About the Exhibition
“I am not trying to capture a moment in time; I have no real attachment to these memories. I think of them instead as conversations. I’m not so good at talking, see, and I speak to moments this way.”
That day, I was sketching on the street is Ong Hieng Fuong’s debut solo exhibition, a display of his conversations with observed moments of life. Rendered in a variety of mediums, from vibrant poster colours to elaborate woodcuts, his works are made in the details. Much of his outlook was formed growing up in his hometown of Tanjung Sepat, a fishing village nearly 50km from Klang. Boredom led him to take up the persona of the observing uncle sitting at the corner kopitiam, eyeing the goings-on around; a facility for drawing instead of words manifested them as art rather than rant.
Vignettes of small-town life and the urban metropolis alike are portrayed with vigour and infused with bemusement. For Hieng, the hellish, the fantastic, and the whimsical dwell in the ordinary day-to-day. The main characters that inhabit his works are the busybody auntie down the street, a vegetable seller arguing over prices, and the uncle squatting, cigarette in hand, in a corner. We invite you to meet all of them, and their friends, at The Back Room.
Bukit Bintang, 2022, poster colour on paper, 58 × 42.5 cm
About the artist
Ong Hieng Fuong (b. 1995) is an artist from Tanjong Sepat, Selangor. He is currently pursuing a degree at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. Growing up in a small fishing town where the pace of life is much slower, he got to experience all aspects of daily life to their fullest; these experiences and observations form the major source of his inspiration. He has received various accolades, most notably being selected for the UOB Painting of the Year Gold Award in the Established Artist Category in 2019, following his selection for the grand prize in the Emerging Artist Category in 2017. Also in 2017, he was awarded the Grand Prize in the Nando’s Art Initiative competition. In 2021, he was an artist-in-residence at the Rimbun Dahan Southeast Asian Art Residency for six months. That day, I was sketching on the street is his first solo exhibition.
Selected Artworks
