The Man Behind the Curtain

From headline-making lawsuits to launching art into outer space, SK Lam is the mystery man behind some of modern art’s biggest moments

- Coco Marett. Portrait, Alex Maeland

Well, that was unexpected. Half an hour before its VIP preview event was set to end, collective gasps were heard from local celebrities and influencers across the pitch as the news pinged through on people’s phones—it had been abruptly announced that the Kaws: Holiday exhibition had been ordered by the Singapore court to stop. Immediately.

Kaws: Holiday was the first major art exhibition Singapore had seen in two years, since the pandemic began. The highly anticipated public installation featured a monumental inflatable sculpture of Kaws’ Companion laying across a floating football pitch dubbed The Float, with Marina Bay Sands in the background.

It turned out that The Ryan Foundation, a local non-profit arts organisation, had filed an interim injunction citing reasons such as intellectual property rights infringement and misuse of confidential information. Angry Singaporeans who had been looking forward to the exhibition quickly took to social media to condemn the group, pointing out the hypocrisy of its actions as a foundation that claims to “promote arts awareness and develop art projects to build communities”.

Two days later, the court discharged the injunction and ordered The Ryan Foundation to pay legal costs to AllRightsReserved, the Hong Kong-based creative agency founded by SK Lam. Kaws: Holiday has been an ongoing collaboration since 2018 between New York-based artist Kaws (real name Brian Donnelly) and AllRightsReserved.