“To be enlightened and to create something extraordinary, the artist must first learn to free himself from the tyranny of logic and traditions.”
Born in Singapore in 1942, Wong Keen’s prodigious talent in painting was evident since childhood. At age 19, Wong Keen held his first solo exhibition at the then National Library of Singapore and moved to America in that same year after being accepted by the prestigious Art Students League of New York. When Wong Keen departed in 1961, he was the first Singaporean to pursue art education in New York and the first Asian and Singaporean to have won the Edward G. McDowell Travelling Scholarship (1965) in the history of Art Students League.
After the 2nd World War, New York flourished as the world centre for arts. By the 1950s, what became collectively appraised as Abstract Expressionism had taken the world by storm. It was against this progressive backdrop in the early 1960s that the young Wong Keen developed his artistic sensibility. During his time at the Art Students League of New York, Wong Keen studied under influential Abstract Expressionist artists such as Morris Kantor, Sidney Gross, Vaclav Vytlacil and Hans Hoffman, gaining first-hand insights into the Colour-field theory (an essential strand in Abstract Expressionism), which emphasizes strategic placements of colours and their effective dramatization to achieve form and balance.
Some may expect fifty years in America to have demolished Wong Keen’s Chinese roots; quite on the contrary, being schooled in the Art Students League (1961 – 65) and years of living in the West in fact heightened Wong Keen’s sensitivity toward his Chinese heritage and culture. Brought up in a Chinese scholar-artist environment, a deep reverence for Chinese ink and brushwork was instilled in Wong Keen since young. At the age of 13, his creative mind was already penetrated by the idiosyncratic, gestural style of Bada Shanren, which continues to follow and shape his visual poetics across varying mediums today.
Having lived and worked in America for over fifty years, Wong Keen’s artistic style is an embodiment of cross-cultural confluences: inspired by the elegance and expressiveness of Chinese ink painting and calligraphy, as well as Abstract Expressionism. In 2007, the Singapore Art Museum celebrated his masterful repertoire with a solo exhibition. In addition to private patronage from around the world, his works are also collected by the Singapore Art Museum, The National Museum of China, Resorts World Sentosa and The Fullerton Hotel.
Important Dates
1942 Born in Singapore
1961-1965 The Art Students League, New York, USA
1966 Saint Martin’s School of Art, London, UK
1966 Art Instructor at Fair Lawn Adult School Swarthmore, New Jersey, USA
1967 Art Director at Police Athlete Leagues, New York, USA
Solo Exhibitions
1961 National Library, Singapore
1962 Bridge Gallery, New York, USA
1964 Westerly Gallery, New York, USA
1965 Fordham University, New York, USA
1966 Saint Martin’s School of Art, London, UK
1967 The Art Students League, New York, USA
1967 Sarah Lawrence College, New York, USA
1988 El Museo de Arte Costrarricense (Museum of Costa Rica), Costa Rica
1989 Gallery Triform, Taipei, Taiwan
1994 William Whipple Gallery, Southwest State University, Minnesota, USA
1995 Carnegie Art Center, Minnesota, USA
1996 After Thirty-Five Years in New York (1961-1996), Takashima Gallery, Singapore
1997 Recent Works by Wong Keen – Lotus & Figures, Caldwell House, CHIJMES, Singapore
1998 Gallery Vinh Loi, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
1998 American Club, Singapore
1999 The DP Gallery, Singapore
2000 William Whipple Gallery, Southwest State University, Minnesota, USA
2007 A Singapore Abstract Expressionist, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2007 Expressions by Wong Keen, Galerie Belvedere, Singapore
2012 Picture Writing: Sensuous Abstractions, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2013 Keen Variations: the Different Sides of Wong Keen's Art, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2013 A Tribute to an Artist: Masterpieces of Wong Keen, Artspace@Helutrans, Singapore
2014 Second Nature, Paintings by Wong Keen, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2015 Lotus Transformations: Paintings by Wong Keen, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2015 Wong Keen, The Substation Gallery, Singapore
