Gestures of Landscape: A Group Exhibition by Faris Nakamura, Justin Lim, Liu Hsin-Ying, Melissa Tan, Wong Perng Fey, Yeoh Choo Kuan & Zelin Seah

May 11, 2022 / News

Press Release

10 May 2022

Richard Koh Fine Art

Blk 47, Malan Road, #01-26

Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444

www.rkfineart.com

Gestures of Landscape

A Group Exhibition by Faris Nakamura, Justin Lim, Liu Hsin-Ying, Melissa Tan, Wong Perng Fey, Yeoh Choo Kuan & Zelin Seah

6 – 28 May 2022

Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is proud to present Gestures of Landscape, a group exhibition comprising of recent works by Faris Nakamura (b.1988), Justin Lim (b.1983), Liu Hsin-Ying (b.1991), Melissa Tan (b.1989), Wong Perng Fey (b.1974), Yeoh Choo Kuan (b.1988) and Zelin Seah (b.1980). The exhibition is scheduled to run from 6 – 28 May 2022 at Richard Koh Fine Art, Blk 47 Malan Road, 01-26 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444.

Much like how contemporary art has evolved in the region, the paradigm of landscape in art has shifted dramatically over the centuries. In the Western painting tradition, landscape as a genre only became official in the 16th century and despite this, it was still lowly ranked in the hierarchy of painting genres. However, landscape art in China became established long before it became a genre of its own right in the West via the landscape portrayal of shan shui, and very much remains popular in this day and age. The philosophy of shan shui predicates that painting is not merely an open window for the viewer’s eye, but rather an object for the viewer’s mind.

In that same vein of thinking, Gestures of Landscape presents works that provoke the human mind with shadows and silhouettes of landscape, allowing viewers an opportunity to see past

preconceived notions of nature and creating new opportunities of understanding via atmosphere, mood, spirit, and the simplest of pictorial means. In all the selected works, the abstraction of landscape is accomplished through a range of techniques applied on two and three-dimensional planes. Though each artist is dealing with the notion of landscape, there is a great variety of aesthetic and emotional difference among the works.

Artists Biography

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.

Faris was most recently announced as the winner of the IMPART Awards, Visual Artist Category, 2020. He was awarded the Young Talent Programme Winners’ Solo, 2017/2018, the Grand Winner at the Shitsurai International Art Competition, Kobe Biennale, 2015 and was the Winston Oh Travel Award recipient, 2013.

Faris has exhibited both locally and internationally. He has showcased at venues such as Gillman Barracks (Singapore), The Substation (Singapore), ION Art (Singapore), Scotts Square (Singapore), Georgetown Festival (Penang, Malaysia), FASS Art Gallery (Turkey), Kobe Biennale ( Japan), and Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, (Venice).

It is also notable that Faris is a flautist and has performed at venues such as the Esplanade Concert Hall and the Victoria Concert Hall (Singapore).

Justin Lim (b.1988, Malaysia) completed his postgraduate studies in 2006 with the Master of Art (Fine Art) programme by The Open University UK conducted at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore after obtaining a BA(Hons) Fine Art majoring in painting. He has

exhibited widely in Southeast Asia in various solo & group exhibitions and was the recipient of the 2008 Malaysia-Australia Visual Artist Residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia. He has

since held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, USA (2011 – Asian Artist Fellowship/ Freeman Fellowship), Red Gate Gallery, Beijing (2013 – Khazanah Nasional Artist Residency) and The Tasmanian College of the Arts, University of Tasmania, Australia (2016 – International Artist in residence).

Selected group exhibitions include the Asian Art Biennale: Viewpoints & Viewing points, Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2009), Modern Love, Earl Lu Gallery / Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore (2015), Asia Young 36 / Asia Contemporary, a survey of contemporary Asian art practices, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Jeonju, South Korea (2016) and Contemporary Chaos, curated by Demetrio Paparoni, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway (2018).

He currently lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Liu Hsin-Ying (b.1991, Taiwan) was trained at the Art Students League in New York in 2013 and at the Department of Fine Art,

Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei, Taiwan, graduating in 2015. She works in a variety of medium and approaches such as

painting, drawing, video and performance art, drawing inspiration from the personal and cerebral. She is currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

She was the winner of the 2019 Kaohsiung Award – Finalist Award, 2015 Outstanding Art Prize (Taipei National University) and an artist in residence at the Open and Fun Art Village Residency, Shanghai, China.

