Cheng Yeow Chye

Cheng's depiction of rural and lower caste living is merciless in its wealth of details, not sparing the grimy and unsightly, yet achieving masterpieces of great depth, intricacy and beauty in their raw insight and grit.

He uses watercolours scrupulously to achieve a high level of detail and solidity that is rarely seen in the usually impressionistic watercolour works. An obvious example is his liberal usage of heavily contrasting black and white spaces, and what is usually dismissed as 'dirty' gray tones in his colours, all to portray the harshness and grunge of reality.

This egalitarian perspective of life is due to Cheng's own personal hardships. His paintings are obviously related to his surroundings, and he cites his parents as major influences also. After his mother's passing, he set out to paint the places that represent her lifetime as a way of relieving his emotional turbulence. Amongst these is Mother's Hometown, depicting a derelict shack in a commune of 'floating' squatter houses usually found in fishing villages. Interestingly, in this series there are no people depicted.

Otherwise, he spares and hides nothing; from the rotting fish bone on battered jetty planks, tattered canvases and tangled ropes on the boats, right down to the cheap veneer of plastic chairs at a hawker stall and the rust on steel posts. His artistic skill and interpretation ensures his paintings do not suffer the unattractiveness of its subjects, but rather to grant them a shade of nostalgia.

His quest to retain and capture the existing in art is well-served by his dexterous portrayals. He intends to explore the subject of Chinese Opera, an influence and inspiration by his father's career in it.