Sunday 9 August 2015

A Place Behind by Eyes - Yeo Tze Yang

This exhibition is held from 7th to 16th August 2015 at Ion art space by Utterly Art. It is part of a bigger exhibition Time & Place, 50 years of Singapore, which includes Andre Tan and Martin Loh who also presented solos. And a smattering of other artists to fill the space.

Yeo presented 8 paintings of Singapore scenes. It was meant to capture the small things he noticed.

In my personal opinion Yeo Tze Yang has potential. However, he needs guidance, either by going to art school or working with a pro-active gallerist.

When I first came across his works at Flaneur Gallery, I was impressed by this young artist.

However, when I viewed this exhibition, I was disappointed. The same kind of disappointment you feel when your favourite football team loses. Meaning I am actually rooting for him.

Why do I say this? First if you read his artist statement, it is rather weak and if you break it down, it just says he's capturing what he sees. Nothing wrong, but in this day and age of the internet and exposure to art in Singapore and around the world, what he did isn't very fresh. Give the newcomer a chance you would say, but if he really wants to shine he needs to get the thinking correct and understand what contemporary art is all about. Hang around some conceptual artists. Next if you compare his earlier series for Flaneur's Urban Hysteria, they look very similar. And it would seem that he had only one style. And to further this, just look at all the paintings presented, his solution to dynamism of the painting is to tilt the visual axis left, i.e. every painting slants to the left to give it 'movement'. So after coming off a busy week of art exhibitions, it leaves me disappointed.






Price from Utterly Art FB page - 92cmx122cm =$2800
Price psf $0.25
Comparatively from recent exhibitions (but bigger paintings)
Luke Heng - $0.21
Khairullah Rahim - $0.29

Points for collectors: Not a buy yet. But good for him, think most have been sold. Prices a bit high for such a young artist. Hopefully the people who have bought his pieces do it to support the artist and like his work and not for investment (might get burnt). 





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