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Actions Displays	Details Remove from selection Add to selection CollectionSouth & Southeast Asian Collection Object numberS2013-0001-025-0 TitleStudy, female nude with towel Creator Singapore) works with a range of media Jimmy Ong (b. 1964, from large-scale, figurative charcoal works on paper since his first exhibitions in Singapore during the 1980s, to more recent explorations in performance, installation, and video. His practice involves highly personal inquiries into bodily forms and queer(ed) identities, expanding into broader entanglements with regional myths, archetypes, traditions, and historical narratives. Living between Singapore, Yogyakarta and Penang, his projects interrogate the colonial figure of Stamford Raffles within Javanese history, and recuperating different marginal histories with the community of artists and artisans he works with. While his practice extends to painting in oil, charcoal-drawing is his favourite medium. In this regard, he has sustained a practice in still-life and figure drawing over two decades. For Ong, still-life drawing offers meditative and skill-honing opportunities, and possibilities for expressions of poetic sensibilities. Conversely, he regards his figure drawings as visual "prose" to which he appends allegorical narratives and reflections on personal memory, the human condition and inter-personal relationships. After being awarded a scholarship, Ong studied art at the Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, graduating in 1986. He later completed a certificate programme at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia in 1992. Leaving Singapore in 1996, he was based mostly in the US until moving to Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2013, where he currently lives and works. The artist has exhibited internationally, recently presenting work in Singapore (Asian Civilisations Museum, 2019; National Gallery Singapore, 2015; NUS Museum, 2013; Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 2010), Hong Kong (Para Site, 2018), Taipei (Museum of Contemporary Art, 2017), New York (Tyler Rollins Fine Art, 2013, 2010), and Yogyakarta (Biennale Jogja XII, 2013). His works are also in the permanent collections of the NUS Museum and the National Gallery Singapore.Themes of homecoming and a sense of belonging within a social landscape are underlying currents in Jimmy Ong’s artworks and archives, with longing and humour subtly conveyed through his titles and straightforward depictions of mise-en-scène and portraits. Though living in the United States for two decades, Ong sustained art world ties to Singapore as retellings and investigations of local lore, material culture, city development and regional histories emerge in his series. Jimmy Ong repatriated back to the region in 2013, and, through the years of transitions prior, he was involved in Singapore-themed discourse in art representation through a residency and major exhibition “SGD” in 2010 with Singapore Tyler Print Institute. “In proposing the use of an alternative iconic face on the dollar bill other than Yusof Ishak, Ong selected an image of Mr. Lee before 1965 - the year Singapore gained independence.” (https://www.stpi.com.sg/exhibitions/jimmy-ong-sgd/) These works ultimately became a series that also included his recurring participation in Valentine Willie Fine Art’s annual “Singapore Survey” group shows. These LKY portraits took initial shape in the seminal chapter of this series of exhibition, “Singapore Survey 2010: Beyond LKY,” which demonstrated artists’ reckoning of their relationship with the country and the “architect of its economic success, Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew.1964SingaporeJimmy Ong Object categoryDrawing MaterialCharcoal on Paper, Charcoal, Paper Dimensions Height: 61 cm Length: 48 cm Credit lineGift of Ann Mui Ling

CollectionSouth & Southeast Asian Collection

Object numberS2013-0001-025-0

TitleStudy, female nude with towel

Creator Singapore) works with a range of media Jimmy Ong (b. 1964, from large-scale, figurative charcoal works on paper since his first exhibitions in Singapore during the 1980s, to more recent explorations in performance, installation, and video. His practice involves highly personal inquiries into bodily forms and queer(ed) identities, expanding into broader entanglements with regional myths, archetypes, traditions, and historical narratives. Living between Singapore, Yogyakarta and Penang, his projects interrogate the colonial figure of Stamford Raffles within Javanese history, and recuperating different marginal histories with the community of artists and artisans he works with. While his practice extends to painting in oil, charcoal-drawing is his favourite medium. In this regard, he has sustained a practice in still-life and figure drawing over two decades. For Ong, still-life drawing offers meditative and skill-honing opportunities, and possibilities for expressions of poetic sensibilities. Conversely, he regards his figure drawings as visual "prose" to which he appends allegorical narratives and reflections on personal memory, the human condition and inter-personal relationships. After being awarded a scholarship, Ong studied art at the Center for Creative Studies, Detroit, graduating in 1986. He later completed a certificate programme at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia in 1992. Leaving Singapore in 1996, he was based mostly in the US until moving to Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2013, where he currently lives and works. The artist has exhibited internationally, recently presenting work in Singapore (Asian Civilisations Museum, 2019; National Gallery Singapore, 2015; NUS Museum, 2013; Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 2010), Hong Kong (Para Site, 2018), Taipei (Museum of Contemporary Art, 2017), New York (Tyler Rollins Fine Art, 2013, 2010), and Yogyakarta (Biennale Jogja XII, 2013). His works are also in the permanent collections of the NUS Museum and the National Gallery Singapore.Themes of homecoming and a sense of belonging within a social landscape are underlying currents in Jimmy Ong’s artworks and archives, with longing and humour subtly conveyed through his titles and straightforward depictions of mise-en-scène and portraits. Though living in the United States for two decades, Ong sustained art world ties to Singapore as retellings and investigations of local lore, material culture, city development and regional histories emerge in his series. Jimmy Ong repatriated back to the region in 2013, and, through the years of transitions prior, he was involved in Singapore-themed discourse in art representation through a residency and major exhibition “SGD” in 2010 with Singapore Tyler Print Institute. “In proposing the use of an alternative iconic face on the dollar bill other than Yusof Ishak, Ong selected an image of Mr. Lee before 1965 - the year Singapore gained independence.” (https://www.stpi.com.sg/exhibitions/jimmy-ong-sgd/) These works ultimately became a series that also included his recurring participation in Valentine Willie Fine Art’s annual “Singapore Survey” group shows. These LKY portraits took initial shape in the seminal chapter of this series of exhibition, “Singapore Survey 2010: Beyond LKY,” which demonstrated artists’ reckoning of their relationship with the country and the “architect of its economic success, Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew.1964SingaporeJimmy Ong

Object categoryDrawing

MaterialCharcoal on Paper, Charcoal, Paper

Dimensions

Height: 61 cm
Length: 48 cm

Credit lineGift of Ann Mui Ling

Details