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Liu Wen Chao
Liu Wen Chao came to Singapore primarily to experience a new location and culture to broaden and expand his own creative practice as an artist/painter.
For the first three years, he was a student at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts studying Fine Art drawing and painting, graduating with a diploma in 2014. In those three years, Wen Chao made performances and video works including research of Singapore’s local artists and its industry and framework. During this research, Wen Chao was introduced to Lee Wen, a Cultural Medallion recipient, and internationally recognized performance artist.
He then went on to work with Lee Wen in the following years in the capacity of artist, art assistant, artistic director, and curator, for Lee Wen’s Independent Archive art space. Culminating in close collaboration with the artist Lee Wen, experiences included many various attributes for the next subsequent 7 years as a significant member of iA which ended in 2018. Currently, Wen Chao is continuing his practice as a studio fine artist.
Art/Work History
2011-2014 - Diploma in Fine Art, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
2014-Present, Studio Artist
February 2017 - ‘Asian Topia’, Collaboration with Lee Wen, Melbourne Art Center, Australia
September 2017 - ‘Tree’ series Painting, Collaboration with Lee Wen, Grey Projects, Singapore
December 2017-November 2018 - Production Manager, Independent Archive Ltd
December 2017 - Lee Wen’s Red Lantern Installation, Production Manager of Independent Archive, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan.
February 2018 - ‘Tronies’, Karl Kerridge Solo Exhibition, Curator, Independent Archive
March 2018 - ‘Singapore Minstrel’, Film screening, Curator, Independent Archive
April 2018 - ‘I like Hanoi’, Curator, Independent Archive.
June 2018 - ‘A Waking Dream: Sun-boy and Yellow Man’, collaboration with Lee Wen, National Gallery Singapore.
September 2018 - ‘World Class Society’ Independent Archive, Installation piece, collaboration with Lee Wen, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
18 September 2018 - Untitled performance with Lee Wen collaboration, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
Personal Bio
On the surface, Singapore appears to be a fast-moving country but having lived here for many years, I am convinced by its unique geographical and cultural position. I came to Singapore because it seemed to represent a geographical and cultural synthesis between the East and the West. Back then, all I knew was that Singapore has a biennale and many major artists frequently established their presence here by being hosted by this country. Their artistic practices were facilitated by a vigorously growing/expanding art infrastructure. The experience I’ve gained from being in Singapore has evolved and changed from my initial preconceptions of here being a simple bridge between East and West. It’s far more apparent that it is on the one hand very far from my civilization of China and far from the character of a truly Westernized city-state. Both its culture, quality, and character are intrinsically different from both ideas of East and West. I, therefore, have realized I am submersed in a truly Southeast Asian context whereby traditions and local customs eclipse that of any associations of East and West notions.
As an artist, I wanted to establish myself in the context of another society/country, albeit an Asian one. In the first three years, I was a student at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts studying Fine Art drawing and painting, graduating with a diploma in 2014. In those three years, I made paintings, performances, and video works. I further researched Singapore’s local artists, its industry, and its framework. One only has to scratch the surface of modern aesthetics and materials, glass, chrome, and steel to discover a world that is still very vigorously a tropical jungle on the brink of the equator. As a student, I attended the Future of Imagination (FOI) performance art festival. It had a significant impact on me. I came to introduce myself to Lee Wen as I was interested in this novel art form that I had little knowledge or experience. It was at this point that he took me on as an art assistant. I began to recognize that the Singapore arts and cultural landscape was entrenched solely in its own history and moving differently from China and other Western countries.
I went on to work with Lee Wen in the following years until his passing in 2019. In my time with Lee Wen, I worked in the capacity of the artist, art assistant, artistic director, and curator for Lee Wen’s Independent Archive art space. I worked closely with Lee Wen for 7 years, meeting and working with a large fraction of the local artistic community.
I first came to Singapore to experience a new location and culture and to broaden and expand my own creative practice as an artist/painter. I realize that my recent works all start from text. Apart from visual art, history also influenced me. I hope that my works can explore deeper historical issues in the future, and express them in the form of art, whether it is painting, performance art, or installation art. I think my own China background and life experience in Singapore make me, as an artist, look at history and the present with a different perspective from ordinary people, and create special works. Singapore is radically different from my first impressions and those of perhaps outsiders looking in and I want to show that in my practice.
Solo Exhibition
12 September to 02 October 2015, Foreign Country, Merlin Gallery, Singapore
Duo Exhibition
28 January-28 February 2023 - Spirit of the Earth, MAVEN Art Gallery, Singapore 29 January-08 February 2015, Urban Hysteria, Flaneur Gallery, Singapore
Group Exhibition
2023 - Small Talk, Modern Art Society Singapore, Singapore Chinese culture centre 2022, Modern Art Society 57th Annual Exhibition, Singapore Chinese Culture Center 2021, When feelings become form, SooBin Art Int’l Singapore
2021 - MINOM MINOM, Studio Neom, Singapore
2019 - Modern Art Society 55th Annual Exhibition, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre 2019, The first outdoor gallery in Singapore, Gelam Gallery
2018 - State of Emergency, 22 Marshall Road, Singapore
2015 - Zentai Art Festival, Japan Creative Centre, Singapore
Links to the Website
http://republicofdaydreams.weebly.com/independent-archive.html
News Publication
Now, Lianhe Zaobao, 18/04/2020, written by Liu Wen Chao
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/fukan/arts/story20200418-1046410 07 now, Lianhe Zaobao, 21/03/2019, written by Liu Wen Chao.
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/zlifestyle/culture/story20190321-941768 now, Lianhe Zaobao, 29/10/2020, Written by Wang Yi Ming.
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/zlifestyle/culture/story20201029-1096585 08 now, Lianhe Zaobao, 06/04/2020, Written by Siang Ping Ng.
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/zlifestyle/culture/story20200406-1043194 08 now, Lianhe Zaobao, 11/07/2019, Written by Siang Ping Ng.
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/zlifestyle/culture/story20190711-971461 08 now, Lianhe Zaobao, 03/05/2019, Written by Siang Ping Ng.
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/zlifestyle/culture/story20190305-937055 now, Lianhe Zaobao, 20/02/2017, Written by Chow Yian Ping.
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/zlifestyle/culture/story20170220-726844
05 now, Lianhe Zaobao, 28/09/2015, Written by Wang Yi Ming.
