Galerie Steph presents Quiet Mystics, a group exhibition bringing together three young Singaporean artists – Kent Chan, Luke Heng and Mark Thia who work in the distinctly different mediums of video, painting, and sculpture respectively. Despite the disparate mediums, they share an aesthetic that is quiet, subtle and layered. Luke and Mark will be present at the opening reception on 6 December, 6 – 9 pm, and will be discussing their works and practice at the Artist Talk on 7 December, 2.30 – 3.30 pm.

These three artists plot an unwieldy chart for our contemplation. The two video works by Kent looks to film in Singapore, and how it not only reflects on life in Singapore but also narrates what Singapore identity or identities is and could be. Filem takes place on the film set of a historical action epic and unravels the politics of language and production through a conversation between the director and producer. In Watching Eclipses, Kent turns the gaze onto the audience, exploring ideas of spectatorship and its labour.

An abstract painter, Luke is inspired by the Eastern philosophy of yin-yang where nature is of central importance. In translating that philosophy onto canvas, Luke considers the environment to play just as prominent a role as him in creating the painting. The process of painting sees him accounting for elements of his surroundings, from temperature to gravity, which subtly affects colour, surface and form. He aims to strike a balance between self and nature, between the conscious state of a painter’s intervention and the unconscious state of chance.

Mark is a multi-disciplinary artist, but in December he will showcase a collection of sculptures made from an unexpectedly modest material – papier-mâché. He is currently absorbed with finding a resting point between the obvious and the unidentifiable. Each of his sculpture is a coarse yet poetic structure of bones set against a rocky landscape, mirroring the imperfection, fragility and impermanence of the corporeal. As geological terrain melds with biological material, one becomes almost interchangeable for the other.

Whether charting the film landscape in Singapore, mapping on canvas the environment we are often heedless to, or plotting the materiality of existence and its eventual decay, each textural work illuminates a mystical undertone that invites introspection.

-Galerie Steph

Image: © Kent Chan