Born in Singapore in 1955, Lim Tiong Ghee is a self-taught artist renowned for his abstract collages. He was Category Winner (Representational), UOB Painting of the Year Competition in 1984 with his ‘Reflection’ watercolour painting, and in 1989 Lim received the Competition’s Top Award for his wrapping paper collage ‘From the Turtledove’.Within his more intimate collages of flowers, fruit and food, Lim seeks to inject the poetry and simplicity of a good Chinese ink painting – the essence being a quality of line that has an intrinsic beauty separate from its representation. There is a strong decorative element, a pleasing balance of paper shapes and translucent layered colours, delicate but not fragile and mimicking the qualities of the paper used. That these works are also stylistically Chinese in appearance is an integral component of Lim’s work, an acknowledgement of his heritage and influences.
