'These [materials] still have some catching up to do with paintings in terms of recognition and appreciation,' she says. 'And yet there is a line connecting [these works]. They are all talking about Asian values in today's contemporary issues.'

The work of South Korea's You Jin-young, for instance, explore the reticence and guardedness that permeates Asian societies and poisons some traditional families. Using polyester film, she crafts see-through figurines which she then decorates with mixed media. The results are unnerving versions of the ubiquitous kitsch decorations found on mantlepieces everywhere.

In A Family in Disguise, an almost life-sized, mournful-looking girl holds a smiling mask of her own face as her cute dog stands next to her - the opaque animal looking more real than the girl with her transparent body.

'I am interested in people who don't expose themselves, who want to be unseen,' says You, 31. 'I am creating aloof individuals who turn away from others and refuse to adapt to society.'

As a child, You was so insecure and timid that she dared only to draw pictures with faint and hesitant lines. The results were 'pale and blurred'. By last year, she was drawing lonely figures locked in society, and depicting the hidden truths and falsehoods of the domestic realm.

'Sometimes there is only discord and apathy among family members. Yet they are afraid to be revealed publicly as anything but a harmonious family,' she says.

You's upcoming series is called On Behalf Of, and juxtaposes gloomy figures with objects that project their innermost feelings - a smiling doll or a luxuriant bouquet, for instance.

Her compatriot Yi Hwan-kwon - best known for his almost-flat sculptures - also explores on the topic of family ties in his work. His pieces are about preserving traditions, and are far from negative in their depiction of customs. Yi's fibreglass-reinforced plastic sculptures of a boy and a girl are inspired by the large earthenware jars used for making kimchi, soya sauce and soybean paste - three hugely important fixtures in Korean cuisine.

Traditionally, the jars are squat and ungainly, and their placement within the house must take into account temperature, altitude and the chi (energy) of the ground beneath. 'So being squat and short is really neither bad nor ugly. Instead, it speaks of communion with the earth and groundedness,' Yi says.

Lee So-yoon's works include sculptures of six girls sitting in six different rooms. The whimsical mixed-media pieces track scenes from a semi-autobiographical character's life, with titles such as Anxiety, Distrust and Confusion.

In Scene 1: Palpitate And Expectation, a cherubic cartoon girl sits on a bench with a big backpack, peering over her glasses with round, anticipating eyes. 'It is the moment she is ready to find herself,' says Lee.

Other works in the show, while ostensibly venturing away from the private and personal, nevertheless pick apart - consciously or otherwise - how cultural specifics influence one's world view.

Indonesia's Kenyem and Wiradana's paintings bring out the sights and atmosphere of rural life with vibrant, seemingly naive styles that break from conventional folk stereotypes of the country's art.

Artistic couple Pintor Sirait and Astari Rasjid poke fun at people's addiction to luxury goods in their tongue-in-cheek works.

Astari's Drunken Bag, for example, is a painted copper image of a beer-drinking wayang shadow-puppet figure, Petruk - the most obnoxious joker in Javanese mythology - leaping over a handbag that resembles Hermes' Birkin design. The combination of popular entertainment and spiritual overtones in the piece makes the point that consumption has become both a sport and a religion.

Pintor says he and Astari work together to explore similar themes. 'Even though Astari is a woman, she has a lot of masculine qualities and I have a lot of feminine ones,' he says. 'We both investigate different things, but with the same denominator of consumerism. All these boil down to the same desires.'

And in the works of Singaporean artist Andre Tan - who is a member of the art and design collective that runs [muse:um] - the distinction between Asian and western identities comes to the fore. Tan juxtaposes western icons such as Superman with Asian ones such as Mao Zedong, in a style deliberately borrowed from advertising and exploring the idea of duality.

Prices for works in the show range from S$2,800 (HK$14,500) to S$84,000 (HK$434,000), and Howe says prices for works by Southeast Asian and Korean artists still lag far behind those commanded by their Chinese contemporaries. That means as the financial crisis worsens and prudent but deep-pocketed collectors are unable or unwilling to maintain art portfolios filled with superstars, the Southeast Asian and Korean markets will become much more attractive.

'Many works by Korean artists are on par with those by their Chinese counterparts in terms of quality. Yet price-wise, they cost just a fraction. This creates rising interest globally,' Howe says.

There is no divide between western and eastern contemporary art practice, she says.

'When it comes to contemporary art, regional differences hardly exist. Almost everyone speaks about social issues faced by the country in connection with today's global issues.' We are Contemporary Art, until Dec 23 at [muse:um], Singapore. Go to, artelinksingapore.com for details