Born in 1942 in Singapore, New York/Singapore-based artist Wong Keen’s art training began under Liu Kang and advanced under Chen Wen Hsi’s mentoring. In 1961 Wong left to study at The Art Students League, New York, and in 1963 received the League’s prestigious Edward G. McDowell Travelling Scholarship to travel and study in Europe. The new millennium appeared to herald an exciting shift in Wong’s palette of colours. His ‘Landscape’ paintings recall the Fauves’ ‘unnatural’ vibrant hues and the flat areas of colour, as well as the facetted forms of the Cubists, yet the rural mountainous subject matter has a definite Southeast Asia appearance and spirit. Having returned to live in Singapore in the late 1990s, albeit part-time, opportunities to explore Asia in all its uniqueness and variety increased exponentially for Wong, offering new subjects for Wong to explore and technically revisit.
