Wong Keen grew up in a Chinese literati environment and was an acclaimed teenage painter in the early Singapore art scene before leaving at 19 to study at the prestigious Art Students League of New York. He was the first Singaporean and among the earliest of Chinese artists to venture into the flourished post-war American art scene – then the most avant-garde art center in the world.

 

Having spent over 50 years in America, Wong Keen’s outstanding oeuvre, which encompasses oil, ink, acrylic, and collage since the 1960s to the present, is a powerful embodiment of the elegant expressivity of Chinese ink wash aesthetics and the Western inventive approach toward form and colour. From series to series, whether venturing anew or revisiting familiar techniques and imagery, his 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. In 2007, the Singapore Art Museum celebrated Wong Keen’s masterful repertoire with the solo exhibition, Wong Keen: A Singapore Abstract Expressionist. Wong Keen’s work is held in a number of private and public collections, including the National Museum of China, Minnesota State University Art Museum, Albright Knox Art Gallery, New York, Singapore Art Museum, Resorts World Sentosa and the Fullerton Hotel.      

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View Artist's CV

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Press​

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Art Basel UBS survey finds the rich will buy more art in 2022, exceeding pre-pandemic levels. (2022, Nov 6). 

Retrieved from The Straits Times website. 

王瑾首个大型装置 营造屠宰场视觉意象。(2022, Oct 13). 

Retrieved from Zaobao website.

Artist Wong Keen says there is beauty in the horror of his new installation, (2022, Oct 11). 

Retrieved from The Straits Times website. 

Singaporean artist Wong Keen's latest exhibition, Theatre of Enigmas, uses meat as metaphor. (2019, July 3).

Retrieved from The Straits Times website. 

Artist Wong Keen inspired by matters of the flesh. (2018, July 17). 

Retrieved from The Straits Times website. 

Still Going at 76, with 'Flesh Matters' Proving to be Wong Keen's Most Accomplished Series Yet. (2018, July 16).

Retrieved from the Artling website. 

Flesh and Blood. (2018, July 13).

Retrieved from The Business Times website.

王瑾个展“肉意欲流”生肉人体纠结的世界。(2018, July 10).

Retrieved from Zaobao website.

Artist Wong Keen On 'Flesh Matters'. (2018, July 10).

Retrieved from Channel NewsAsia website. 

Exhibitions to Visit this July: Singapore. (2018, July 06).

Retrieved from the Artling website.

Singapore artists who took a bite of the Big Apple. (2017, May 16).

Retrieved from The Straits Times website.

Artist Wong Keen marches to his own drumbeat. (2015, May 22).

Retrieved from The Straits Times website.

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