Identity: traveller in transit
Birthplace: Singapore
Age:47
Updated: Oct. 2024
Introduction to a practice in transit 2024
As key art opportunities are now in the hands of very few in his birthplace, what can Joon Kiat do to keep his practice alive? Forced into a state of mental self-exile, he started negotiating for a practice beyond national boundaries, recognizing that art, knowledge, and invention are the results of exchanges, travels and open minds. Through movement, new perspectives emerge or are patched on, as existing ones are constantly infiltrated, unframed, and redefined by experiences and encounters along the way.
Searching for ways to sustain his painting practice outside conventional structures, he posed a critical question:
"What happens to an artist's identity when it is untethered from the nation-state?"
Joon Kiat’s painting practice—conceptual yet materially rooted—has drawn on research of archives spanning geography, microscopic science, history, cartography, surgical history, and city-planning since the late 1990s. They were the lenses through which he investigated the frameworks for understanding contemporary paintings in continual efforts to rethink the relevance and vitality of painting. Previously, he has interrogated these sources from a position of his situatedness in Asia, spurred by a deep connection to homeland. Recently, his practice has challenged the constraints of nationality as a defining marker of identity to reframe the painter’s role as both an investigator and a participant in the world around him.
The traveler identityQuestioning the limitations imposed when art is confined by national borders, he navigates the complexities of artistic identity in a globalized world. His studio experiences and theoretical explorations led him to understand that his identity as an artist was defined not by a single place, but by the journey itself. He was reminded of a friend named David, who once said that in the Middle Ages, people were often identified by the places they had traveled to rather than by where they had originated from.
In recent years, Joon Kiat has reimagined the studio as a nomadic space. Adopting a more peripatetic mode of working, he has taken his studio on the road, engaging with new geographies and audiences along his travels. His voyages include Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marseille, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Lisbon, and Hamburg. His practice reflects a growing interest in how movement—energized by a curiosity about place and art-making—shapes both art and audience and catalyzes the dissolution of boundaries.
Finding spaces that circumvent institutional marginalizationHe discovers that art should seek spaces beyond museums and formal exhibition spaces that often empower keyholders within extant institutional structures, clouding the art experience. Through the traveling studio, he came upon how painting along the streets fosters a more meaningful and organic connection with his audience. Audiences were able to engage directly with and have conversations about his work-in-progress. These spontaneous encounters—marked by curiosity, warmth, and sometimes even friendship—highlight an intimate form of artistic experience which exhibiting in institutional setups do not fulfill.
Despite structural or personal limitations, how is the world still open? Where does it still escape claims of ownership and control? The painter seeks to understand and negotiate such spaces and border-crossings, intentionally displacing any fixed geographical marker for framing and interpreting artwork. He embraces the challenges and revelations of a dynamic, multi-layered process and sense of self shaped by exchanges and shifting boundaries. The traveling studio has allowed him to bring his painting studio out of isolation and into the world and opened up spaces for his painting to “perform its meanings with peoples.” It is an exploration of how art can thrive in flux and mobility, reactivating ancestral experiences of migration through movement both physical and social. Living out painting as a practice that unfolds in the world through travel, Joon Kiat’s art escapes from the nation-state, manifesting the tension between borders and the flows that cross them.
Introductory ResumeBackground
In 2001, Joon Kiat received a Shell-NAC scholarship (presently known as NAC overseas scholarship), the most prestigious scholarship at the National Arts Council of Singapore, and completed the Master in Fine Art program at the University of Kent in the U.K. Joon Kiat was also the recipient of other scholarships such as the Ericsson Scholarship that supported his bachelor studies in art and the Georgette Chen Scholarship, which funded his diploma program. In 1997, he was awarded the SIA Excellence in the Arts award. After completing compulsory military service, he won the Nokia Art Award and represented Singapore to take part in the Asia-Pacific Nokia Art Competition in Seoul, Korea.
In 2007, the National Museum of Singapore presented Joon Kiat’s solo exhibition for a period of two months. Renowned Singapore art historian T.K. Sabapathy has written about his works. In 2010, the Esplanade presented his solo exhibition under their visual art program. The National Art Gallery of Singapore has acquired a set of his seminal works for their collection.
In 2011, he was invited to serve as a member on the interview panel for scholarships and bursaries at the National Arts Council of Singapore. His works have been selected to represent Singapore at the Singapore Embassy in Berlin during the 8th Asia-Pacific Weeks. He was a finalist at the Sovereign Asian Art Competition 2011.
In 2012, Joon Kiat was one of 25 Asian artists selected to exhibit with Britain’s Royal Academicians. He was also one of the three artists showcased in the Singapore Platform at Art Stage 2012 curated by Dr. Charles Merewether.
In 2013, he was commissioned to make work for the Singapore Biennale 2013, and he was invited to exhibit at Louis Vuitton Island Maison in Singapore. In 2014, he showed at the 2014 Busan Biennale special exhibition in South Korea. In 2016, he was invited to exhibit at the ADM Gallery, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
In 2019, he presented his solo exhibition at the ADM Gallery at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
His works had been exhibited at the following art fairs: Art HK12, Art Gwangju 12, Art Stage 2012, Art Stage 14-16-17, Art Cologne 2014, Art Basel Hong Kong 2013-14-16-17, Art Taipei 2014, Seattle Art Fair 2014, Frieze Seoul 2024.
Academic QualificationsUniversity of Kent
Master of Arts in Fine Art
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University
Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art)
Distinction
Scholarships, Awards and Invitations
School of Art, Design and Media at the Nayang Technological University in Singapore.
Invitation call
2016 - Mapping Macrocosms
Invitation call
2013 - Singapore Biennale 2013
2012, 2013, 2015 - Works by Ng Joon Kiat
Presents 25 of Britain’s Royal Academicians and 25 artists from across Asia
Invitation call
A three-artist exhibition representing Singapore Platform at Art Stage Singapore 2012
Invitation call
Invitation call
Invitation call
Proposal call
2001 - Shell-NAC Scholarship
2000 - Nokia Art Award, 2000. Singapore
1997 - SIA Excellence in the Arts Award
1997 - Ericsson Scholarship
1996 - Georgette Chen Scholarship
Corporate and Institutional Acquisitions include:
Magma collection
Aspen-Re art collection
Eu Yan Sang Art Collection
Singapore Embassy in Berlin
National Art Gallery of Singapore
Concorde Hotel
Ericsson Telecommunication Pte Ltd
Le Amis
Petite Anse Development Ltd
SC Global Developments Ltd
Westin Stamford
Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore
Joon Kiat has actively participated in many exhibitions locally and internationally. His works have been exhibited in the U.K., Brazil and France as well as in the Asia Pacific galleries like Taksu Gallery (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Argayle Gallery (Sydney, Australia), INSA Art Center (Seoul, Korea), Cultural Center of the Philippines (Manila), Mercury Gallery Bangkok (Thailand), Osage Gallery (Hong Kong), Pearl Lam Gallery (Shanghai) and Galeri Nasional, Medan Merdeka (Jakarta, Indonesia). Osage Gallery and the Rhona Hoffman Gallery (Chicago) presented his works at ArtHK 2012. He was invited to exhibit at the He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China in 2012. His works have been collected by private collectors in Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, France, U.K., Japan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Africa, Australia and Switzerland since 1996.