SINGAPORE Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) Singapore, in collaboration with Finale Art File, presents recent works by Philippine visual artist Jonathan Ching in a one-man exhibition entitled And They Say the Stars Are Worlds. The show will be on view at RKFA Singapore from 12 – 25 Oct, 2011.

The exhibition presents recent paintings exploring the concept of parallel worlds: other realities undeciphered or undiscovered in our own immersion with the immediate and the present. Ching offers viewers paintings that engage both memory and possibility: open ended stories and representations of the everyday, rendered unfamiliar and strangely surreal.

Appropriating its title from a quotation from Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, the works in the show utilize images from familiar and alien locations, art works of the past and present, and everyday objects. Ching intentionally builds upon layers and layers of visual references—from Hokusai's woodblock prints to Gericault's oil paintings to Philippe Halsman's underwater photography, for instance—and combines these disparate influences and images into singular works, sometimes splicing together different visual elements into a seemingly unified sequence. Ching also incorporates in his paintings bronze and copper pieces cast from found objects-- seahorses and foliage, for instance—as markers of meaning. Ching's works, though seemingly disparate in subject matter, are unified in their tangible sense of desolation and enchantment, inviting the viewer to venture further into their parallel worlds.

Manila-based artist Jonathan Ching is among the members of the defunct arts collective Surrounded by Water, which successfully established an alternative artist-run space from 1998 to 2004. He obtained degrees in Civil Engineering and Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines in Diliman.