Charcoal works from the late local artist Teng Nee Cheong will be shown at the Private Museum, in an exhibition called EMBODIMENT|SENTIENCE. Teng, a graduate from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1968, held four solo exhibitions and is the recipient of the Special Award from the Ministry of Culture and the NAFA Alumni Association Creative Award and the winner of the Tsze Chor Art Award, Singapore Art Society, and the Philip Morris Singapore Art Award.
While known for his oil and pastel work of the human form that's inspired by Balinese mythology, Buddhism, Hinduism, as well as the Gustav Klimt, Teng's monochromatic pieces were almost never shown to the public. In another layer of intimacy, these showcased items are culled from 30 years worth of working with life models within the privacy of Teng's studio and abroad.
EMBODIMENT|SENTIENCE is the study of what the human body has to offer. Of its "parts and poems" that gives up its mysteries and secrets; we delve into the dualities, sensualities, and desires through Teng’s view. "Embodiment" refers to the charcoal medium Teng used—it is a medium that might allude to its base element of carbon, which is the basic make-up of the human body and "sentience" refers to the artist’s capacity for feeling and perception—he sees the form, he sketches it out; the result is made in Teng's own view of the image. Figure drawing is one of the most difficult skills in art. It is the stripping of the clinical study of the body, the anatomy made aesthetic.
Personal and provocative, EMBODIMENT|SENTIENCE commemorates the fifth anniversary of Teng's passing as it retraces the private artist's fascination and reverence of that familiar terrior that is the human figure.
Teng Nee Cheong’s EMBODIMENT|SENTIENCE is held at The Private Museum, 51 Waterloo Street #02-06, and will run until the 9 December. For more information, call 6738 2872.
