Lines of Poetry 化线为诗

17 January 2015 – 28 FebRuary 2015

As an influential educator, Tan Ping Chiang (陈彬章) is well-known, particularly in his previous capacities as a graphic design lecturer, and has headed both the Applied Arts Department (1981–1992) and the Fine Arts Department (1987–1991) at NAFA, and as the founding president of the Contemporary Printmaking Association (now Printmaking Society) of Singapore. Following his retirement from teaching, Tan has returned to creating and art-making with a thirsty vigour, surging intrepidly forward with works that offer autumnal reflections on nature, self, and society, breathing new life into Singapore art.

His recent works display a continued willingness to experiment with form and style, documenting a keen rigour in the artist’s renewed pursuit of a personal visual language. His rhythmic lines and subtle colours form a harmonious paean to and reflection of the elegiac cadences of life and nature, but do not shy away from lending a whimsical eye when needed as well, with often sharp and humorous observations of human behaviour, art, and society.

Strongly tethered to the social, these works often feature individuals that meld and merge into the group or crowd in bold, “drunken” visions. The bustle of familiar everyday scenes features prominently in these works, peppered intermittently by meditational works where nature, paradigmatic truth, and beauty without equal, unabashedly hold court. These semi-abstract compositions resolutely cast aside all fetters and coils to achieve a pure harmonious resolution and freedom, returning the viewer to a gleeful state of visual innocence and wonder as they guide our eyes back to the canvas again and again.