Ng Eng Teng (1934 – 2001) 

Born in 1934 in Singapore, pioneer sculptor-potter-artist Ng Eng Teng is fondly remembered for his mother and child figures that formed a recurring theme in his sculptural practice, including several public sculpture works that have become seminal alongside the years of architectural evolution and urbanisation in Singapore. Ng learnt oil painting and sculpture at the British Council before enrolling at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1956. In the late 1950s, Ng met British sculptor Jean Bullock who showed him the technique of casting in ciment fondu. This encounter sparked a lifelong interest in sculptural methods and materials in this niche art. In the 1960s, Ng visited the legendary Leach Pottery studio in St Ives, Cornwall and participated in educational stints at North Staffordshire College of Technology and Farnham School of Art before he worked as a designer at Carrigaline Pottery in County Cork, Ireland.

On his return to Singapore, Ng set up a ceramic workshop to teach pottery-making and held a solo exhibition in 1970. Highly skilled, Ng built an artistic repertoire that was entirely his own – his love for texture and detail demonstrated throughout his practice touching on humanity and mankind; extending to his paintings and figurative sketches created at sessions with Group 90, an art group initiated by Solamalay Namasivayam in 1990. For his artistic excellence, Ng was conferred the Cultural Medallion in 1981 and the ASEAN Cultural Award of Visual Arts (Sculpture) in 1990. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the National University of Singapore in 1998 and the Bintang Bakti Masyarakat (Public Service Star) from the Singapore government in 1999. In early 2001, he was presented with the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award. He passed away in his studio later that same year.