The Judges
2024 UOB Painting of the Year (Regional) Judges
Mr Kwok Kian Chow
Regional
Mr Kwok Kian Chow
Art Advisor
Kwok Kian Chow was Senior Curator (1992-1994) of the National Museum of Singapore, Director (1994-2009) of the Singapore Art Museum, and Director (2009-2011) and Senior Advisor (2011-2015) of the National Gallery Singapore.
He was Associate Professor and headed the arts and culture management programme (2015-2019) and Wee Kim Wee Centre (2017-2018) at the Singapore Management University. Mr Kwok is a board member of Global (De)Centre. He has been a member of the UOB Group Art Advisory Panel since 1994. He holds the Singapore Public Administration Medal (Silver) and the Officier and Chevalier titles in the French Order of Arts and Letters.
He was Associate Professor and headed the arts and culture management programme (2015-2019) and Wee Kim Wee Centre (2017-2018) at the Singapore Management University. Mr Kwok is a board member of Global (De)Centre. He has been a member of the UOB Group Art Advisory Panel since 1994. He holds the Singapore Public Administration Medal (Silver) and the Officier and Chevalier titles in the French Order of Arts and Letters.
Mr Kwok Kian Chow
Regional
Dr Bridget Tracy Tan
Dr Bridget Tracy Tan
Senior Director, Institute of Southeast Asian Arts and Art
Galleries, and
Academic Advisor, Southeast Asian Arts
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Academic Advisor, Southeast Asian Arts
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Dr Bridget Tracy Tan is Senior Director for the Institute of Southeast Asian Arts
and Art Galleries at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Formerly a curator at the Singapore
Art Museum (now National Gallery Singapore), she holds a First Class Honours degree in History of
Art. Her PhD in practice-led research as a curator and critical art historian was obtained from
the University of the Arts London. The thesis critically explored Southeast Asian museology and
Southeast Asian curating in contemporary paradigms that extend into global platforms,
specifically, biennales.
Dr Tan continues to assemble exhibitions and facilitate the teaching of Southeast Asian arts. She has contributed essays and articles on local and regional artists in seminal publications. Over the last two decades she has also judged regional and international competitions for photography and painting.
Dr Tan continues to assemble exhibitions and facilitate the teaching of Southeast Asian arts. She has contributed essays and articles on local and regional artists in seminal publications. Over the last two decades she has also judged regional and international competitions for photography and painting.
Dr Bridget Tracy Tan
2024 UOB Painting of the Year (Singapore) Judges
Dr Vichaya Mukdamanee
Singapore
Dr Vichaya Mukdamanee
Singapore Chief Judge
Leading Thai Artist and Curator
Dean, Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, and Assistant Professor, Faculty’s Department of Painting, Silpakorn University
Leading Thai Artist and Curator
Dean, Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, and Assistant Professor, Faculty’s Department of Painting, Silpakorn University
Dr Vichaya Mukdamanee, D.Phil., is currently a Dean of the Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, and also an assistant professor of the Faculty’s Department of Painting. Dr Mukdamanee received his Bachelor Degree of Fine Art (Painting) from Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University. As a Fulbright scholar, he then received his Master Degree of Fine Art from Pratt Institute in New York. Dr Mukdamanee completed his PhD in Fine Art (Practice-led Research) at The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.
Dr Mukdamanee has performed various roles relating to art – as an artist, a curator, and art teacher. He also gives lectures as a visiting art instructor and speaker in several institutions and venues. In addition, he writes articles in art magazines and art catalogues. For the past 10 years, Dr Mukdamanee’s artworks have been created and exhibited in various media and techniques, such as painting, sculpture, video, and installation. He focuses on the narrative and perceptions from city life, especially the everyday life that gets reflected in the design and function of found objects and readymade. The artworks act as evidence of the endless journey of artistic learning, which also mirrors the concept of experimentation and trial-and-error, while coping and questioning the experience of living in a rapidly changing society.
Dr Mukdamanee has had numbers of solo exhibitions both inside and outside of Thailand, including City Life, Bangkok at Thailand Cultural Centre, Bangkok (2007), Combination: Vermont at Vermont Studio Center, USA (2007), Urban Motion at WhiteSpace Gallery in Bangkok (2008), Industrial Reflection at Donald Weiss Gallery, New York City (2009), Art-ificial Being at Thailand’s National Gallery in Bangkok (2011), Conditioned; Unconditioned at North Wall Arts Centre, Summertown, Oxford (2015), Becoming (Un)conditioned at Suan-Mokha Bangkok and Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre in Bangkok (2016), Strive to Fail at Thailand’s National Gallery in Bangkok (2017), and recently Expected Unforeseen at 333 Anywhere Bangkok (2020). His artwork has also been shown in many group exhibitions, such as The Mysterious Lines at Smile Gallery in Philadelphia (2009), Diverse Harmony at The Art House, Singapore (2010), 26th Asian International Art Exhibition at Seoul Art Centre (2011), and Cut Thru: The View on 21st Century Thai Contemporary Art at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, Singapore (2011).
