 1988, he has since exhibited widely in Asia, America, Europe and Australasia. His 2003 commission for the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem, For is the Tree of the Field Man, (a tree composed of tiny human figures) was a key milestone in his career. In 2007, he was the subject of a solo exhibition at Guangdong Art Museum in China and in 2008 he was commissioned to create a landmark sculpture for the Beijing Olympics. Ben David’s celebrated Blackfield installation, featuring a forest of 20,000 tiny botanical sculptures, has been on a world touring exhibition since its creation in 2008 and has elicited a rapturous response in every location. Last year, he created his first architectural work, Magic Box, a “levitating” gallery for the School of Architecture and Design (Escola Superior Gallaecia) in Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal.

For the exhibition at Singapore Botanic Gardens this autumn, Ben-David has created 12 new works, drawn from themes from some of his most powerful sculpture series. Figures, trees and butterflies are entwined in works which challenge our perceptions of reality. Each is a unique creation made of Corten (or “weathering”) steel. When exposed to the elements, the steel rusts, forming as it does so, a constantly regenerating protective coating. In keeping with the subject matter of Zadok Ben David’s work, this continuous cycle evolves before our eyes, mirroring the changing seasons of nature.

Speaking about the forthcoming exhibition, Zadok Ben-David said: “This is the first time I have created such a large and concentrated installation in one open public location. The works on show span several years, but I have made 12 of the 16 sculptures in the last few months. It is a totally new departure to be able to show my work in a variety of landscapes – in water and green spaces - and to see them working together.”