SINGAPOREAN ARTISTS

Namiko Chan Takahashi

Namiko Chan is a Japanese artist based in Singapore. She studied in New York and received her Bachelor in Law from NUS, Singapore in 1997 after teaching art at Tanglin Secondary School and Chung Cheng Branch High School. She has won several local awards and grants including the UOB Painting of the Year Award Grand Prize in 2006, a National Arts Council Project Grant in 2007, and more recently a National Arts Council Arts Professional Development Grant in 2008. She has also worked in the Ministry of Education’s Creative Arts Programme in 2004, 2005 and 2006 as a workshop leader in the dance programme.

Junie Foo

Junie’s works are focused on bringing out the quietness of hope, beyond life’s shadows and its daily intensities. Their themes and shapes are influenced by the refinement of Japanese paintings, landscapes in particular. The inspirations are hence drawn from nature’s intricate creations, be it the abundant crevasses in a tree trunk or the solitary magnificence of the ocean. She delights in the freedom of using a multitude of colours and it is always her constant desire to bring hope to those who see the paintings. Her paintings have been collected in Singapore, Spain, Japan and Hong Kong

Valerie Ng

Valerie took up painting seriously in 2002 after attending the Alternative Foundation in Fine Art at The Slade Summer School, The Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London, UK.

Her medium is mostly oil or acrylic on canvas with an abstract expressionist approach. Her works are created as a result of her explorations in colour, light, depth, form and texture, as well as inspired by the natural elements, hues and shapes of the environment.

Esther Phua

Puah Ting En Esther studied art at the NAFA Junior Arts from the age of eight. She completed her primary and secondary education at St. Hilda’s School of Singapore. In 2005, Esther was awarded the Best in Art in Secondary 3, and subsequently graduating with the Best in GCE ‘O’ Levels Art. Currently a third year student majoring in western painting at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Esther Puah had just been awarded the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Scholarship. She has meanwhile also decided to work for the Junior Arts Department at NAFA as a part- time art assistant to gain some working experience. Esther hopes to develop her skills through this experience.

Yuen Yu May Angella

Born in Singapore in 1988, Angella Yuen is currently majoring in western painting in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. She is working as a part-time art assistant in NAFA. She graduated from Ang Mo Kio ITE with a Digital Media Design certificate in 2006.

Her watercolour paintings were included in an exhibition held in Simei ITE in 2006. She had just been awarded with the Tan Chay Bing Scholarship. She is an enthusiastic and diligent painter; using her emotions and situations faced in her daily life to create her artworks.

Susan Chia

Susan Chia is currently a final year fine art student at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Though her styles of works are naïve, pure, or even playful sometimes, she continues to explore through the use of vigorous strokes and colours as her main expressions. Overall, the combination of strokes and colours make the work more lively and vibrant.

Liyana Yusuf

Liyana Binte Mohd Yusof’s passion in Art nurture when she is still young. She took Art in Xingnan Primary School (Singapore) and took part in Arts co-curriculum competition and managed to get 3rd prize. She continued her studies in Hong Kah Secondary School (Singapore) and achieved to get Best in Arts and Design consistently. She also participated in the Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) and won Bronze. She is now currently studying Diploma in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore), majoring in western painting.

Sharifah Najiah

Sharifah Najiah has been interested in art since she was a child. She started to get more about her interest in art when she does well during her primary school days and by taking up Art Club as her co-curriculum activities (CCA) and having Art and Design as one of her school subjects during her secondary school days. In 2004 and 2005, Sharifah was awarded the Best in Art and Design for two consecutive years. She is currently studying at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), a third year Diploma in Fine Art majoring in western painting.

Kanchana Gupta

Mahatma Gandhi said, "Men and women are equal in status but are not identical. They are a peerless pair being complementary to one another, each helps the other so that without the one, the existence of the other cannot be conceived, and therefore, follows as a necessary corollary form these facts that anything that will impair the states of either of them will involve the equal ruin of both". Women in India have played an important part in social life and in history; however it is their unobtrusive work in the household, in the village or in the larger community that has moulded India.

Guo Junzhu

Junzhu is a year 3 art student majoring in painting. She is currently taking diploma in Fine Arts program at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore (NAFA). Ever since the secondary school days, she held Art as her passion and is deeply influenced by her art teacher. Junzhu is enjoying her days in NAFA as she discovers and explores a lot in Art. She finds that she can express her thoughts and ideas better through art. She also desires to become an inspiring artist in the future.

Nur Fajrina Abdul Razak

Fajrina Razak is presently pursuing Diploma in Fine Art, majoring in Photography at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). She has been actively participating in art activities and volunteering. Making art has become her passion since secondary school years. As soon as she enters NAFA, she chose to major in photography where her interest developed extensively. She is now giving a thought about her focus and main concern as an artist and her stand in art. Her current art practice questions women’s right in society, conveyed through photo, video and drawings.

ARTISTS