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Birth:1964 Singapore

Death: 

Bibliography:Jimmy Ong (b. 1964, Singapore) works with a range of media, 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.