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UOB Paintings of the Year Award

by Kenneth Lyen

UOB 1 Wong Tze Chau label.jpg

Wong Tze Chau (41) won the United Overseas Bank (UOB) Painting of the Year (Singapore) 2019. Entitled “War and Peace” it consists of black and white dots on a grey background. Congratulations!

UOB 2 Wong Tze Chau label.jpg

When I saw a picture of this painting, it immediately reminded me of a painting by Ad Reinhardt that I saw at the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London, which was pure black. An elderly woman standing next to me uttered: “I don’t understand it!” I turned to her and said: “This is modern art, you are not expected to understand it!” We both laughed.

UOB 4 Ad Reinhardt label.jpg

Although I could not see the details in Wong Tze Chau’s War and Peace, journalist reviewers say that this painting is actually dotted with Hebrew and Arabic Words for War an Peace. The artist explained that the word “peace” is very similar in both languages: the Arabic for “peace” is “salaam”, while the Hebrew is “shalom”. The artist went on the explain that he wanted to bridge the gap between abstract and representational art. He is using dots to convey a deeper meaning of dark and light, a metaphor for war and peace, a recurring theme of human history.

 

I then looked for other works by Wong Tze Chau and found the ones below. He is indeed a talented artist.

UOB 3 Wong Tze Chau label.jpg

The other Singapore winner of the UOB Painting of the Year 2019 contest is Casey Tan Jie Wei (25) who won the Most Promising Artist of the Year category.

UOB 5 Casey Tan Jie Wei label.jpg

His painting entitled “The Water is Wide” is a complete contrast to Wong Tze Chau’s War and Peace. This is a realistic painting and Casey Tan says that it is inspired by the humanitarian disasters and crises in the world. Refugees escaping danger undertake hazardous journeys in rough seas for survival, and he is trying to capture their “profound and resonating struggle for safety, fulfilment, and a sense of home”.

UOB 6 Casey Tan Jie Wei label.jpg

Casey goes on to say: “The artwork is framed in an enclosed space, set with stained glass hills and a hopeful sky as the backdrop, yet juxtaposed to induce a sense of compression and disorientation. The viewer is forced to confront the unspoken realities of human life. Yet, brief flashes of optimism are embedded to symbolise hope that is ever present even in the pit of despair.”

 

Below are more examples of his paintings.

UOB 7 Casey Tan Jie Wei label.jpg

I remember another young artist winning the “UOB Most Promising Artist” award in 2015. This is Ezra Chan, an autistic 15-year-old attending Pathlight School won the prize for his painting entitled “Play”.

UOB 8 Ezra Chan label.jpg

Ezra's award winning painting, "Play" (2015):

UOB 9 Ezra Chan label.jpg

Below are some other paintings by Ezra Chan.

UOB 10 Ezra Chan label.jpg

In 2006 Glenn Phua Yi Jue a student with autism attending Pathlight School was awarded the “UOB Most Promising Artist” award. The photo below shows him with President Xi Jinping of China and Singapore’s president Tony Tan.

UOB 11 Glenn Phua label.jpg

Below is his prize-winning artwork, "Fullerton Building".

UOB 12 Glenn Phua Fullerton Bldg label.j

More art work by Glenn Phua are shown below:

UOB 13 Glenn Phua label.jpg
UOB 14 Glenn Phua label.jpg

Conclusions

We are grateful to United Overseas Bank (UOB) for supporting the arts in South-East Asia. Their awards to people with autism has been particularly welcome for recognizing these talented individuals.

 

Written by Kenneth Lyen

16 Nov 2019

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