Malaysian-born artist Eric Chan is one of Singapore’s leading artists. Already fast-gaining recognition within Asia, Chan is regarded as one of the finest painters of his generation. Precociously accomplished yet harbouring a distinctive sensibility, Chan’s vision and confidence surpass his years. Eric Chan is a familiar name in the contemporary art scene and for many, his signature pieces of work to date were his floral paintings composed of subtle, layering strokes and veils of colour that leave the finished work seemingly radiating as if viewed through a diffused lens. The last three years has seen a significant shift in subject matter for Chan who moved on to depict large scale, reverse negative portraits in somber monochromes. The most recent phase of his oeuvre, presented here in Submissions to Beauty, sees the combination of these floral and faunal motifs with the human motifs, occasionally placed over random tracts of text. There is a precision and deliberateness to Chan’s work. The introduction of text,rather than for its literal meanings or codes of meanings, is for its beautiful manuscript letters and its calligraphic forms. The placing of vibrantly coloured birds and flowers that appear exotic and tropical at first glance possess echoes of nineteenth century botanical and anatomical studies. All this, combined with his sublime monochromatic portraits pulled from the canon of 13th to 18th century western masterpieces, serves to create a canvas loaded with hidden meaning. The narrative twists and turns bursting to and beyond the confines of the pictorial plane. The works in Submissions to Beauty reveal the artist’s growing maturity, exposing a tinge of vulnerability while conveying deeper emotional resonance. The paintings are more haunting, more contemplative than ever before, the sense of absence versus presence is even more powerful. Through these paintings, Eric Chan lures the eye into the private world of his images, slowing down time, captivating us and inviting us to linger a little longer. Trained at LASALLE-SIA College of Arts, Singapore, Chan went on to complete his formal studies with both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art, graduating with distinction in painting, and a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Since graduating in 2000 he has held exhibitions in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Australia. He has taken up art residencies and won several awards including the Philip Morris Jurors’ Choice Award in 2002. His work is also featured in the Contemporary Art auctions of Christies and Sotheby’s. Eric Chan currently lectures at LASALLE-SIA College of Arts and is based in Singapore.