Malaysian-born Tay Bak Chiang is a graduate of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and the China Academy of Art. A Young Artist Award recipient, Tay is one of Singapore’s most original painters. He constantly reinterprets the norms of traditional Chinese painting by striving towards a Chinese ink style of his own.
The Stone Series is a collection from Tay’s second solo exhibition in 2010. Departing from the vibrant colours in his earlier works, Stone Series – Jade presents a monochrome palette. While on an outing at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve years ago, he observed the majestic granite rocks that offered a sense of quietness and aloofness and was inspired by this encounter. To create a layered look for the granite, he used charcoal-like pigments with traditional Chinese ink. A bird perches attentively at the edge of the rock. The artist muses, “The most precious treasure could be hiding in the most inconspicuous place. We only need to look more closely.”
