Tung Yue Nang, Peace and Joy, 2018, Ink on paper, 95 x 180 cm
Textures of Longing and Belonging is a solo exhibition by Tung Yue Nang, opening on 19 September 2026 and curated by Yang Jye Ru. Featuring around 15 works created between 2018 and 2026, the exhibition focuses on Tung’s depictions of Singapore’s urban landscape, including familiar places such as Chinatown, Clarke Quay, Joo Chiat, Pulau Ubin and the Singapore River. Through his artistic treatment, these familiar everyday landscapes become more than representations of the city; they invite us to see the city anew and reflect on our relationship with it.
Our understanding of a city is shaped not only by what we experience in person, but also by the images, memories and public narratives that accumulate over time. Iconic landmarks repeatedly featured in tourism campaigns, media coverage and representations of the city gradually establish familiar ways of seeing. In Singapore, the urban landscape is often closely tied to the image of the nation. These distinctive urban symbols not only shape how visitors imagine Singapore, but also, often imperceptibly, influence how we see and understand the city in which we live.
For instance, Chinatown has long been an urban space subject to constant observation and reinterpretation. Since the 19th century, it has been an important residential and commercial district for Singapore’s Chinese community. Its original way of life began to change with urban renewal and the resettlement of residents in the 1960s. By the 1970s, as the city entered a period of greater stability and efforts towards urban renewal and heritage conservation gathered pace, greater attention was given to preserving its historic districts. In 1989, Chinatown was officially gazetted as a conservation area, safeguarding and restoring its shophouses, streets and traditional commercial activities.[1] These traces of the past have also provided an important foundation for the area’s cultural and artistic development, and Chinatown has gradually become the familiar historic and cultural landscape it is today, as well as an important place through which Singapore presents its multicultural identity.[2]
For Tung, however, the city has never been simply a collection of landmarks assembled into a picturesque view. It is a living environment that must be entered, inhabited and experienced. While touristic images tend to focus on striking and recognisable symbols of the city, Tung turns his attention to the everyday textures beyond these landmarks: the weathered surfaces of old buildings, people moving through the streets, fleeting encounters between individuals, and the changing light from day to night. These seemingly ordinary moments shape the way he sees the city and serve as an important source of inspiration for his artistic practice.
This way of seeing, grounded in close observation and everyday experience, is closely connected to Tung’s lifelong engagement with ink painting. At the age of fifteen, he began studying traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy and seal carving under the renowned calligrapher, painter and seal-carver See Hiang To, and was later inspired by the ink master Lim Tze Peng. For decades after, brush and ink have remained central to his artistic language. His earlier works often focused on corners of the city, with weathered walls, street figures and ordinary scenes becoming subjects of observation and depiction. Rather than attempting to reproduce what he sees exactly, Tung uses variations in brushwork, ink tones and line to capture the sensation of looking at a particular moment.
Venue: artcommune gallery, 76 Bras Basah Road, #01-01 Carlton Hotel, Singapore 189558
When: 19 - 30 Sep 2026, 12noon - 7pm daily
