Jimmy Ong by Jimmy Ong

This exhibition runs from 25th July 2014 to 31st August 2014 at FOST Gallery at Gillman Barracks.

In this exhibition he presents the works which he is best at - figurative charcoal drawings. He presents two styles here- one is the recent Nassim Hill Revisited series, comprising figurative still life painting, some with just a splash of colour. This is him reminiscing his life when he was staying in the Nassim Hill area. The other series consists of large format human drawings which are older works from his Beyond LKY and Ancestors on the Beach series.

His Nassim Hill series is very good. It's easy to do still life. But to reach a level of excellence is difficult. (If you have a chance you should check out the Chardin works to appreciate the Master level of still life.) His drawing of human figures is superb and his skill level is shown in these > 2 metre long drawings. Don't think there are many Singaporean artists who know their anatomy well and are able to do half decent paintings/drawings of the human figure. I think the Italian art schools place a strong emphasis on this when they train their students.

Some write ups: I-S Asia, Ocula and Sing Art.

Pineapple & Company

Seven Coconuts

Heart Daughters

Points for Collectors: Rating: Strong Buy. When I went to the show, quite a few had already been sold. This is probably because he hasn't exhibited his drawings for a while, as I felt that the prices for these charcoal drawings are a bit on the high side. Good artist, good credentials.