As a curator, Dr Mukdamanee has managed and curated several exhibitions in the national and international levels. For example, during 2017-2018, he was one of the assistant curators of Thailand Biennale, Krabi, 2018, an exhibition organised by Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture that focused on the site-specific artworks in the outdoor natural environment in Krabi Province. Dr Mukdamanee was also a curator of Anthropocene (2019) and Art from Banyan Tree (2019) exhibitions by members of the Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, exhibited at H.R.H. Princess Sirindhorn Art Gallery, Silpakorn University. He was also a co-curator of Existence Sense (2018), a joint exhibition of artists from Tunghai University, Taiwan, artists from Silpakorn University, which got exhibited both in Thailand and Taiwan. Recently, Dr Mukdamanee was a co-curator and co-organiser of International Art Workshop (Archade 2019) at the Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, Nakornpathom Province.
Dr Mukdamanee has performed various roles relating to art – as an artist, a curator, and art teacher. He also gives lectures as a visiting art instructor and speaker in several institutions and venues. In addition, he writes articles in art magazines and art catalogues. For the past 10 years, Dr Mukdamanee’s artworks have been created and exhibited in various media and techniques, such as painting, sculpture, video, and installation. He focuses on the narrative and perceptions from city life, especially the everyday life that gets reflected in the design and function of found objects and readymade. The artworks act as evidence of the endless journey of artistic learning, which also mirrors the concept of experimentation and trial-and-error, while coping and questioning the experience of living in a rapidly changing society.
Dr Mukdamanee has had numbers of solo exhibitions both inside and outside of Thailand, including City Life, Bangkok at Thailand Cultural Centre, Bangkok (2007), Combination: Vermont at Vermont Studio Center, USA (2007), Urban Motion at WhiteSpace Gallery in Bangkok (2008), Industrial Reflection at Donald Weiss Gallery, New York City (2009), Art-ificial Being at Thailand’s National Gallery in Bangkok (2011), Conditioned; Unconditioned at North Wall Arts Centre, Summertown, Oxford (2015), Becoming (Un)conditioned at Suan-Mokha Bangkok and Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre in Bangkok (2016), Strive to Fail at Thailand’s National Gallery in Bangkok (2017), and recently Expected Unforeseen at 333 Anywhere Bangkok (2020). His artwork has also been shown in many group exhibitions, such as The Mysterious Lines at Smile Gallery in Philadelphia (2009), Diverse Harmony at The Art House, Singapore (2010), 26th Asian International Art Exhibition at Seoul Art Centre (2011), and Cut Thru: The View on 21st Century Thai Contemporary Art at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, Singapore (2011).
As a curator, Dr Mukdamanee has managed and curated several exhibitions in the national and international levels. For example, during 2017-2018, he was one of the assistant curators of Thailand Biennale, Krabi, 2018, an exhibition organised by Office of Contemporary Art and Culture, Ministry of Culture that focused on the site-specific artworks in the outdoor natural environment in Krabi Province. Dr Mukdamanee was also a curator of Anthropocene (2019) and Art from Banyan Tree (2019) exhibitions by members of the Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, exhibited at H.R.H. Princess Sirindhorn Art Gallery, Silpakorn University. He was also a co-curator of Existence Sense (2018), a joint exhibition of artists from Tunghai University, Taiwan, artists from Silpakorn University, which got exhibited both in Thailand and Taiwan. Recently, Dr Mukdamanee was a co-curator and co-organiser of International Art Workshop (Archade 2019) at the Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University, Nakornpathom Province.
