Wong Keen, Four Burgers, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm
Wong Keen’s new solo exhibition, ‘THEATRE OF ENIGMAS’ opens on 28 June in conjunction with the official opening of artcommune gallery’s new space at Carlton Hotel, Singapore.
One of Singapore’s leading painters, New York-trained artist Wong Keen has consistently captivated audience with his stylised and ever-evolving pictorial exploration which veers between the abstract and the figurative. From series to series, whether venturing anew or revisiting familiar techniques and imagery, Wong Keen’s relentless pursuit of compositional innovation, together with the enigmatic quality of his language, has given rise to a unique body of work that defies traditions and categorisation.
Theatre of Enigmas features over 15 works completed in the period of 2015 to 2019, providing audience a quick survey of Wong Keen’s wide-ranging themes and techniques across canvas, paper and mixed-media works. For instance, Still a Burger (an epic painting from the artist’s acclaimed Flesh Series) draws us into a resplendent twisted nightmare where truncated nude bodies entice like sandwiched meat patties, alluding to the plight shared between flesh (beings) oppressed and consumed for commercial ends — from the cow on a butcher’s table to the woman objectified for sex in a brothel. On the other hand, the recently-completed Four Burgers is a whimsical and surreal self-portrait where the artist’s facial flesh echoes in likeness to the three hovering burgers conceived through bold gestural strokes. The Breath of Desire, with its ethereal display of superbly overlapped colours and spontaneous drips on rice paper, articulates the ventilating tensions between abstruseness and lucidity; strength and gentleness; will and surrender.
Venue: Artcommune Gallery, 76 Bras Basah Road #01-01, Carlton Hotel, Singapore 189558
When: 28 Jun - 14 Jul 2019, 12noon - 7pm
