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."
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Born 1965 in Singapore
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Graduated with Diploma from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), 1991
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Completed Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art, University of Reading, UK, 1995
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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