Dr Vichaya Mukdamanee
Singapore
Mr Zheng Chongbin
Mr Zheng Chongbin
International renowned artist
Zheng Chongbin was educated as a classical Chinese figurative painter at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he taught for four years after graduation in 1984. Acclaimed as one of China’s preeminent young experimental ink painters in the 1980's, he mounted his first solo exhibition at the Shanghai Museum of Art in 1988. In 1989, he received a fellowship from the San Francisco Art Institute to study installation, performance, and conceptual art, receiving his MFA in 1991. A resident of the San Francisco Bay Area for over three decades, Chongbin is inspired by the region's distinctive atmospheric and environmental effects and rich ecologies, as well as by the California light and space movement. Chongbin’s works can be found in the collections, among others, of the British Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Chicago Art Institute, Museum of Fine Art Houston, Seattle Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, the Orange County Museum of Art in California, M+ in Hong Kong, the Daimler Art Collection in Stuttgart, Germany, the DSL Collection in France, and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Chongbin is the subject of a documentary film, The Enduring Passion of Ink, and an in-depth monograph Zheng Chongbin: Impulse, Matter, Form, edited by Britta Erickson and distributed by D.A.P. in the United States.
Chongbin has held the classical Chinese ink tradition and Western pictorial abstraction in productive mutual tension. Systematically exploring and deconstructing their conventions and constituents – figure, texture, space, geometry, gesture, materiality, he has developed a distinctive body of work that makes the vitality of matter directly perceptible. Central to Chongbin’s art is the notion of the world as always in flux, consisting of flows of matter and energy that repeatedly cohered and dissipated. Inherent in pre-modern Chinese and especially Daoist thought, this worldview enables contemporary inquiries into complex systems like climate and social behavior, artificial intelligence, and quantum physics. Through the interactions of ink, acrylic, water, and paper, Chongbin’s paintings generate and record the processes that underlie the emergence of order (including organic life and human consciousness) and its inevitable dissipation. His paintings thus resemble natural structures ranging from neurons, blood vessels, and tree branches to mountains, rivers, and coastlines, but by instantiating their formation rather than by objective depiction. Maintaining his work with painting, Chongbin synergistically has integrated his multi-media-based exploration throughout his installation and video projects. His landmark light-and-space installation Wall of Skies (2015) consists of a complex folded structure fully enclosed by a tilted ceiling and slanted walls, creating a delicate interplay of nonparallel lines and planes. Resolving neither into painting, nor sculpture, nor pure light and space, it insists on its material presence even as its objecthood is dissolved in a spatial experience. The latest example includes his major site-specific installation Liquid Space (2019) in the landmark Zen Temple Ryosoku-in / Kenninji in Kyoto Japan. In his video installations, he represents processes of nature—from molecular and cellular to topographical and climatic—in the scale of human perception through microscopic and macroscopic imagery and accompanying soundscapes, unfolding these processes spatially and temporally.
Chongbin has held the classical Chinese ink tradition and Western pictorial abstraction in productive mutual tension. Systematically exploring and deconstructing their conventions and constituents – figure, texture, space, geometry, gesture, materiality, he has developed a distinctive body of work that makes the vitality of matter directly perceptible. Central to Chongbin’s art is the notion of the world as always in flux, consisting of flows of matter and energy that repeatedly cohered and dissipated. Inherent in pre-modern Chinese and especially Daoist thought, this worldview enables contemporary inquiries into complex systems like climate and social behavior, artificial intelligence, and quantum physics. Through the interactions of ink, acrylic, water, and paper, Chongbin’s paintings generate and record the processes that underlie the emergence of order (including organic life and human consciousness) and its inevitable dissipation. His paintings thus resemble natural structures ranging from neurons, blood vessels, and tree branches to mountains, rivers, and coastlines, but by instantiating their formation rather than by objective depiction. Maintaining his work with painting, Chongbin synergistically has integrated his multi-media-based exploration throughout his installation and video projects. His landmark light-and-space installation Wall of Skies (2015) consists of a complex folded structure fully enclosed by a tilted ceiling and slanted walls, creating a delicate interplay of nonparallel lines and planes. Resolving neither into painting, nor sculpture, nor pure light and space, it insists on its material presence even as its objecthood is dissolved in a spatial experience. The latest example includes his major site-specific installation Liquid Space (2019) in the landmark Zen Temple Ryosoku-in / Kenninji in Kyoto Japan. In his video installations, he represents processes of nature—from molecular and cellular to topographical and climatic—in the scale of human perception through microscopic and macroscopic imagery and accompanying soundscapes, unfolding these processes spatially and temporally.
Mr Zheng Chongbin
Mr Alan Yeung
Singapore
Mr Alan Yeung
Art Historian and Curator
Associate Curator, M+
Associate Curator, M+
Alan Yeung is a curator and art historian. He joined M+ as Associate
Curator, Ink Art in July
2023. Previously, he was Fellow at CAMLab , a new initiative at Harvard University that
combines humanistic inquiry with creative digital media practice, and Associate Curator at the
Beijing based gallery Ink Studio.
