Diverse Visions” A Group Exhibition of Southeast Asia Artists at the Richard Koh Fine Art’s Singapore gallery

April 4, 2023 / News

Press Release

4 April 2023

Blk 47 Malan Road, #01-26

Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444 www.rkfineart.com

Diverse Visions

A Group Exhibition of Southeast Asia Artists

1 – 22 April 2023

We are thrilled to announce our upcoming group exhibition, “Diverse Visions”, showcasing the works of Phuc Thien Hoang (Vietnam), Pen Robit (Cambodia), Pachara Piyasongsoot (Thailand), Eiffel Chong (Malaysia), Haffendi Anuar (Malaysia), Hasanul Isyraf Idris (Malaysia), Samuel Xun (Singapore), Mengju Lin (Singapore), Ivan David Ng (Singapore) and Faris Nakamura (Singapore).

This exhibition brings together a group of talented artists from Southeast Asia, offering audiences a unique and diverse look into the art and culture of the region. The works on display range from 2-dimensional artworks to 3-dimensional artworks, showcasing a variety of styles and perspectives. This exhibition provides an opportunity for audiences to experience the creative output of these talented artists, and to gain an understanding of the cultural and historical context from which their works emerge. “Diverse Visions” is a celebration of the artistic and cultural richness of Southeast Asia, and

a testament to the region’s growing impact on the global art scene. The exhibition will be held at the Richard Koh Fine Art’s Singapore gallery located at Blk 47 of Gillman Barracks and will run from 1 to 22 April 2023. We invite art lovers and enthusiasts to come and experience this unique showcase of Southeast Asian art and talent.

Artists Biography

Phuc Thien Hoang (b.1995, Binh Thuan, Vietnam) was born in Binh Thuan, Vietnam in 1995. He graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts in 2020. Specialising in painting, Phuc held his first solo exhibition entitled Phuc: Cut, Draw, Paste, Place at Mo Artspace in Hanoi (2020). He also was awarded as a talented painter at Saigon Youth Art Biennale 2019. He currently lives and works in Saigon, Vietnam.

Pen Robit (b.1991, Battambang, Cambodia) lives and works in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Robit’s work attempts to represent Cambodia’s past, present and future socio-political fabric. He draws influences from Cambodian cultural iconography as well as ongoing societal discourses.

Pachara Piyasongsoot (b.1985, Bangkok, Thailand) graduated with a bachelor’s degree in B.F.A. (Graphic Arts), from The Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University. He is interested in the political and social context in Thailand. His painting are usually based on research of real places, people and narratives, by using photographs as important references for developing artworks. Currently he is living and working as a full-time artist in Bangkok, Thailand.

Eiffel Chong (b.1977, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) graduated with an MA in International Contemporary Art and Design Practice from the University of East London and a BA (Hons) in Photography from London College of Printing. He was an award-winning

photographer and has been featured in many exhibitions in Malaysia and around the world. More of his work can be viewed on http://www.eiffelchong.com

Haffendi Anuar (b.1985, Malaysia) ’s current work looks at the kain pelikat, a type of colourful plaid tubular transnational ‘maleskirt’ usually worn domestically and sometimes as an informal labour uniform in parts of the global south. Oriented in relation to his childhood memories of encountering and being enveloped by the fabric, his research and exploration into the iconography of the garment encompasses personal family photos, archival photographs, images from social media and the Internet as well as texts on Malaysia written by colonial writers and looks into the fabric’s origin, social utilization, visual patterns and formal structure. From the materials gathered, he would reimagine the fabric as ‘constructions’ inspired by the structures of hammocks, hanging cradles, nets, curtains/veils and webs, drawing inspiration from man-made and animal-made architecture. He works in a process that combines collage, dyeing, painting, image transfer and sewing and incorporates physical materials such as seashells, pebbles, gutter pipes, brass pipes, rice sacks and chicken feathers into his sculptures, embellishing as well as animating the forms.

Hasanul Isyraf Idris (b.1978, Malaysia) was trained at Mara University of Technology (UiTM), Perak, Malaysia and is presently

based in Penang. His practice spans a variety of media, including painting, drawing, installation, video work and sculpture. His works typically manifest hybridity of fictional and surreal iconography drawn from the personal invention as from a melange of pop cultural references, such as comic books, science fiction, street art and film. He personifies his personal struggles as an artist with strange characters and creatures that inhabit his invented universes.

Mengju Lin (b.1996, Singapore)’s artistic practice revolves around the agency of non-human things and how they protest. She works with found material to make images, sound, text objects and zines. She is a co-conspirator of radioriotgrrrl with Nadhirah Khalid and plays in a band called Terrapin with Jeremy Sharma and Lai Yu Tong.

Samuel Xun (b.1994, Singapore) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Singapore, graduating from LASALLE College of the Arts. His practice explores emblems of culture and identity, often centred around themes of emotion, cognition, and aestheticism. His work includes sculpture, installation, and textile compositions informed by film, culture, and personal narratives.

Xun’s oeuvre cross-references the hegemonic framework of queer identity within the national rhetoric and world-at-large, filtered through the lens of lived experiences and the psychoanalysis of self. His characteristically ornamented surfaces are governed by a cathartic process of making that posits the use of colour, texture, and text, as a means to convey humanistic resolutions to social discourse. Ultimately, Samuel is interested in how art can provide catharsis, facilitate empathy, preserve culture, and foster better interaction in a digital society.

Ivan David Ng (b.1991, Singapore) is an artist from Singapore, presently based in the US. With a multi-approach art practice

informed by a painter’s sensibilities, he is interested in ideas surrounding provenance of things, secrets hiding in plain sight and the act of making as a means of knowing. He received his BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Summa Cum Laude and has exhibited in Singapore, the US and South Korea. He received the Gold Award (Established Artist Category) in the 39th UOB Painting of the Year in 2020 and worked on projects with Louis Vuitton, Singapore Land Group and Christian Liaigre.

Faris Nakamura (b.1988, Singapore) graduated with Bachelor in Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from LASALLE College of the Arts in partnership with Goldsmiths, College of London in 2014. Through sculptures, installations and site-specific works, Faris investigates the way people navigate and orientate themselves as they encounter space. He desires to understand the attachment and detachments people have towards spaces, how these relationships develop, and their impact.

About Richard Koh Fine Art

Founded in 2005, with spaces in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok, RICHARD KOH FINE ART is committed to the promotion of Southeast Asian contemporary art on regional and international platforms. Centred around a core belief in developing an artist’s career, the gallery looks to identify understated, albeit promising practices, and providing it opportunities to flourish. Through its regular exhibition cycles, print & digital publications and cross-border gallery