The New Era of Art in Contemporary World

Posted by Angeline under Exhibitions, Hobbies and Toys, Museums/Heritage Galleries, Reflections
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In case you didn’t realise, the arts and heritage scene in Singapore has been gaining momentum over the past decade, even though many Singaporeans are still shy in articulating their arts affection and interpretation.

It is also a good sign to recognise that there are great efforts by individuals to set up art galleries and spaces to spread arts. One exemplar would be the Wetterling Teo Gallery which is located amidst private housing estates.

Established in 1994, this art gallery is the fruit of labour between Wetterling Gallery in Sweden and Mr. Daniel Teo, an established businessman with a flair for arts and creativity. To pay a visit to this award-winning gallery, I made an appointment with Leslie, the person-in-charge, a day before I went down.

Although the gallery only occupied a single storey, the ambience of cosiness and tranquillity is sufficient to add extra charm to the place.

While I was at the gallery, the very first piece of art work that caught my attention was this twin-painting done by late Mr Chua Ek Kay, a prominent Chinese Ink Painter and Cultural Medallion winner who had earned recognition locally and internationally. Although each viewer may react differently to the experience of Mr Chua’s works, what is noticeable is that his works entails the marriage of traditional Chinese and modern Western elements, injecting better insights of Western art into Chinese painting.

Chua Ek Kay, “Summer Lotus”, Mixed media on rice paper

Also housed at the gallery are works by another contemporary Chinese artist-Shan Fan, who is currently residing in Germany. Very often, his works can be said as neither abstract nor figurative and the paintings are done in a way that creates ambiguity between figure and background or that lines or strong brushstrokes are by themselves pictorial entities yet defining borders within the painting.

Shan Fan, “Zollverein”, 2004, Oil on Canvas

Shan Fan, “Convex & Concave”, Oil on Canvas

Meanwhile, whilst at the gallery, another laudable mention which I spotted would be works done by Cai Heng, a Chinese contemporary artist who was born in China to a family of strong artistic background. Her earlier works are more towards traditional aesthetics before moving towards the inclusion of Western painting. Her works are seldom representational and are rather analogous to abstract expressionism- executed with just the traditional use of ink, brush and rice paper.

Cai Heng, “Blossoms 1/2”, Chinese ink on rice paper

Cai Heng, “Blossoms 2/2”, Chinese ink on rice paper