Alan co-edited The Liu Kuo Sung Reader: Selected Texts on and by the Artist , 1950s Present (Cambridge, MA: Harvard FAS CAMLab , 2024). He has taught art history at Harvard and Suffolk universities and presented academic research at Cleveland Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Museum of Asian Art, and at Berkeley, Harvard, and Princeton. He is a director of the nonprofit Li Huasheng Art Foundation and a graduate of Columbia and Harvard.
Alan co-edited The Liu Kuo Sung Reader: Selected Texts on and by the Artist , 1950s Present (Cambridge, MA: Harvard FAS CAMLab , 2024). He has taught art history at Harvard and Suffolk universities and presented academic research at Cleveland Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Museum of Asian Art, and at Berkeley, Harvard, and Princeton. He is a director of the nonprofit Li Huasheng Art Foundation and a graduate of Columbia and Harvard.
Mr Alan Yeung
2024 UOB Painting of the Year (Indonesia) Judges
Indonesia
Ms Melati Suryodarmo
Ms Melati Suryodarmo
Indonesia Chief Judge
Leading Indonesian Artist
Leading Indonesian Artist
Ms Melati Suryodarmo is Indonesia's long durational performance artist par
excellence using her body as a container of memories and experiences that with movements is her
performance art. Living between the cultures of the East and the West where she lived for twenty
years, Ms Melati Suryodarmo's work has felt the impact of elements of both worlds.
She is a PhD candidate in Artistic Research / Art as Practice at the Institute of the Arts Surakarta. She also received her postgraduate Program (Meisterschüler) in Performance Art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, Germany, under Professor Marina Abramovic.
One of her bold breakthroughs in the Indonesian art world was when as Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale 2017 she brought in the androgynous shamans from South Sulawesi to perform prayers and blessings at the opening night.
On 28 February 2020, the first solo exhibition of her 20 years of practice opened at Museum Macan in Jakarta. Featuring the most popular Exergie-Butter Dance and I Am A Ghost in My Own House through which she challenges her own body physically and psychologically in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the self.
She is a PhD candidate in Artistic Research / Art as Practice at the Institute of the Arts Surakarta. She also received her postgraduate Program (Meisterschüler) in Performance Art at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, Germany, under Professor Marina Abramovic.
One of her bold breakthroughs in the Indonesian art world was when as Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale 2017 she brought in the androgynous shamans from South Sulawesi to perform prayers and blessings at the opening night.
On 28 February 2020, the first solo exhibition of her 20 years of practice opened at Museum Macan in Jakarta. Featuring the most popular Exergie-Butter Dance and I Am A Ghost in My Own House through which she challenges her own body physically and psychologically in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the self.
Ms Melati Suryodarmo
Indonesia
Mr Heri Pemad
Mr Heri Pemad
Creative Director
Founder Art Jog (The biggest contemporary art events in ASEAN)
Founder Art Jog (The biggest contemporary art events in ASEAN)
Mr Heri Pemad is the founder of Heri Pemad Art Management (HPAM) the
organiser behind Art Jog and Art Bali. Since 2001 HPAM has been looking for new talents and
organises art exhibitions held by art galleries or communities in Jogjakarta, Semarang,
Surabaya,
Jakarta and Bali.
He is also an artist and is engaged in the realm of fine arts and received awards for his work of art. One of the most important was Adhikarya in 2014 from Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economic Republic Indonesia. He was recently awarded the Pioneer of Performing Art during the Cultural Appreciation Night 2022 from Ministry of Education Culture, Research, and Technology.
Mr Heri Pemadalso contributes as Artistic Director in Sarinah Art District Jakarta and Ina Art in Sarinah Jakarta.
He is also an artist and is engaged in the realm of fine arts and received awards for his work of art. One of the most important was Adhikarya in 2014 from Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economic Republic Indonesia. He was recently awarded the Pioneer of Performing Art during the Cultural Appreciation Night 2022 from Ministry of Education Culture, Research, and Technology.
Mr Heri Pemadalso contributes as Artistic Director in Sarinah Art District Jakarta and Ina Art in Sarinah Jakarta.
Mr Heri Pemad
Indonesia
Dr Agung Hujatnikajennong
Dr Agung Hujatnikajennong
Curator
Lecturer, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology
Lecturer, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology
Dr Agung Hujatnika, M.Sn, also known as Agung Hujatnikajennong, is a
lecturer
at the Visual Art Study Program, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology
(ITB)
in Bandung, Indonesia. He is also currently a member of the Research Group of Aesthetics and the
Science of Arts at ITB.
