Annual Special Exhibition: Shaping Visions 27.09.2020 — 15.11.2020

About The Exhibition

Featuring works by

Chua Ek Kay, Goh Beng Kwan, Han Sai Por, Amanda Heng and Ong Kim Seng

STPI Gallery is delighted to present its Annual Special Exhibition 2020, Shaping Visions . This year, STPI proudly looks close to home with its selection of five extraordinary artists in Singapore: the late master of Chinese ink Chua Ek Kay; pioneering collage artist Goh Beng Kwan; leading sculptor Han Sai Por; seminal performance artist Amanda Heng; and renowned watercolour painter Ong Kim Seng. Shaping Visions marks the first time these distinguished practitioners — who have each been awarded The Cultural Medallion, the nation’s highest honour for arts and culture practitioners — exhibit together, in an ode to their immense artistic contributions.

Shaping Visions unites each artist’s distinct depictions of natural and built environments, shedding light on personal reflections of and postures towards an evolving society. By bringing together existing, signature pieces as well as print-based works produced during their respective residencies at STPI, the comprehensive exhibition showcases each artist’s trail-blazing style and expert command of media and materials. As the artists hail from backgrounds that are largely not printmaking- centric, the exhibition will feature a diverse range of expressions that invite moments of pause, suspension and perception.

The presentation brings into dialogue Han’s organically shaped stone sculptures and woodblock prints, Chua’s gestural rhythms in scenes of nature and the city, Goh’s evocative portrayals of abstracted spaces and movements in collage and painting, Heng’s intimations of humanity’s connectedness within shared spaces and with each other, and Ong’s lithograph prints and watercolour paintings that invoke our sentiments towards shifting landscapes. Shaping Visions invites audiences to consider these works in a contemporary climate and perceive them in moments of unhurried contemplation. In an ever-changing Singapore, these seminal artists continue to provide space for envisioning new realities and modes of experiencing the world around us.

Throughout its run from 27 September to 15 November, this Annual Special Exhibition at STPI will be supported by a diverse array of public programmes including tours, workshops, and artist talks. The Annual Special Exhibitions at STPI Gallery gives audiences in Southeast Asia and Singapore the rare opportunity to encounter a remarkable scope of works on paper created by the most significant artists of modern and contemporary art history. Previous Annual Special Exhibitions have included Takashi Murakami: From Superflat to Bubblewrap (2019), David Hockney: A Matter of Perspective (2017), Zao Wou-Ki: No Boundaries (2016), and The Mystery of Picasso’s Creative Process: The Art of Printmaking (2013).