Solo exhibitions include: Somewhere Down The River (2018), Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; “Please Give Me a Shape in One Piece.” thought spoke (2016), Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and A Period of Time (2013), Soul Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan.

Melissa Tan (b.1989, Singapore) is a visual artist based in Singapore and received her BA (Fine Arts) from Lasalle College of the Arts in 2011. Her works are based on nature, themes of transience and beauty of the ephemeral. Her recent projects revolve around landscapes and the process of formation. Interested in geography and textures of rocks, she explores to translate the visual language through different mediums. Employing processes such as paper cutting, painting and silk-screen techniques, she is interested in materiality and how the medium supports the work. Though trained as a painter, she also works with video, sound and objects.

She was included in The Singapore Show: Future Proof, Singapore Art Museum at 8Q in 2012 and An Atlas of Mirrors, Singapore Biennale 2016, Singapore in 2016. She also participated

in the National Art Council and Dena Foundation Artist Residency program (Paris, France) in 2013. Public collections include Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Marina Bay Sands (Singapore), Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) New York, Facebook (Singapore), CapitaLand (Singapore).

Solo exhibitions include Under the Arched Sky (2019) Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore; Back to where we’ve never been (2018), Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur; Arc of Uncertainties (2016), Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore; and the Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn (2014), Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore.

Wong Perng Fey (b.1974, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is an experimental and versatile painter who graduated from the Malaysian Institute of Art in 1998 under scholarship. He was awarded the Artist Residency in Rimbu Dahan, Kuang in 2002. His works are in many prominent public collections such as the National Visual Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; Bank Negara Malaysia Museum art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur and Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur. He lives and works in Beijing.

Perng Fey’s gestural paintings of figures, nature, and natural vistas fluctuate between abstraction and figuration with an acute sensitivity to colors, layers and textures. His works consist of a diverse subject matter, ranging from traditional landscape and portraiture to abstraction that exhibits a talented and confident brush play. His works become more than a picture plane and is transformed from the documentation of actions and mistakes into a plane that records gestures and mental states.

Yeoh Choo Kuan (b.1988, Malaysia) lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

His practice articulates the tension between a spiritual élan and the magnetism of desire, violence and the flesh. The natural landscape and the overload of information are extremes of a spectrum he embraces and represents in all its contradictions. With abstract painting as a strong foundation, he has in the latest years transcended into the conceptual realm of installation. His explorations of different artistic domains meet a sheer enjoyment of textures, mark making, and disintegration of the pictorial matter.

The biographical, psychological and emotional element is always his point of departure, leading then into visual reflections on our shared socio-political realm.

Solo exhibitions include: Today’s Special (2020), Richard Koh Fine Art Singapore; Streaming Mountain (2019), Richard Koh Fine Art Singapore; Lights In (2018), Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok; Live Leak (2017), Richard Koh Fine Art Malaysia; Private Sentiment (2012), House of Matahati, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Zelin Seah (b.1980, Malaysia) received BFA at University of Central England (2007). Seah investigates the neglected ordinary spaces and objects that constitute human activities. Having in appreciating the aesthetic of the unseen, his process-based approach emphasizes the negative space that eyes may miss. Often site-related, Seah’s works deal with the limitations of space, and seeks possible ways to fill spiritual void. Seah uses materials that convey metaphorical meaning to him, and always challenges formal methods, from classic painting, etching, carving to weaving.

Seah’s works have been acquired for public and private collections, including ILHAM Gallery (2020), Singapore Art Museum (2019), National Art Gallery Malaysia (2012) and University of Central England (2007). He has exhibited widely internationally, including The National Art Center Japan (2011), Saatchi Gallery United Kingdom (2014), Art Stage Singapore (2015, 2016), and Cammin Castle Germany (2019). Seah has been invited to join several residency programs, included: Southeast Asia Exchange Residency SAGER (2012, 2013), AIR Frankfurt (2017) and Residenz Cammin (2018). His awards include: The Jury’s selection of recommended works at the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival (2011), The Young Guns Awards Malaysia (2013), and Silver for UOB Painting of The Year Malaysia (2016, 2017).

About RKFA

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 collaborations, Richard Koh Fine Art engages the art community with the aim of developing regional and intercultural dialogue.