This exhibition will form a retrospect viewing of Lee’s artistic concerns and its developments throughout the past twenty-five years. The paintings “Crucifixion” and “Hard Rain” date back to early 1990 and reflect Lee’s performative gestures onto the medium of painting, expressive and full of personal narratives. The latest works on paper are more abstract in their nature, delicate and brilliantly colored, expose a very intimate side of Lee’s practice and his love for drawing. With variety of works and themes covered in this exhibition, it proves once again why Lee Wen is considered as the true pioneer of contemporary and performance art in Singapore.

Born in 1957, Lee Wen is a Singaporean multidisciplinary artist working on social identity themes. After leaving a banking career to enroll at LASALLE College of the Arts, Lee graduated with a Masters of Fine Art in 2006. Lee Wen is a member of The Artists Village and the Black Market performance collective. He was co-organizer of Future of Imagination, an international performance art event in 2003, and also initiated R.I.T.E.S.-Rooted in the Ephemeral Speak, a platform to develop and promote performance art, discourse, and discussion in Singapore in 2009. He has held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in various international group shows, biennales and festival. He was the recipient of Singapore’s Cultural Medallion in 2005. Lee Wen has exhibited widely, with his most recent “Prudential Singapore Eye” at ArtScience Museum, Singapore, “Lee Wen: Solo Exhibition” at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2014, “The Breath of a Blade” at the Jendela Visual Arts Space Esplanade, Singapore in 2013 and “Lee Wen: Lucid Dreams in the Reverie of the Real” at the Singapore Art Museum in 2012.