artcommune and AC43 Gallery proudly present I Live Not in Myself, but I Become Portion of that Around Me. This December showcase features the works of 4 Singapore artists, Tan Choh Tee, Tong Chin Sye, Ho Sou Ping and Zhu Hong, and examine their varying approaches to landscape painting.

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Singapore’s top landscape painter and 2006 Cultural Medallion recipient Tan Choh Tee (b. 1942) is best known for his realist-impressionist oil paintings of landscape and still life subject matters. He has remained a persistent plein-air painter over the decades and his new works featuring scenes from China continue to emphasise the intrigue of fleeting light conditions on colour. 

Tong Chin Sye (b. 1939) is a 2nd-generation multi-media artist known for his oil, watercolour, and mixed media landscape exploration. An avid traveler, Chin Sye has journeyed across continents in his painterly quest for new scenes and cultural understanding. Be it a bustling city scene or a quiet backyard of a provincial village; labourers by the seaside or folks conducting their daily routines, his paintings absorb us through the curious, reflective lens of a traveler who explores the life and customs of others through the graininess of everyday life. 

Ho Sou Ping (b. 1972) began his art training at the age of 13 and founded artcommune gallery in 2009. He trained in Chinese ink calligraphy and painting under the tutelage of 2nd-generation artist Chuan Keng Boon and has expanded into oil and watercolour painting in the past decade. 

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Zhu Hong (b. 1969) is an architect by training and his love for city life and architecture is playfully expressed through unique angles and askew lines. His plein air oil paintings explore the distinctive charms of shophouse architecture, paying homage to its heritage, beauty and relevance to Singapore’s renewed landscapes.

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By the time of the Tang Dynasty (618 - 906), the art of Chinese landscape painting had already flourished into an independent genre. Although not formalised as a genre in the Western art world till the 16th Century, the tradition of landscape painting dates back to ancient times when the Greeks and Romans started to create wall paintings of landscapes and gardenscapes. As times and cultures evolved, how would such a classical genre translate into the unique productions of our local artists who have been broadly exposed to and trained in both Chinese and Western art practices?    

Exhibition Period
Date: 5 - 22 December 2019
Time: 12 - 7pm daily
Venue: artcommune gallery 

Special Art Talk
Singapore Art Series: The 2nd-Generation Artists
14 December, Saturday, 3 - 5pm
Fee: $25/pax
Venue: artcommune gallery