Boo Sze Yang

b. 1965, Singapore
Lives and works in Singapore

Boo Sze Yang’s paintings deal with a broad range of subject matters, from banal objects to images of car and airplane crash-scenes, derelict interiors of cathedrals, and unpeopled chambers of shopping malls. Boo treats banal objects, modern architectural interiors and destructive scenes as metaphors for the human condition, transforming these into a symbol of contemporary life through his loose, gestural technique and use of a restrained palette, to emphasize the materiality of paint.

His recent series of paintings conjure a natural world gradually dissected and displaced by urban development. The monochromatic handling of linear structures resembling scaffoldings, partitions and platforms are created through the delicate process of pulling and pushing wet paints across the canvas using a squeegee. These imageries do not evoke real moments of memories but refer to a special, in-between zone of the real space and the utopia; a baffling place where reality and fantasy coexist.

He is a recipient for the Asian Artist Fellowship Award 2010/2011 sponsored by Freeman Foundation for residency at the Vermont Studio Center in USA. In 2003, he was awarded the Juror’s Choice for the Philip Morris Singapore-ASEAN Art Award and in 2009, the Platinum Award, UOB Painting of the Year Competition. He is featured in the publication 100 Painters of Tomorrow published by Thames & Hudson in 2014.

His works are in the collections of the National Gallery Singapore, the Singapore Istana Art Collection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore, United Overseas Bank, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Simmons & Simmons Contemporary Art Collection, Urban Redevelopment Authority Singapore, Ngee Ann Kongsi Singapore and Yingu Art Mansion in Beijing.

Biography information from the artist’s website, May 2022