Ruben Pang Singapore , b. 1990

Pang’s artistic process focuses on automatism, the neurosis and drama of the human condition. Beginning with painting, Pang’s practice has also led him to explore the dynamism and spontaneity of ceramic sculpture and the sensitivities and collaborative spirit of music through A Talon Touches a Lake.

Pang resists binaries in genres such as ‘abstraction’ and ‘figuration’ and embraces both experimental and traditional approaches, often combining both within the same painting. 

Working without a preconceived image of the final composition, his approach allows the imagery to surface spontaneously; a “visual syncopation, like searching for a melody in white noise”. Pang treats the creative process as an adventure, with a narrative arc and conflict. Painting distilled from a creative journey is a life within itself and offers a world to the world.

Using a combination of oils, alkyds and acrylics he paints, scratches and erases his paintings using brushes, hands, palette knives and sandpaper, revealing layers of color that reflect projections of his psyche. Pang prefers aluminum panels as its rigidity reflects and captures the nuances of each moment and gesture in a way which canvas cannot. Its durability allows greater freedom to transform the image as it develops.

Pang’s painting is both reinforced and counterpointed through sculpture. In ceramics, he embraces the immediacy and vitality of falling into a motif, and actively resists unnecessary meddling with the motif, in order to “never erase (his) eccentricities”.

International exhibitions Pang has exhibited in include Medea, Antico Mercato di Ortegia, Italy (2023), Contemporary Chaos, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway, Meccaniche della Meraviglia, MO.CA Centro per le nuove culture in Brescia, Italy (2018) and The Figure in Process: De Kooning to Kapoor, Paul Allen Brain Institute in Seattle, United States (2015).

The Singapore Art Museum acquired his paintings “Fear of Lying” and “Type 0 Civilization” in 2020 and 2018. Pang received the Georgette Chen Arts Scholarship (2009 – 2010) and the Winston Oh Travelogue Award (2010).