He received his doctorate from his alma mater on the subject of art curatorship in 2012 and Master of Art in 2007. His academic contributions to the school’s curriculum include courses on Art Management (undergraduate and master degrees), Art Studies, Communication of Art and Sociology of Art (undergraduate).
In 2013, he received the Independent Vision Curatorial Award from the Independent Curators International, New York, USA, and in 2018, he founded and convened a regular international conference on art curatorship Imagined Curatorial at ITB.
As an independent curator, he has curated several major national and international exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad, including Ruanrupa’s OK Video at Jakarta Video Festival (2003), SUB/VERSION (2005) and Flesh (2011), Heri Dono’s Nobody’s Land (2008), Fluid Zones, Jakarta Biennale – ARENA at the National Gallery of Indonesia and various public spaces in Jakarta (2009), etc.
He received his doctorate from his alma mater on the subject of art curatorship in 2012 and Master of Art in 2007. His academic contributions to the school’s curriculum include courses on Art Management (undergraduate and master degrees), Art Studies, Communication of Art and Sociology of Art (undergraduate).
In 2013, he received the Independent Vision Curatorial Award from the Independent Curators International, New York, USA, and in 2018, he founded and convened a regular international conference on art curatorship Imagined Curatorial at ITB.
As an independent curator, he has curated several major national and international exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad, including Ruanrupa’s OK Video at Jakarta Video Festival (2003), SUB/VERSION (2005) and Flesh (2011), Heri Dono’s Nobody’s Land (2008), Fluid Zones, Jakarta Biennale – ARENA at the National Gallery of Indonesia and various public spaces in Jakarta (2009), etc.
Dr Agung Hujatnikajennong
2024 UOB Painting of the Year (Malaysia) Judges
Malaysia
Ms Bibi Chew
Ms Bibi Chew
Malaysia Chief Judge
Art Advisor, Artist and Academician
Art Advisor, Artist and Academician
Ms. Bibi Chew, a prominent figure in Malaysia's art scene, embarked on her
distinguished career in the mid-
1990s. Renowned for her multi-disciplinary art practice, she holds a Diploma in Fine Arts
(Painting,
Distinction) from LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore, and earned both her BA
(Distinction) and MA
in Fine Art from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. With a rich background in academia, she
served as a
sessional lecturer and postgraduate program facilitator at RMIT University, Australia, before
joining the
Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) in 1998.
Over the years, Bibi has held various leadership positions at MIA, currently serving as the Dean of Academic Studies & Head of Illustration. In recognition of her expertise, she was appointed as the Industry Advisory Panel (Visual Arts) by CENDANA Malaysia in 2020 as well as the Technical Advisory Panel (Visual Arts) with THINK CITY since 2022. Actively contributing to arts education and the contemporary art scene, Bibi has received numerous awards, including the Major Award recipient for the Young Contemporaries Award by the National Art Gallery Malaysia in 2000. Her artworks have been showcased in prestigious exhibitions globally, with notable appearances at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, Blackburn Museum & Gallery in the UK, Malmo Art Museum in Sweden, and the KL Biennale organized by the National Art Gallery Malaysia. Bibi's works are highly regarded and collected by major public and private institutions, as well as private collectors, cementing her status as a leading figure in Malaysian art development.
Over the years, Bibi has held various leadership positions at MIA, currently serving as the Dean of Academic Studies & Head of Illustration. In recognition of her expertise, she was appointed as the Industry Advisory Panel (Visual Arts) by CENDANA Malaysia in 2020 as well as the Technical Advisory Panel (Visual Arts) with THINK CITY since 2022. Actively contributing to arts education and the contemporary art scene, Bibi has received numerous awards, including the Major Award recipient for the Young Contemporaries Award by the National Art Gallery Malaysia in 2000. Her artworks have been showcased in prestigious exhibitions globally, with notable appearances at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, Blackburn Museum & Gallery in the UK, Malmo Art Museum in Sweden, and the KL Biennale organized by the National Art Gallery Malaysia. Bibi's works are highly regarded and collected by major public and private institutions, as well as private collectors, cementing her status as a leading figure in Malaysian art development.
