Heman Chong - Of Indeterminate Time or Occurence

This exhibition is held at FOST Gallery at Gillmann Barracks. It runs from 08/3/14 to 04/05/14.

This exhibition features more of the book covers from his series which he started his 2009 called Covers (version), the earlier works of these series had been shown at other galleries like Rossi & Rossi London/Hk and the Motive Gallery Amsterdam.

Besides the book covers, there was also the Neon sign Never Again (2014) and the wall text called the The Forer effect (2008).

From good old Wikipedia: "The Forer effect (also called the Barnum effect after P.T. Barnum's observation that "we've got something for everyone") is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, graphology and some types of personality test."

Heman Chong is a conceptual artist and I won't go into an in-depth analysis of the concept behind the works. Read the following articles at the end of the post and make your own conclusion. But it definitely is an interesting concept and different people would have different intepretations or revelations (Art vs Design).

Anyway my focus here would be more on his painting. His earlier works in the series are more design based not surprising since his background/ education is Master of Art (Communication Art and Design) and Diploma in Visual Communication. But with progression of time and place, one notices his works have more of an 'Art' painting feel rather then graphic design. And over the years he has improved as a painter; the strokes, colours and overall result of the work. Excellent multi-disciplinary artist.

 

Earlier Works

Current Exhibition

Think you have about a week more to catch it before it ends.

Good write-ups here, so that I don't need to say too much.
Michael Lee's on Art Agenda
Bruce Quek's on Randian online
Heman Chong's Interview with Blouin Art

Points for collectors: Good works. Price point is still ok. 
He is an artist that the Local Art Museums and their people like at the moment and given good exposure. He is progressing as an artist and is pro-active.  
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