In the paintings of Singaporean-born, US-based artist Richie Chen, fantastic scenes unfold: an old-world cocktail party, a rider on a pale horse, women in white dresses surrounded by glowing jellyfish or luminous blooms. For the past thirteen years, Chen has lived on America’s East Coast — spending most of that time in New York, with a recent move to New Jersey. A product designer by day, he spends weekday evenings at the Art Students League, an independent art school which, at 150 years old, is one of the city’s most historic art institutions.
We sit down with Richie over video call to learn more about his artistic journey, the connections between art and design, and the challenges and joys of being an artist abroad.
Studying design
He was first exposed to oil painting, Chen recounts, as an O-Level student at the Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), followed by ceramics in junior college. After completing his national service, he enrolled in New York City’s Pratt Institute to study industrial design.
The choice of subject was a practical one. “Although I had done art for such a long time,” he explains, “I never really saw myself as an artist in Singapore, just because there’s so much social stigma in that. I would just brush the topic aside if someone asked me about it.”
“… [M]y parents were allowing me to go all the way to New York City, but they [said], ‘Just don’t study art.’”
Chen agreed, picking industrial design for its connections to art and sculpture. As a student, he worked in both two and three dimensions, gaining exposure to woodworking and prototyping with plastics and ceramics. “I was still very deep in my craft.”
After graduating in 2015, Chen continued to work in the field. First there was the toy designer job at Fisher-Price, an experience he credits as eye-opening: “Maybe I can use my creative skills, still find it fulfilling, and get compensated for it.”
More work followed. Chen designed holiday decorations and children’s indoor play areas before pivoting to UI/UX and web design in 2018. Currently, he works as a user experience designer at a major brokerage firm.
“It’s never boring,” says Chen, “because every client is slightly different. More importantly, it’s a 9-to-5 job, so I get to make art from 5 to 10 p.m. in the evenings. It allows me to do something creative and funds my art career along the way.”
The Art Students League
For all his success in the design world, Chen has never forgotten his first passion for art. In 2017, he enrolled in the well-known Art Students League, whose certificate programme affords him over twenty hours of class time per week.
“The beauty of it is that a lot of people are slightly older — I would say, maybe, the average age is forty years old. The great thing is that people have full-time jobs, but they’re able to take just one or two classes, and try out many different types of instructors … They offer classes in ceramics, printmaking, welding, and painting (both abstract and figurative).”
On weekdays after work, Chen heads to the League, where he learns wheel-throwing from the distinguished ceramicist Yasumitsu Morito till 7 p.m. From 7 to 10 p.m., he works in the paint studio with painter and mentor Marshall Jones. There, he and his classmates can work from a live model or make progress on personal projects; the class presents a group exhibition every year as well.
Even with work-from-home arrangements, it sounds like a gruelling schedule, but it’s clear that to Chen the investment is well worth it. “[The Art Students League] lets me find my own creative community in New York City, so I don’t really feel like I’m doing this in solitude. Rather, I have a lot of people who have similar interests, and we’re always supporting each other.”
Painting and design
Over the years, Chen has experimented with various mediums, including not just ceramics but also watercolour, digital art, and print. But oil remains his weapon of choice, because he can layer the paint continuously to achieve unparalleled vibrancy and depth.
Though trained in the Western atelier tradition, which emphasises accurate observation and drawing from life, Chen prefers to combine naturalistic painting techniques with fantastical, otherworldly subjects. Citing the surrealist Salvador Dalí as one of his influences, he strives for a play between “wild subject matter” and “technical virtuosity” in his art.
For the past few years, Chen has been working on a series tentatively titled Fountain of Youth, themed around childhood memories, daydreams, and liminal spaces. “… [I]t allows me to keep pursuing my dreams, reminding me of what I wanted when I was a little child … I always put my subject matter in — I wouldn’t say precarious situations, but they’re always transcending from one moment to [an]other.”
At first blush, Chen’s design work building streamlined websites for clients and his art practice expressing personal aspirations might seem worlds apart. But the artist points out that his design training has given him grounding in areas such as composition and the gestalt principles of design (which describe how humans perceive objects visually, particularly in relation to one another). “[W]hen you’re coming up with a design, you need to draw so much. Design is usually the hardest part, even in art creation.”
In particular, he highlights that the iterative process of design — making a prototype, trialling it with a client or user, improving it, rinsing and repeating — has proved liberating. “[My design training has] allowed me to not be so precious about my craft, and to enjoy and appreciate the experimental aspect of it.”
New York state of mind
By moving to the States over a decade ago, Chen has become part of a significant lineage of Singaporean artists who trained or put down roots overseas. For these artists, the advantages of leaving home can be manifold, ranging from access to expert training to new social networks and professional opportunities.
Of course, such dramatic life changes come with daunting challenges. “If I were to talk about the hardest thing [I did] in my life, it’s probably living in New York, just because there’s so much financial pressure,” Chen admits. “Rent’s always increasing. It’s a funny thing — people like to say, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. It’s more like if you can pay rent here, you can pay rent anywhere … ”
“Most of my friends who are Singaporean have already moved back, because they get very discouraged. It can be kind of a lonely city in the day-to-day if you don’t know how to keep yourself occupied or find like-minded people, because there are so many different types of people with varied interests. So, just finding a community is a challenge.”
But for Chen, the gains — from the increased availability of creative day jobs to the inspiring effects of living in the city itself — have been well worth the sacrifices. He speaks fondly of seeing art and busking along the streets and watching plays and performances at Lincoln Square.
“I love the New York energy,” he explains. “I feel like everyone’s a little neurotic — everyone seems to have to go somewhere or be somewhere — so you’re influenced by that too. Am I doing enough? Can I squeeze something else in? Am I doing things to the best of my abilities?”
“… [I]f you’re already there, it means that you were meant to be. You could make something work out … It’s almost like: how much do you want to be there? More than the person beside you? Because everyone’s competing within this space. That’s what I like. I don’t feel like I’m the only artist there.”
Not everyone would thrive in such a high-pressure, competitive atmosphere, but Chen seems fuelled by it. That said, he does feel that New York is becoming more unsustainable for creatives, with many moving out to surrounding neighbourhoods. He himself has recently purchased a home in New Jersey, a 45-minute commute from Manhattan and his classes at the Art Student League — which has enabled him, for the first time, to have a personal art studio.
But whether in Manhattan or New Jersey, two things remain crucial to Chen’s creative practice: showing up and putting in effort every day, and finding a community of people who are doing the same. More than a decade on, he feels much more fulfilled compared to the discouragement and loneliness he felt at the start. To young artists and creatives who are just starting out, he emphasises the importance of learning from those who have walked the path before. “If you can find someone whose work you love, make sure to reach out.”
Contrary to the popular image of the hermetic, “lone wolf” artist, Chen points out that many household names in art history actually worked in community, not isolation. Take, for instance, the Impressionists, coming together as a society under the wing of the fatherly Camille Pissaro (whose circle included the likes of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and the Post-Impressionists Paul Gaugin and Paul Cézanne). “They would do portraits of each other, they would learn together — that’s what keeps the fire going.”
“It’s really about finding like-minded people. It doesn’t have to be people who are creating the same thing as you, but really just people who love creating too.”
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Find out more about Richie Chen at his website richieychen.com and on Instagram @richie.yc.