2016 Wong Keen: The Orbits of Colour, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2017 Wong Keen: A Creative Life Unfurled, ION Art Gallery, Singapore
2018 Flesh on Loop: Wong Keen’s Solo Exhibition, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2018 Lyrical Flesh, The Culture Story, Singapore
2018 Wong Keen: Flesh Matters, jointly presented by artcommune gallery and The Culture Story, Artspace @ Helutrans, Singapore
2019 Wong Keen | Theatre of Enigmas, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2019 Wong Keen: Flesh Matters 2.0, jointly presented by artcommune gallery and The Culture Story, Art Jakarta
2021 Wong Keen: Works on Canvas and Paper, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2022 Wong Keen: Forest, artcommune gallery, Singapore
Group Exhibitions
1957 8th Annual Open Exhibition, British Council, Singapore
1958 9th Annual Open Exhibition, Singapore Art Society, Singapore
1958 10th Annual Open Exhibition, Victoria Memorial Hall, Singapore
1960 11th Annual Open Exhibition, Victoria Memorial Hall, Singapore
1963 The Silvermine Guild of Artists, NewCanaan, Connecticut, USA
1964 American Watercolor Society, New York, USA
1987 The Commemoration of the Nanking Massacre, Soho, New York, USA
1989 North American Chinese Artist Association, Dziou Tai Gallery, New York, USA
1993 The Breath of Life, Keen Gallery, NewYork, USA
1994 The Breath of Life II, Keen Gallery, New York, USA
1994 New York Collection 94-95, Albright Knox Art Gallery, New York, USA
1995 New York Collection 95-96, Albright Knox Art Gallery, New York, USA
1995 KAKEJIKU/Scrolling in New York,Galleryonetwentyeight, New York, USA
1996 Scrolling in Japan (traveling exhibition), Gallery Kawafune, Gallery Kura, Tajimi City Cultural Centre, IidaCity Museum, City Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1996 A World of Art, William Whipple Gallery, Southwest State University, Minnesota, USA
1997 Xa104 Roadside Museum, Hiroshima, Japan
1997 Art Spot Gallery Marya, Osaka, Japan
1997 Gallery Guute, Hiroshima, Japan
2000 Letters from The Artists, William Whipple Gallery, Southwest State University, Minnesota, USA
2001 Moon Eclipse: Williamsburg Lunar Base Gallery, New York, USA
2002 Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, New York, USA
2003 The Pioneers 4, Singapore
2006 People of the Mind, William Whipple Gallery, Southwest State University, Minnesota, USA
2009 Exploring the Boundary, Singapore &Malaysia
2010 Galeri Seri Lukis Modern Dai Ichi
2010 The 6th National Artists Travelling, Phattalung, Thailand
2011 Ink Expressions, Singapore
2011 Exchange 2011, Singapore-China Art Showcase
2011 The 2nd Art Exhibition of International Visual Artist, Association of Thailand
2011 International Famous Artists' Paintings Exhibition
2011 Grand Masters of Art Exhibition, ION Art Gallery, Singapore
2012 Artist in Residency in Gallerie URS Meile 2012, Beijing, China
2012 Contemporary Chinese Ceramic Paintings Exhibition, The National Art Museum of China
2014 Chinese Artists in Southeast Asia, Christie's Private Selling Exhibition, Hong Kong
2016 The 15th (Japan) International Calligraphy and Painting Exchange Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan
2017 Singapore Artists in the States: Wong Keen, Goh Beng Kwan, Zhuang Sheng Tao and Choy WengYang, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2017 Black & White: Boo Sze Yang, Ben Loong, Tang Da Wu, Benny Teo, Wong Keen and ZhuangSheng Tao, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2018 Contending Boundaries: Tang Da Wu, Wong Keen and Yeo Hoe Koon, Artspace@Helutrans, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2020 The Question of Form | Cheong Soo Pieng, Wong Keen & Boo Sze Yang, artcommune gallery, Singapore
2022 All We Do is Gloss Each Other, Not Gallery, Singapore
2023 The Spatial, the Ephemeral, and the Possibility of It All | Boo Sze Yang, Milenko Prvački & Wong Keen, Artspace@Helutrans, artcommune gallery, Singapore
Awards
1963 Ford Foundation Grant, Art Students League, New York, USA
1965 Edward G. McDowell Travelling Scholarship, Art Students League, New York, USA
1967 Consul General of Japan Award, The Suni-E Society