Artwork by Choo Keng Kwang, Oil on Canvas.

Goh Siew Guan was born in Sarawak in 1942. He served as a full-time art educator for 30 years with the Ministry of Education after graduating from the Singapore Teachers’ Training College in 1965 and also practiced as a watercolourist, winning accolades such as the Dr. Tan Tsze Chor Art Award with Distinction in Western Painting in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014. Notable works that he had been commissioned to paint include the series Bali Experience (1987), by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. Mr Goh’s art has also been exhibited both locally and overseas.

Mr Chen Lian Jun graduated from the Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 1986. Two years later, Mr Chen successfully applied to the Central Art Academy in Beijing for the postgraduate study of an associate lecturer’s course. Chen was an appointed artist at the Liaoning Art Academy. Currently, as a member of the Chinese Artist Association and the Chinese Plate Etching Art Society, the oil painter is also an associate professor at the Liaoning Fushun Educational College.

The Government of China has accredited the artist twice with prominent cultural awards for his remarkable contributions to the art community and his professional achievements. Certainly, Mr Chen is one of the most influential realistic style oil painters in contemporary China.

Born in 1942, Mr Khan Siong Ann originated from the Chao Yang province in Guangdong. After graduating from high school, Mr Khan went on to study arts in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, where he graduated in 1967. Having keen interests in the French artistic style and technique, he embarked on a journey to Paris, which took him fifteen years of hard work and determination to master the artistic style of French painting. During those years, he also continued to practice his watercolour and calligraphy, which he managed to sell for his source of income during his stay in Paris.

Mr Khan Siong Ann’s artworks vary in techniques and mediums such as oil painting, Chinese ink and watercolour, and a variety of themes, such as social gatherings, scenic records, lifestyle and nudes. Over time, his art series became an extensive scale of visual indulgence displayed in the colours and/or the subject matter(s) of his highly stylised works.

Mr Chua Mia Tee was born on 25 November, 1931 in China. In 1937, his family migrated to Singapore and he grew up playing along the banks of the Singapore River. His childhood experiences influenced him in his choice of theme and subjects. He attended the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts from 1952 to 1957 and became one of Singapore’s pioneer artists. He starts by painting on location, refining and completing the process in his studio later. To him, art must reflect real life.  It need not necessarily be fully naturalistic but it must be firmly grounded in reality, so that the work is in no way ambiguous, but rather offers an easily accessible point of reference for the viewer. As a member of the Equator Art Society founded in 1956, he is one of the pioneer practitioners of Social Realism. Mr Chua’s famous works include National Language Class (1950) (Collection of the Singapore Art Museum) and Workers in a Canteen (1974) which underline a vigorous search towards an anti-colonialist and nationalistic identity in art.

Whenever Ms Lu Ping paints, she wields her brush with verve and power to reveal her passionate responses to the beauties of Mother Nature and our world. Her paintings balance the need to be realistic while retaining poetic elements. While abiding by the rules of art, she flexibly mixes straight lines with geometric shapes to enhance the composing meaning of forms. The textured surfaces and gamut of colours in her compositions are a quest for visual and colour impact, giving them a contemporary feel. She occasionally uses strong brushstrokes and a pallet knife to depict momentum and dynamism. 

Being part of the Teochew intellectual community led Mr Fan to emphasise the literary aspects of the Haipai tradition, especially the assemblage of meanings provided within a piece of artwork through the four components of poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal-carving. In particular, his self-composed poems, making full use of the metaphorical meanings of flora and fauna entrenched in Chinese literary culture, set him apart from other ink painters in Singapore. It was also within this textuality that Mr Fan made sense of his Nanyang background. 

Mr Jan Cameron was born in Jakarta, Indonesia on the 5th December, 1948. Since his childhood, Mr Cameron has shown a love for drawing and began his education in art as an apprentice of Mr. M. Toha, the palace painter of President Soekarno’s era. As the champion of several painting competitions throughout his elementary, junior high and senior high school levels in Jakarta, Mr Cameron demonstrated his artistic talent and inclinations.

Mr Cameron decided to continue his studies in West Germany where he studied Art of Painting on realism, impressionism, and surrealism. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Munich Academy of Fine Arts in Germany (Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Munschen). Following that, he was engaged in a study tour around France and the Netherlands, and also held solo exhibitions in Munich and Frankfurt, Germany.

Mr Lim Leong Seng (林龙成) is a full-time sculptor and artist based in Singapore, and he has been a member of the Singapore Modern Art Society since 1977 and was even elected its President in 2001. He has held seven solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, Paris, London and Belgium.

Mr Lim’s works are diverse and experimental at times, and he is proficient in the use of bronze, steel, collage work and mixed media in his artworks. His works are widely seen at prominent public locations, including one of his earliest award winning wall mural ‘Expression’ at the Kallang Theatre, ‘Mid-Autumn Lantern Procession (2001)’ at Telok Ayer Green and ‘In loving memory of Ah Meng, the Orang Utan (2007)’, ‘Family Ties (2006)’ and ‘Orang Asli (2005)’at the Singapore Zoological Gardens just to name a few. To date, Lim Leong Seng is one of Singapore’s most iconic and successful sculpture artists.