If you haven’t already heard, Yeo Tze Yang has landed at Gillman Barracks and found a new home at Fost Gallery.
It’s a fortuitous meeting of minds as this is a space well-known for playing host to some of the most intelligent shows in town. Doing what he does best, Tze Yang exhibits a beautiful hang of gorgeous paintings in a show entitled TRUTH BE TOLD: Recent thotz abt painting ppl. The works are accompanied by sardonic wall scribblings in different languages:
The entire exhibition is targeted at giving viewers an incisive look at the local psyche during pandemic times and beyond. (Full disclosure: we couldn’t resist and one of the works came home with us.)
There are oil paintings of animals, people and workers, rendered in the detailed, thoughtful style that the artist is well-known for.
The show is barely conceptual on the face of it, but a closer look at the paintings reveals a nuanced understanding of the human condition that few local painters are able to convey with such clarity and intelligence.
Says gallerist Stephanie Fong : “Painting is not always seen as fashionable or contemporary but I disagree. One can be playful with representational paintings, and although (the medium) has the historical association of the “working class” and social realism; what really, is the “working class” now? Is it the investment banker or anyone, really, who clocks in from 9-7 at a job?”
There are many poetic references in the show and as you stop and stare at the lush, detailed paintings, you’ll feel an intense mix of emotions — you’ll feel seen, but also slightly disturbed at the small cracks and incongruences in our societal fabric, which the artist’s brush has been able to so deftly pick up.
The show runs till 23 July.
