This exhibition features a collection of paintings by well known Singaporean artists such as Ang Ah Tee, Chen Wen Hsi, Chua Ek Kay, Lim Tze Peng and Tan Choh Tee. Paintings of beautiful portraits created by artists from china such as Zhang Yi Bo, Li Zi Jian and Zeng Chuan Xing. The event would be held at ION Art Gallery, ION Orchard level 4 from 28 June to 6 July 2025.

Ang Ah Tee 洪亜弟

82 year old Mr Ang Ah Tee is a well known artist from Singapore famous for creating impressionistic and semi abstract paintings of beautiful scenes using the acrylic and oil mediums. Mr Ang studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in the early 1960s and was taught by teachers such as Cheong Soo Pieng and Georgette Chen. He then went on to be a full time artist in the late 1970s. Mr Ang is known for experimenting with various mediums and painting different subject matters. He has created using the watercolour and acrylic mediums on board and paper in the early years of his practice. He has created paintings of Singapore street scenes using ink on paper. He has also painted and exhibited a series of still life objects in recent times. Mr Ang Ah Tee was conferred the Cultural Medallion Award by the National Arts Council in 2009.

82 岁的洪亚弟先生是新加坡著名的艺术家，以使用丙烯和油画媒介创作印象派和半抽象风格的画作而闻名。洪先生于 20 世纪 60 年代初就读于南洋艺术学院，师从钟泗滨和张荔英等先驱画家。洪亚弟先生在 20 世纪 70 年代末成为一名全职艺术家。洪先生以尝试各种媒介和题材而闻名。在他早期的创作中，他使用水彩和丙烯媒介在木板和纸上进行创作。他也曾用水墨在纸上创作新加坡街景的画作。近年来，他还创作并展出了一系列静物画。2009 年，洪亚弟先生被新加坡国家艺术理事会授予文化奖章。

Chen Chong Swee 陈宗瑞 (1910-1985)

Mr Chen Chong Swee was one of the few well known pioneer artists in Singapore who specialised in creating paintings using the ink and watercolour mediums. Mr Chen travelled from China to Malaya and Singapore in the early 1930s and taught art at several schools such as Chung Cheng High School and Chinese High School. He became the head of Chinese painting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s. Mr Chen painted many different subjects in his ink paintings throughout his practice. They include mountains, landscapes, villages, farmers, birds and flowers etc. He also wrote essays on art, discussing about Chinese and western art. He also advocated for a centralised museum or gallery as well as a national collection for everyone in Singapore to enjoy art.

陈宗瑞先生是新加坡少数几位著名的先驱艺术家之一，他擅长用水墨和水彩颜料进行创作。20 世纪 30 年代初，陈先生从中国来到马来亚和新加坡，并在中正中学和华侨中学等多所学校教授美术。20 世纪 50 年代，他成为南洋艺术学院的中国画系主任。在他的创作过程中，陈先生的水墨画主题多种多样，包括山水、风景、村庄、农民、鸟儿和花朵等。他还撰写艺术论文，探讨中西艺术。他还倡导建立国家博物馆、美术馆让新加坡每个人都能欣赏艺术作品。

Chua Ek Kay 蔡逸溪 (1947-2008)

Chua Ek Kay is a famous local artist known for his unique understanding and interpretations of the lotus pond and street scenes of Singapore. In several of Chua’s paintings of the lotus pond, he moved the lotus flower away from its stem, exaggerated on the size of the lotus leaves or repeatedly painted vertical and horizontal lines that represents the plant’s stem to form an abstract composition. These ideas reflect the artist’s intention to move away from traditional ways of painting the lotus pond and approach this classical subject matter in a creative manner. Chua Ek Kay also looks to bring across the beauties of lifecycles in nature, a theme that some artists have approached fleetingly in the past. He demonstrates this interest by painting flowers that are either budding, blooming and withering in different creations.

Chua Ek Kay returned from Hong Kong to Singapore in 1986, he developed the practice of painting outdoors. He would travel to places such as Beach Road, Tanjong Pagar or Chinatown to observe and paint the old shophouses. He observed that many of the old shops were torn down and replaced with modern high rise buildings. Many daily activities that took place because of the presence of these shops slowly ceased with the demolition of the old shops. That evoked some sadness and regret inspiring Chua to express these emotions through his paintings.

To bring across these feelings, Chua Ek Kay adopted the xieyi approach to illustrate the shophouses and street scenes. He would place greater emphasis on a handful of key elements on the architecture and street such as windows, doors or street signs. These elements served the purpose of capturing the viewers attention and allow them to imagine the rest of the surroundings. This conveyed the idea that some experiences and memories will remain visible and intact even when things are removed because of development and modernisation. This style of painting eventually developed into abstract compositions put together with beautiful ink washes, lines and dots.

Chua Mia Tee 蔡名智

94 years old this year, Mr Chua Mia Tee is one of the most famous artist in Singapore known for his highly realistic paintings. Mr Chua studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts during the late 1940s and early 1950s. He would go on to paint numerous portraits of people from the working class, businessmen, political leaders and presidents of Singapore. Mr Chua was also known for creating realistic paintings of sceneries, cityscapes and animals such as parrots and Koi Fish. In different interviews, Mr Chua shared that he was inspired by art catalogues of paintings by Rembrandt and Goya. In 2015, Mr Chua Mia Tee was conferred with the Cultural Medallion Award by the National Arts Council of Singapore. National Gallery Singapore held an exhibition of Mr Chua’s paintings titled “Directing The Reel” in 2022.