Ms Bibi Chew
Malaysia
Mr Ahmad Fuad Osman
Mr Ahmad Fuad Osman
Leading Malaysian Contemporary Artist
Mr. Ahmad Fuad Osman, born in Kedah, Malaysia, in 1969, graduated with a BA
in Fine Art from MARA
Institute of Technology (UITM) in 1991. Initially involved in Malaysia's film and theatre
industry during
the 1990s, Fuad's artistic practice shifted towards conceptual multi-disciplinary works
encompassing
installation, sculpture, print, and video. Exploring socio-political themes such as identity
politics, abuse
of power, and historical amnesia,
Fuad employs wit and philosophy to engage diverse audiences. His recent conceptual turn delves into the veracity of truths, alternate histories, and contesting existing narratives. Notable works include "Recollections of Long Lost Memories" and the "Enrique de Malacca Memorial Project," showcased internationally at prestigious events like the Singapore Biennale and Sharjah Biennale. Fuad's practice challenges established historical canons and has been exhibited globally, with works housed in prominent collections such as the National Visual Art Gallery (Malaysia), the Singapore Art Museum and the KADIST San Francisco.
Fuad employs wit and philosophy to engage diverse audiences. His recent conceptual turn delves into the veracity of truths, alternate histories, and contesting existing narratives. Notable works include "Recollections of Long Lost Memories" and the "Enrique de Malacca Memorial Project," showcased internationally at prestigious events like the Singapore Biennale and Sharjah Biennale. Fuad's practice challenges established historical canons and has been exhibited globally, with works housed in prominent collections such as the National Visual Art Gallery (Malaysia), the Singapore Art Museum and the KADIST San Francisco.
Mr Ahmad Fuad Osman
Malaysia
Mr Baktiar Naim
Mr Baktiar Naim
Curator
Mr. Baktiar Naim, currently serves as the Head of Division Media,
Networking, and Design at the
esteemed National Art Gallery (Malaysia). He has a Masters in Creative Arts from the National
Academy of Arts, Culture and Heritage, Kuala Lumpur.
With a diverse background and extensive practical experience, Mr. Baktiar has performed a myriad of curatorial and research initiatives nationwide exhibitions such as the KL Biennale. He has also served as a juror for various local competitions and events, and authored art publications, all of which have made an impact on Malaysia's cultural fabric. With a passion for nurturing artistic talent and fostering cultural dialogue, Mr. Baktiar continues to play a pivotal role in shaping and enriching the Malaysian art scene.
With a diverse background and extensive practical experience, Mr. Baktiar has performed a myriad of curatorial and research initiatives nationwide exhibitions such as the KL Biennale. He has also served as a juror for various local competitions and events, and authored art publications, all of which have made an impact on Malaysia's cultural fabric. With a passion for nurturing artistic talent and fostering cultural dialogue, Mr. Baktiar continues to play a pivotal role in shaping and enriching the Malaysian art scene.
Mr Baktiar Naim
2024 UOB Painting of the Year (Thailand) Judges
Thailand
Mr Amrit Chusuwan
Mr Amrit Chusuwan
Thailand Chief Judge
National Artist in Visual Arts (Painting-Mixed Media)
Consultant, Songkhla Old Town Foundation
Member and Secretary, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre Foundation Committee
National Artist in Visual Arts (Painting-Mixed Media)
Consultant, Songkhla Old Town Foundation
Member and Secretary, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre Foundation Committee
Mr Amrit Chusuwan is one of the country’s most prominent artists, who has
received many
honourable mentions in Thailand. He is currently a Consultant for the Songkhla Old Town
Foundation and a Member and Secretary of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre Foundation
Committee. In his early career, he received a scholarship and a diploma from the ASP Academy of
Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland. His artworks have received numerous prizes, such as being the 2nd
Prize recipient at the 32nd National Exhibition of Art in Bangkok and receiving the Silpa
Bhirasri
Creativity Grants in 2002. He has organised many international exhibitions and has served as a
curator and artist consultant for the Venice Biennale in Italy. He was named Thailand’s National
Artist in Visual Arts (Painting-Mixed Media) in 2020.
Mr Amrit Chusuwan
Thailand
Professor Emeritus Pishnu Supanimit
Professor Emeritus Pishnu Supanimit
National Artist in Visual Arts (Printmaking)
Lecturer, Department of Printmaking, Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University
Lecturer, Department of Printmaking, Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silpakorn University
Professor Emeritus Pishnu Supanimit is a renowned artist who specializes in
printmaking, painting,
writing, and art criticism. His exceptional talent has garnered him significant recognition,
including
three gold medals in printmaking and painting from the National Art Exhibition in 1977, 1979,
and
1983. He has also achieved international acclaim, receiving awards for his printmaking work in
Japan
and Germany. He led the working group illustrating the royal writings "Phra Mahachanok" and
"Khun
Thongdaeng" for His Majesty King Rama IX. In 2022, Professor Emeritus Pishnu was duly honoured
as a National Artist in Visual Arts in the field of Printmaking. His contributions to the art
world as an
artist and critic have solidified his position as a respected figure in the industry, and his
work
continues to inspire and captivate audiences.
