artcommune and AC43 Gallery are pleased to present The Story of Two Presses, which delves into the little-known history and collaborative culture of contemporary printmaking in Singapore. Featuring works by Chen Cheng Mei, Chng Seok Tin, Chen Shitong, Chiew Sien Kuan, Chua Chon Hee, Ho E Moi, Nhawfal Juma’at, Nyan Soe, Oh Chai Hoo and Tan Sock Fong, this multi-generational showcase centres on the developments of two specific printmaking workshops helmed by local artists in Singapore - the LASALLE Printing Workshop (in LASALLE College of the Arts) led by Chen Cheng Mei and Chng Seok Tin between the mid-1980s and 1990s, and Pulp Editions founded by Chen Shitong in 2017.
Though operating over 30 years apart, both printers embody the fervent ground-up initiative of local artists whose passion and sacrifices became instrumental in developing the contemporary printmaking scene in Singapore. The Story of Two Presses presents around 30 fine art prints spanning the period of 1980s to 2022, with almost all being produced in these two workshops.
Celebration of Chng Seok Tin’s birthday, circa 1992.
Artists Ho E Moi, Chen Cheng Mei, and Chng Seok Tin (from left to right in the foreground) with students at the LASALLE Printing Workshop in Telok Kurau. Photograph courtesy of Dahlia Osman (2nd from right in the background), student of Chng Seok Tin.
More often than not, a series of small, thoughtful gestures from one or two individuals is all it takes to set forth a course of meaningful developments for an entire community. In 1985, the dedication of Brother Joseph McNally, who founded LASALLE College of the Arts in 1984, was met with an equal measure of selflessness from artist Chen Cheng Mei, who readily helped facilitate the inception of the school’s printmaking department by placing her own newly imported English etching press and print materials in the school’s printing workshop for all students and interested artists to use.
Chen Cheng Mei (b. 1927, Singapore - d. 2020, Singapore) herself was primarily an oil painter who had trained at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (1949-54). While visiting Paris in 1980, she hung out at the renowned Atelier 17 printer owned by Stanley William Hayter and was determined to experiment further with press techniques. This prompted her purchase of an expensive English etching press in 1985 for her personal use. In the early years of the newly-opened LASALLE, Brother McNally had had to contend with limited funds and resources, and Chen Cheng Mei’s generous gestures had allowed the school to run its printmaking department with verve and aptitude. Her informal gifting of the etching press and materials enabled LASALLE to hire Chng Seok Tin (b. 1946, Singapore - d. 2019, Singapore), who had just returned to Singapore after many years of training and experimenting with print techniques in the US, to helm the department in 1985. In the late 80s, Chen Cheng Mei also added an imported German lithograph press to the workshop. Over the years, she continued to donate many print materials including paper, imported plates and acids to the workshop.
As a teacher and mentor, Chng Seok Tin was instrumental in fostering the first of print majors amongst art students in Singapore. For up until the late 80s, printmaking was offered only as an exposure module at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and the lessons focused more on woodcut and silkscreen printing. LASALLE was effectively the first art school in Singapore to offer a degree majoring in Print, encouraging a more specialised interest in etching and lithography.
Between 1985 and up till the 2000s, Chen Cheng Mei, Chng Seok Tin and Ho E Moi (also Chen’s sister-in-law) worked often at the LASALLE Printing Workshop to produce their own etchings and lithographs. Several students and graduates from LASALLE who were active members of the Contemporary Printmaking Association, Singapore, such as Tan Sock Fong (b. 1966, Singapore, who was amongst LASALLE’s first batch of print majors), also produced many of their works here. In an informal and organic manner, the LASALLE printing workshop functioned as a fecund space where artists of different backgrounds and styles came together to learn and transfer knowledge, bonded by a common interest to pursue contemporary printmaking as an avenue of expression.
The Story of Two Presses aims to celebrate this uniqueness and spirit embodied by the LASALLE printing workshop with a selection of prints completed by Chen Cheng Mei, Chng Seok Tin, Ho E Moi and Tan Sock Fong in this very space.
The Long Gaze: Prints and Ceramics by Chua Chon Hee
28 October 2023 – 12 November 2023
AC43 Gallery is proud to present the latest solo exhibition of local multidisciplinary artist Chua Chon Hee. On view from 28 October to 12 November, The Long Gaze: Prints and Ceramics by Chua Chon Hee features a selection of 25 monotype prints accomplished by the artist between 2013 – 2023 and 8 newly-completed ceramic sculptures.
The Long Gaze invites audience to dwell in the meditative yet experimental world of Chon Hee’s artistic quest. The idiosyncratic plays of form and texture in her prints and ceramic expressions encapsulate the immediacy of life and the intricacies of its myriad forms and cycles. For instance, her monotype prints thrive on a meaningful collision of shapes and textures, with some works featuring the contemplative incorporation of leaf forms as bled through her press. These were leaves from her garden or leaves collected during her commutes and overseas travels. Parts of their distinct shapes, organic protrusions and sinewy veins disintegrate and metamorphose into fluid marks and painterly gestures on paper, imbuing her prints with a spontaneous sense of nature in transformation.
This reverence for nature is similarly translated in Chon Hee’s approach with ceramic sculptures. She often utilises a mix of locally-sourced earth as her material, and strives for earthy tones and natural lines during her throwing and the firing process in her own kilns. Her new ceramics in this exhibition are largely inspired by the life forms and trees abundant in mangrove swamps, as well as the growing bamboos in her own garden. These ceramics will be situated in conversation with a series of drawings that capture her observations of natural botanical forms, of which some found their ways into the expressive qualities of her sculptures.
Chon Hee conveys with delight that, ‘Nature responds to my attention with silence, and I respond with beautiful expectations.’
叶影交映 #1 Overlapping Shadows of Leaves #1, c. 2014, Monotype, 40 x 55 cm
枯木重生 Rebirth, 2023, Stoneware, iron oxide, clay powder and transparent glaze, 35.5 x 21.5 x 18 cm
About the Artist
Chua Chon Hee (b. 1960, Singapore) graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with an Advanced Diploma in Western Art in 1982. She is a fine arts educator and a multidisciplinary artist, and works extensively with printmaking, ink, seal-carving, and ceramic work. Her artistic expressions are formally inspired by the organic and quiet dynamism of nature, and spiritually rooted in the Buddhist philosophy of ‘The Four Kalpas’ (成住坏空): the cycle of formation, the cycle of continuance, the cycle of decline, and the cycle of disintegration.
An active member of art societies in Singapore, Chon Hee has exhibited extensively with the Singapore Sculpture Society, the Printmaking Society of Singapore, the Nanyang Clay Group and the Siaw-Tao Chinese Seal Carving, Calligraphy and Painting Society on many occasions. She has also participated in more than 30 exhibitions over the years, and her work can be found in a number of private and public collections, including Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore; Carlton Hotel, Singapore; Orchard Hotel, Singapore; National University Hospital, Singapore; Sedona Hotel, Mandalay, Myanmar; and Hotel Equatorial, Yangon, Myanmar.