Eng Siak Loy 翁锡礼

Mr Eng Siak Loy’s art career began with his training at the Singapore Academy of Art in the 1960s. He became the chief designer at the NParks thereafter. Mr Eng’s designs have played a key role in forging the branding and image of NParks. Mr Eng Siak Loy spent a lot of his time around flora and fauna in the gardens. He created sculptures and murals for the Gardens by the Bay and the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The botanic gardens’ Tanglin Gate, which features an intricate leaf motif design, was also his work. The time Mr Eng spent at the gardens culminated into a whole series of flower paintings which he created after he left his designer role at NParks. As Botanic Gardens celebrated her 150th anniversary, a solo exhibition was staged as a tribute to Mr Eng for his artistic contributions to the Gardens. A total of 30 oil paintings were showcased. During the event, the Singapore Botanic Gardens named an orchid after him ‘Dendrobium Eng Siak Loy’ as a special tribute to his contributions. Eng Siak Loy is the only visual artist in Singapore to receive such an honour.

Koeh Sia Yong 许锡勇

87 years old this year, Mr Koeh Sia Yong is a well known artist in Singapore. Mr Koeh studied western painting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in the the 1950s. It was also during that period that he joined the now defunct Equator Art Society that focused on paintings related to social issues and the working class. In the later part of his practice, Mr Koeh went on to paint a wide range of subject matters. They include nostalgic scenes of the Singapore River and street scenes during the 1980s and 1990s. He also painted sunflowers, places and people living in Bali. Several well known paintings by Mr Koeh Sia Yong can be found at the National Gallery Singapore. They include “Here They Come” a painting of street vendors appearing to run away from the police, “Persecution” a painting revolving around the atrocities of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore.

Lee Boon Wang 李文苑 (1934-2016)

Lee Boon Wang graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1853 and lectured at the academy from 1955 to 1956. He was one of the founders of the Equator Art Society which reflected societal issues through realist art. Mr Lee’s paintings document a period of development and eventual progress in Singapore’s history.12 paintings by Lee Boon Wang were collected by the Sultan of Brunei and family in 1989. Lee Boon Wang held his last solo exhibition in 2016 and passed away in the same year.

Lim Tze Peng 林子平 (1921-2025)

Mr Lim Tze Peng is one of Singapore’s most well known artist. His paintings have been exhibited widely in Singapore and in different parts of the world. Some of Mr Lim’s international shows were held at China’s National Art Museum in 2009, at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, India during 2019 and Saatchi Gallery, London UK in 2023. Many exhibitions related to Mr Lim’s paintings were also held in Singapore. An example would be the exhibition titled “Becoming Lim Tze Peng” which was held at the National Gallery Singapore in 2024. Mr Lim Tze Peng was conferred the Cultural Medallion Award in 2003 for his artistic excellence and contributions to the arts in Singapore.

Liu Kang 刘抗 (1911-2004)

Liu Kang is a well known pioneer artist from Singapore. He studied at famous institutions such as the Shanghai College of Fine Arts in China and Académie de la Grande Chaumière in France during the 1920s to 1930s before coming to Singapore in the late 1930s. Liu Kang created many paintings that were inspired by his surroundings in Singapore and from his sight seeing trips at different countries in Southeast Asia. They include village scenes, street scenes, people from the working class as well as women and farmers in Bali. Liu Kang contributed to the local art scene in many ways. He was a founding member of the Singapore Art Society and led the Society in the late 1960s to 1970s. Liu Kang exhibited his paintings on numerous occasions in Singapore, for instance a show of around 200 paintings were displayed at the National Museum in the 1980s. He donated a large body of his paintings  to the Singapore Art Museum in 2003, a year before his passing.

Tan Choh Tee 陈楚智

Tan Choh Tee is a well known artist from Singapore. He studied at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1950s and graduated in the early 1960s. He went on to work at a Publications Company till the mid 1970s. He was already painting and selling his paintings while working in his day job. Mr Tan recounted that he sold a small number of his paintings to westerners who came to Singapore to buy artworks in bulk. Mr Tan decided to quit his job in 1976 and become a full time artist despite being offered a pay raise as he felt that it was not possible to work for the company his whole life and he wanted to pursue his own interest. He also felt that he found that the buildings in Singapore were being demolished even before he could complete the paintings he started on. He felt the urge to concentrate on his painting.

In 1976, Tan Choh Tee was selected to exhibit at the National Day Art Exhibition. This national exhibition was an important show at that time, there was a catalogue published in conjunction to the show. The National Day Art Exhibition was held at Victoria Memorial Hall and was a serious event. It was also in the same year that he held his second solo exhibition at Raya Gallery. In 1979, Tan Choh Tee was invited to have a solo exhibition at the National Museum. He remembers that he exhibited around 10 of his paintings during that show.

In the 1980s, Tan Choh Tee had the opportunity to exhibit his paintings in Taiwan. At that time, there was not much of a market in Singapore and it was very difficult to sell paintings. Most of the paintings in Singapore at that time were bought by Indonesians, Westerners or Taiwanese. Tan Choh Tee held 5 to 6 exhibitions in Taiwan including places like Kaoshiung, Taichung and Taipei. Mr Tan was very serious about the exhibitions in Taiwan. If there was a show that was planned for the end of the year, he would travel to Taiwan and spend 20 over days to paint at different parts of Taiwan in the beginning of the year and bring the whole collection back to Singapore to apply the finishing touches before bringing them back to Taiwan at the end of the year.

In 1984, Tan Choh Tee agreed to teach part time at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.  It was also in this year that the academy worked with Tan Choh Tee to send him to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Tan Choh Tee spent 6 months in Beijing and It was there that he attended the master’s class. After 6 months at Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tan Choh Tee applied to go to the Dunhuang Academy China.