Professor Emeritus Pishnu Supanimit
Thailand
Mr Tawatchai Somkong
Mr Tawatchai Somkong
Founder and President of MATDOT Art Center
Mr Tawatchai Somkong is a veteran of the art scene in Thailand. He is the
Founder and
President of MATDOT Art Center, having graduated from Visva-Bharati University in
Shantiniketan, India, in 1995, where he was profoundly influenced by Indian artists K.G.
Subramanyan and Jogen Chowdery. In 2003, he established Fine Art Magazine and The Great
Fine Art Co., Ltd., believing that Thailand and its art community needed a quality art magazine
to call its own. His desire to open Thai people’s art knowledge beyond borders led him to
collaborate with world-class publishers such as TASCHEN, Phaidon Press, and Quintessence
Editions to publish books in the Thai language. Furthermore, with a vision extending beyond his
role as an artist and CEO, he leveraged his expertise to curate influential art exhibitions. In
2020, Tawatchai realised his aspiration by launching the MATDOT Art Center in Bangkok,
fostering an inclusive artistic environment for all.
Mr Tawatchai Somkong
2024 UOB Painting of the Year (Vietnam) Judges
Vietnam
Mr Dang Xuan Hoa
Mr Dang Xuan Hoa
Vietnam Chief Judge
Leading artist
Leading artist
Mr Dang Xuan Hoa is the chairman of the painting arts council of Vietnam
Fine Arts Association. He
participated in work and artistic activities of the Indochina Arts Program (AIP) in Boston
Massachusetts
American in 1994-1995 and has exhibitions in America, Europe and Asia from 1988. In 2008, he was
in
top 10 of Larasati Auction “Southeast Asia Art” in Amsterdam and top 12 of Sotheby’s Auction
“Modern
and Contemporary Southeast Asian Painting” in Hong Kong.
Mr Dang has many works represented in local and overseas collections with prominent works in the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, Singapore Art Museum and National Visual Art Gallery, Malaysia.
Mr Dang has many works represented in local and overseas collections with prominent works in the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, Singapore Art Museum and National Visual Art Gallery, Malaysia.
Mr Dang Xuan Hoa
Vietnam
Mr Trinh Tuan
Mr Trinh Tuan
Leading artist, curator, academic
Mr Trinh Tuan was a former lecturer at Hanoi University of Industrial Fine
Arts and visiting lecturer at
Vietnam University of Fine Arts, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand
and
Naresuwan University, Thailand from 1985 to 2021. He is member of the International Lacquer
Association.
In 2007, he founded Asia Art Link with artists Ng Bee (Malaysia) and Susan Lin (Taiwan) to promote artistic and cultural exchanges between artists across the region.
He also organised the Hanoi Art Connecting, an annual activity held in Vietnam to promote Vietnamese fine arts and international artists in cross cultural exchanges. The 3rd Hanoi Art Connecting has also been voted by the Department of Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibitions - Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as one of the 10 best cultural events in 2018.
Mr Trinh Tuan has also organised many art workshops in countries across the region including European and Latin American countries. As one of the pioneer artists in Vietnam, he majors in traditional painting and techniques while constantly innovating to find new styles. He also works in the field of design and is a reputable educator who has nurtured many generations of young artists.
In 2007, he founded Asia Art Link with artists Ng Bee (Malaysia) and Susan Lin (Taiwan) to promote artistic and cultural exchanges between artists across the region.
He also organised the Hanoi Art Connecting, an annual activity held in Vietnam to promote Vietnamese fine arts and international artists in cross cultural exchanges. The 3rd Hanoi Art Connecting has also been voted by the Department of Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibitions - Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as one of the 10 best cultural events in 2018.
Mr Trinh Tuan has also organised many art workshops in countries across the region including European and Latin American countries. As one of the pioneer artists in Vietnam, he majors in traditional painting and techniques while constantly innovating to find new styles. He also works in the field of design and is a reputable educator who has nurtured many generations of young artists.
Mr Trinh Tuan
Vietnam
Ms Nguyen Thi Châu Giang
Ms Nguyen Thi Châu Giang
Leading artist
Ms Châu Giang focuses on traditional silk painting and contemporary perspectives. Her works
spotlights on the traditional roles of gender, the changing role of women in Vietnamese
patriarchal
society, as well as nature of lives from women’s perspectives.
