Alvin Ong (b. 1988, Singapore) synthesizes histories, mythologies and folk-forms into surreal improvisations and non-linear narratives. The contemporary artist works with historical and cinematic material, fluidly recombining these pictorial sources in his painting practice as explorations of memory, loss and nostalgia. As the artist claims, he finds himself drawn to the spirit of human encounter, when one being encounters another human presence. Ong’s latest paintings are exuberant and erotic depictions of figures suspended between moments of extreme pleasure and pain. The body is unapologetically exposed in its cravings. Bodily appetites are rendered in grotesque flourishes, redolent with black humour.
Ong completed a BFA at the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford in 2016, and an MA at Royal College of Art in 2018 supported by the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. At the age of 16, he became the youngest winner of the UOB Painting of the Year Award, Singapore (2005) and a year later, he had his first solo exhibition in the presence of his excellency President S. R. Nathan at Jendela, Esplanade. He was awarded a residency in 2017 with the Royal Drawing School, as well as the 2018 Chadwell Award. His works have been exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum (2007, 2012, 2013), Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (2010), Peranakan Museum, Singapore (2015), Northampton Contemporary, UK (2017) and National Portrait Gallery, UK (2018). He currently lives and works in both Singapore and London.
Selected Exhibitions
2020
Long Distance, Yavuz Gallery, Sidney (SOLO)
Art Basel Hong Kong, Yavuz Gallery
Group Show, Coda Culture, Singapore
2019
Asia Now Paris, Paris, France
Summer Exhibition, Daniel Benjamin Gallery, London, UK
Art Jakarta, Yavuz gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
Art Basel Hong Kong, Yavuz Gallery
Jealous Prize, Jealous East, London, UK
Supper Club, (SOLO), Yavuz Gallery, Singapore
Raw Forms, Coda Culture, Singapore,
Deviations, 59 Hackney Road, London, UK
2018
BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
All you can see, Rizzuto Gallery, Palermo, Italy
Thumbnails, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, UK
HIX Award, Coutts Bank, Mayfair, London, UK
2017
Fiction of Precision, AGAS, Singapore
Bilateral Bonds, Taksu Gallery, Singapore
WIP Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK
And then..., NN Contemporary, Northampton, UK
2016
We will meet, (SOLO), Chan Hampe Galleries, Singapore
Ruskin.show, Ruskin Degree show, Oxford, UK
2015
Passages, (SOLO), UOB Art Gallery, Singapore
Common Ground, Shophouse 5, Singapore
Great Peranakans, Peranakan Museum, Singapore
Fresh Takes, Chan Hampe Galleries, Singapore
2013
Creation, SJI Art Alumni Show, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2010
Altering Alvar Aalto, Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore
2007
AEP Biennial Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore
The Best of UOB: 1982-2007, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2006
The Hours,(SOLO) Jendela (Visual Arts Space)Esplanade, Singapore
Awards and Residencies
2019
Ingram Purchase Prize
Jealous Prize
2018
Chadwell Award
2017
Griffin Art Prize, Longlist
HIX Art Award, Finalist
Royal Drawing School residency, Dumfries House, Scotland
2016
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
Red Mansion Art Prize Shortlist
2005
United Overseas Bank Painting of the Year Award
Projects
2018
Who are you my country (Cover artwork), ed. Kwek, Jesudason & Prasad, Landmark Books
2017
Oxford Poetry (cover artwork), Winter 2016/17, XVI.III
2016
Theophilus Kwek, Giving Ground (Cover design and illustrations), Ethos Books
2015
A Splendid Kindred Soul, with Simon King, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
2013
The Portrait Speaks, with various portrait sitters, NUS Baba House, Singapore
Selected Press
“年轻画家王亮杰视作画如烹饪”, 联合早报, 6 March, 2019.
“Art Week 2019: Drama at its Finest”, The Business Times, 1 February 2019.
Floorr magazine interview, Floorr, 2 October 2018.
"Alvin Ong on designing covers using the language of collage", Ethos Books, 2 August 2018.
Youngspace artist interview, yngspc.com, 27 July 2018.
"This chimerical mode of working is what excites me...", ArtMaze Magazineinterview, 23 June 2018.
"BP Portrait Award 2018 - review", in Timeout London, 13 June 2018.
"Unfinished & Abandoned Art - in Singaporean Artists' Studios", in The New York Times Style Magazine, 17 January 2018
"Alvin Ong: Youthful artist with an old soul", in A Baba Album(KAH, ed. E. Koh, 2017), Peter Wee, pp. 64-5, 280-5
"Walking the pilgrim's way", Cherwell, 30 January, 2017
"Passages", exhibition catalogue, 19 August - 28 September, 2015
"前得奖者双人展年轻画家一展写实功力",联合早报, 17 September, 2015
"Chan Hampe Galleries' Shophouse 5 in Geylang", Blouin Artinfo Southeast Asia, 26 August, 2015
"Art comes home", TimeOutSingapore, August 2015, p. 58-59
"A Young Painter's Promise", the Peranakan, Issue 01/15, p. 40-1
"The Straits Chinese and Civic Portraiture in Singapore", in Great Peranakans: Fifty Remarkable Lives (ACM, 2015), Daphne Ang, p. 46
"Crisp Perspectives at Chan Hampe Galleries", SingArt, 23 March, 2015
"Fresh Takes", TimeOut Singapore, 9 March, 2015
"SG Inspiration: Alvin Ong", Stooffi, 22 February, 2015
"Check out past 10 winners of the UOB POY prize", ST Lifestyle, 21 November, 2014
"Reviving a Tradition", Portraits of the Straits, 16 January, 2014
"Ex-SJI Students Display Artworks at Museum", CatholicNews, 22 September, 2013, Vol 63, No. 18
"Presenting Portraiture Series | The Portrait Speaks", NUS Museum, 6 March, 2013
"Two Young Winners Choose Art for Life", The Sunday Times, 15 July, 2012
"Young artist paints for the greater glory of God", CatholicNews, 30 August, 2009
"Review: The 25th POY Competition", Artreview Boonscafe, 24 September, 2006
"The Artist's Window - Interview with Alvin Ong", exhibition catalogue
"50 Young People to Watch", The Straits Times, 1 October, 2005
"Unlikely Prodigy", Elite, August 2005, Issue 4
"16岁学生窗外的孤独世界", 联合早报, 18 July, 2005
"Art in the Dark", Today, 18 July, 2005
"Boy, Uninterrupted", The Straits Times, 18 July, 2005
"Teen is youngest winner of top art award", The Sunday Times, 17 July, 2005
Education
2018
Royal College of Art, London
2016
Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford