Image size: 59.0 x 84.0 cm
Solamalay Namasivayam – better known as Nama – is celebrated as a key founding member of Group 90, a cohort of senior artists in Singapore including Brother Joseph McNally, Liu Kang, Earl Lu, and Ng Eng Teng, and whose work centred on the human form. Nama is also remembered for his teaching at Lasalle College of the Arts, from 1987 to 2001, where he introduced Life Drawing as a specialist subject. His depiction of nude figures – many of them reportedly backpacker tourists he recruited – indicates his refusal to be constrained by social taboos.Nama’s work was consistently grounded in the medium of drawing, and the subject of the human figure. He explored the expansive possibilities of these two grounding concerns, working in a range of drawing media including ink, charcoal, pastel and gouache, and ranging from careful naturalistic renderings to loose and expressive gestural semi-abstraction. His significant use of ink and ink-like wash effects in charcoal indicates his engagement with the vocabularies of Chinese painting.
