President’s Young Talents
Inaugurated by the Singapore Art Museum in 2001, an independent committee comprising local art professionals and a SAM curator nominates a group of local artists, aged 35 and below, for the award, based on the depth of their practice, their potential for growth, and the contributions they would potentially make to the field of contemporary art. Each artist, working closely with mentors from the committee, will present newly commissioned work for the President’s Young Talents exhibition, which culminates in a Grand Prize winner and a People’s Choice awardee.
2018
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BA(Hons) Fine Arts, Class of 2010
Installation with silk twill, latex, wood, sillicone, vinyl, faux fur, paper, screens, aluminium and stainless steel.
BA(Hons) Fine Arts, Class of 2010
Weixin Quek Chong is a visual artist whose practice explores the materiality of human experience and existence, and the relationships between the digital, organic and aesthetic. Core to her practice is the manipulation of images and materials. Her works have been exhibited in Carrara, Istanbul, London, Paris, Santiago, Seoul, Taipei, Vienna and Yogyakarta.
2015
Allow me to introduce myself
Diploma in Fine Arts, Class of 2003 MA Fine Arts, Class of 2017
Performative installation with talcum powder, second-hand furniture and glass bell jars, dimensions variable
Here’s who I am, I am what you see
Diploma in Fine Arts, Class of 2003 MA Fine Arts, Class of 2017
Artist’s skin, nails and adhesive, second-hand furniture and glass bell jars
Dimensions variable
Diploma in Fine Arts, Class of 2003 MA Fine Arts, Class of 2017
Ezzam is a multi-disciplinary artist, but his mediums of choice are performance and installation art. His artworks for the President's Young Talents consist of fragile, miniature flowers shaped from flakes of dead skin, and ephemeral sculptures that consist of little but talcum powder. Animating these otherwise mute objects, however, is the artist’s living, breathing body. The skin is his own, culled over a period of time from the soles of his feet, and the powder sculptures are remnants of his performances, into which his perspiration is mixed.
2013
Mirror
BA(Hons) Film, Class of 2009
Junfeng is one of Singapore’s notable young filmmakers. His debut feature film Sandcastle premiered in competition at Cannes Film Festival’s International Critics’ Week in 2010, and was subsequently invited to film festivals around the world. It won the Best Film, Best Director and the NETPAC Jury Award at the Vietnam International Film Festival, and was listed by The Wall Street Journal as one of Asia’s most notable films of 2010. Since 2005, his short films have won several awards at the Singapore International Film Festival, including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Special Jury Prize, Special Achievement Award, and twice for Best Film. 2015 saw the release of his short film, Parting, as part of the omnibus titled 7 Letters to commemorate Singapore's 50th year of independence. In 2016, his second feature film, Apprentice was selected to be screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Image: Mirror, a two-channel video projection commissioned by the Singapore Art Museum for the President’s Young Talents contemporary art exhibition
Unveil the curtain to the window with no ledge
BA(Hons) Film, Class of 2007
Unveil the curtain to the window with no ledge, Ryf Zaini's mixed-media installation, shines a light on the process of discovery and uncertainty, and the reward of illumination on those who seek and enquire with persistence and curiosity. Ryf, who graduated with first class honours in Media Arts from LASALLE in 2007 has had his work displayed in several exhibitions in Singapore and Malaysia and had previously represented the Singapore Pavillion at the Venice Biennale 2007.
Image: Unveil the curtain to the window with no ledge
