Chua Ek Kay
Shopfront
Ink on rice paper
88x88cm

Chua Ek Kay started painting street scenes after a trip to Hong Kong and China in 1986. That experience inspired him to explore Singapore as a subject in his art. As a Singaporean artist, he felt a strong need to reflect his own surroundings and culture in his work.

Trained in traditional Chinese landscape painting, Chua used his foundation in brushwork and composition to depict local street scenes and shophouses. He reimagined Singapore’s urban landscape through a poetic lens—seeing tall buildings as mountains, smaller structures as hills, and street lamps, traffic lights, and cars as trees.

Working in the xieyi style, which emphasizes expressive, spontaneous brushwork, Chua had to simplify certain elements to emphasize the character of the streets and shophouses. Since this was a new subject for him, he knew it required new techniques. He felt that using the same approach as he did for traditional subjects like flowers and birds would make the work feel conventional—something he wanted to avoid.

To gather inspiration, Chua frequently visited areas such as Chinatown, Beach Road, South Beach Road, North Bridge Road, and Tanjong Pagar. Over nearly five years, he experimented with different methods, gradually realising that capturing the look of the shophouses wasn't enough—he also needed to express their rich history. As more shophouses were being demolished and replaced with high-rises, Chua saw the urgency of preserving their stories. Through his art, he sought to evoke a sense of nostalgia and highlight the historical and cultural importance of these vanishing streetscapes.

In 1991, Chua’s painting of Liang Seah Street titled “My Haunt” won him the United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year, making him the first Chinese-ink painter to win the award.