Wong Keen | Artwork in Focus: 'The First Brick' (2022)

14 - 30 January 2022 | Wong Keen: The Tender Hooks of Memory
artcommune is pleased to present Wong Keen’s new solo exhibition, THE TENDER HOOKS OF MEMORY, in conjunction with Singapore Art Week 2022. One of Singapore’s leading painters, New York-trained artist Wong Keen has long captivated audience with his stylised and ever-evolving pictorial exploration that veers between the abstract and the figurative. From series to series, whether venturing anew or revisiting familiar techniques and imagery, Wong Keen’s 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.
Featuring 15 selected works on canvas and paper that were produced from the early 90s to the present, many of the works on view centre on the themes of memory , journey and identity.
Of special highlight is "The First Brick" (2021, Acrylic on canvas, 152 x 428 cm), a large-scale diptych featuring Samsui women labouring at a construction site. The scene is a coalescence of the artist's personal memories with studies of historical photographs of these women figures. More than just an homage to the samsui women, the painting reveals the distortion and reframing of a personal memory, and along with it the bittersweet acquiescence to the changing times and values.
"Women always end up being sacrificed by the system and you just wonder what they could have achieved with better opportunities. Even for my mother who was educated, I saw so clearly since I was young, how she sacrificed most of her own potential and self-interest because she had to be a mother, and she had to keep the family together...”
Interview with Wong Keen on the subject of Samsui women, 2020
The artist discusses the work in detail.
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The gallery extends our thanks to the good people of @itslikedepth for the making of this video.
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