Her art includes painting, installation and writing. She had her first short story published when she was eight years old. To date she has had 15 novels and volumes of short stories published in Vietnamese, alongside her career as a visual artist and qas one of Vietnam’s most profiled new generation artists.
Her work is represented in the collections of the Hermitage Museum (Russia), Singapore Art Museum (Singapore), Fukuoka Japanese Art Museum (Japan) and the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum (Vietnam).
Some notable exhibitions include: “The World We Live In” (Wiking salon, HCMC, Vietnam, 2023); “Traversing Realms” (Wiking Salon, HCMC, Vietnam, 2023); “Asia Art Now” (Galerie BAQ, Paris, France); “‘Asian Pacific Triennial 10 (APT 10)’(Queensland Museum of Modern Art, Australia, 2021); ‘Hidden Flower 2’ (Craig Thomas Gallery, HCMC, Vietnam, 2020); ‘Inside of Us’ (Vin Gallery, HCMC, Vietnam, 2019); ‘Art Taipei’ (Vin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017); ‘Women in between: Asian Women Artists’ (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan, 2013); “Hidden Flower” (Thavibu Gallery, Thailand , 2012), “A day in my dream” (Cave Gallery, NY, America, 2026)
Her art includes painting, installation and writing. She had her first short story published when she was eight years old. To date she has had 15 novels and volumes of short stories published in Vietnamese, alongside her career as a visual artist and qas one of Vietnam’s most profiled new generation artists.
Her work is represented in the collections of the Hermitage Museum (Russia), Singapore Art Museum (Singapore), Fukuoka Japanese Art Museum (Japan) and the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum (Vietnam).
Some notable exhibitions include: “The World We Live In” (Wiking salon, HCMC, Vietnam, 2023); “Traversing Realms” (Wiking Salon, HCMC, Vietnam, 2023); “Asia Art Now” (Galerie BAQ, Paris, France); “‘Asian Pacific Triennial 10 (APT 10)’(Queensland Museum of Modern Art, Australia, 2021); ‘Hidden Flower 2’ (Craig Thomas Gallery, HCMC, Vietnam, 2020); ‘Inside of Us’ (Vin Gallery, HCMC, Vietnam, 2019); ‘Art Taipei’ (Vin Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017); ‘Women in between: Asian Women Artists’ (Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Tochigi, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan, 2013); “Hidden Flower” (Thavibu Gallery, Thailand , 2012), “A day in my dream” (Cave Gallery, NY, America, 2026)
Ms Nguyen Thi Châu Giang
Vietnam
Mr Luong Xuan Doan
Mr Luong Xuan Doan
Art Advisor
President of Vietnam Fine Arts Association and former Deputy Director of the Culture and Arts Department, Propaganda Department of the Party Central Committee
President of Vietnam Fine Arts Association and former Deputy Director of the Culture and Arts Department, Propaganda Department of the Party Central Committee
Mr Luong Xuan Doan began painting at a young age under strict academic
guidance and
inherited his qualities and talents from his uncle. He graduated from the Vietnam Fine Arts
University in 1980.
Formally Deputy Director of the Culture and Arts Department (Propaganda Department) of the Party Central Committee, he was also active in the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association from 1983 to 1989, together with the Association's Young Artists Committee, he created new turning points for the Vietnam Doi Moi Fine Arts.
From his first work in 1980, he maintained his creative activities and participated in exhibitions both locally and abroad including Russia, Helsinki Finland, Bulgaria, Washington USA, Fukuoka Japan, Taiwan, Bangkok Thailand, Malaysia, Seoul South Korea, Paju Korea; Manila Philippines etc and his works are also exhibited at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art Malaysia.
His silk works "Afternoon on Hon Tre Island", oil paintings “My Hanoi” and "Fairy Truong Son" are currently exhibited at the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts.
Formally Deputy Director of the Culture and Arts Department (Propaganda Department) of the Party Central Committee, he was also active in the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association from 1983 to 1989, together with the Association's Young Artists Committee, he created new turning points for the Vietnam Doi Moi Fine Arts.
From his first work in 1980, he maintained his creative activities and participated in exhibitions both locally and abroad including Russia, Helsinki Finland, Bulgaria, Washington USA, Fukuoka Japan, Taiwan, Bangkok Thailand, Malaysia, Seoul South Korea, Paju Korea; Manila Philippines etc and his works are also exhibited at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art Malaysia.
His silk works "Afternoon on Hon Tre Island", oil paintings “My Hanoi” and "Fairy Truong Son" are currently exhibited at the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts.