Zulkarnaen Othman (ZERO)

ZERO is a visual artist with a ‘graffiti-esque’ aesthetic. He is the founder of RSCLS, an artist collective that seeks to evolve and develop urban art. He also received the National Arts Council Young Artist Award in 2013 and was a nominee for the President’s Young Talent in 2005.

ZERO is one of the leading street artists who catalysed the second wave of graffiti art in Singapore. Grounded by a vision and belief that urban and graffiti art is coming into its own as a field, ZERO is a passionate advocate of research, archiving and documentation of the movement, particularly through his work with RSCLS. One such initiative is the SOLIDARITY 21 movement, which was launched in 2013, that creates networks between practitioners of street and graffiti art in 21 countries in East and Southeast Asia through urban cultural exchanges and symposiums.

As an artist, ZERO has exhibited at numerous public and private institutions, such as in the recent Panorama: Recent Art from Contemporary Asia (2012) at the Singapore Art Museum. Internationally, ZERO has exhibited in cities such as New York, Istanbul, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur. Notably, ZERO was the first urban artist to participate in The Substation Associate Artist Research Programme, where his participation culminated in a showcase entitled The Spectacular Spectacular (2010), where selected works were acquired by the Singapore Art Museum.