Chew Kim Liong 朱锦良 (1958 – )
Born in Malaysia, Chew Kim Liong is an artist and educator whose practice in Chinese painting bridges Eastern and Western traditions in pursuit of a harmony between the two. He completed a PhD in Fine Art (Research) at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where his research centred on a comparative study of Chinese and European painting, and returned to Singapore in 1997 to take up academic positions in higher education.
Much of the subject matter in Chew's paintings draws on his childhood in a small Malaysian village surrounded by nature. His distinctive approach grew out of his earliest schooling, where he first took up calligraphy and developed it progressively as he experimented with Western painting techniques to explore abstraction. The interplay of mediums and methods that would become the playground for his creations.
Chew has exhibited his work in Singapore and abroad and continues to share his expertise as an educator at institutions of higher learning internationally.