Boo Sze Yang

"A painting is a projection of the artist's thoughts and does not reflect reality. It is very much like a poem, you may recognise the words but can never fully comprehend the meaning when they are arranged together."

Born 1965 in Singapore
Graduated with Diploma from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), 1991
Completed Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, University of Reading, UK, 1995
Graduated with Master in Arts Degree, Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London, 2004

Boo Sze Yang is a distinguished artist who has amassed many awards throughout his practice. Boo works with a diverse range of subject matter in his paintings, ranging from mundane domestic objects to images of cars and airplanes crashing, derelict interiors of cathedrals and unpopulated chambers of shopping malls. Boo treats these banal objects, destructive scenes and modern architectural interiors as metaphors for the human condition, where he transforms them into symbols of contemporary life. He typically works with a restrained palette and alongside a loose, gestural painting technique, to emphasise the materiality of paint.

Boo also explores the portraiture, where he would blend his personal experiences with everyday social and political events to generate uncanny and idiosyncratic expressionistic portraitures, which serves as comical observations of everyday life.

Notable Awards

2017 Distinguished Alumni Medal 2017, NAFA, Singapore

2010 Asian Artist Fellowship Award 2010/2011, Freeman Foundation, USA

2009 Platinum Award. UOB Painting of the Year Competition 2009

2003 Scholarship (MA Fine Art, UK) for teaching staff by NAFA

2003 Bursary Award (MA Fine Art, UK), National Arts Council Singapore

2003 Juror’s Choice. Philip Morris Singapore-Asean Art Awards 2003

2003 Certificate of Commendation. UOB 22nd Painting of the Year

2002 Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Founder’s Day Award Distinction Award. UOB 21st Painting of the Year

2001 Honourable mention. Philip Morris Singapore Art Awards

Solo Exhibitions

2018 Boo Sze Yang: The Mirage, AC43 Gallery, Singapore

2015 Boo Sze Yang: 29.03.15, iPreciation, Singapore

2014 Boo Sze Yang: The Father, iPreciation, Singapore

2012 Boo Sze Yang: AIR at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan

2012 Sanctuary, Art at St Francis’, Melbourne, Australia

2012 The ExtraOrdinary, Chanhampe Galleries @Tanjong Pagar, Singapore

2012 The New Cathedral, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Galleries 1 & 2, Singapore

2011 Sanctuary, Red Mill gallery, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, USA

2010 Sanctuary, Utterly Art, Affordable Art Fair Singapore

2010 House of God II, Boo Sze Yang Art Studio at Old School. Singapore

2009 Boom!, Utterly Art. Singapore

2007 House of God, Utterly Art, Singapore

2006 Silence of the Canines, Utterly Art, Singapore

2005 In-Between, Style Cube Zandari, Seoul, South Korea

2005 The Space In-between, Utterly Art, Singapore

1996 Dilemma of Being, The Substation Art Gallery, Singapore

Artist Residencies

2012 Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan

2012 PointB Worklodge, Brooklyn, New York, USA

2011 Vermont Studio Centre, Vermont, USA