ART SG
Fost Gallery
Sands Expo and Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands
12-15 January 2025
In this evocative view of a river in Kuala Lumpur, Yeo Tze Yang subverts the grand tradition of classic landscape painting. While the initial impression promises an idyllic scene of lush greens and rushing waters, the reality of the contemporary city quickly intervenes through images of river debris, flyovers, electrical grids and commercial advertisements.
Conceived after a trip to Australia, where the artist found himself paying to view heavily marketed, "Instagrammable" natural wonders, this painting serves as a direct inquiry into how modern society commodifies beauty. By elevating a nondescript, urban river to a subject of profound artistic weight, Yeo challenges the hierarchies of global tourism. The work stands as a testament to a landscape that is beautiful and ugly, hopeful and anxious all at once—reminding us that the rivers of our everyday lives carry stories just as magnificent as any postcard destination.
The River, 2022, Oil, sand and paper on canvas,180 x 230cm.
Installation view at FOST Gallery's booth in Art SG 2023
Art Basel Hong Kong
Fost Gallery
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
23 - 25 March 2023
A monumental four-meter-wide exploration of color, light, and modern solitude, this canvas depicts a compromised evening scene outside an old, unglamorous mall along Singapore’s Orchard Road. Moving past the shopping district's pristine facade, Yeo Tze Yang utilizes a melancholic palette of cool dusk blues, punctuated by the sharp, synthetic neons of nearby nightlife, to evoke the deep psychological weight of the city at twilight.
The painting functions as a choreography of isolation. Across the wide canvas, anonymous strangers inhabit the same physical space while remaining entirely enclosed in their own private worlds: two men smoke side-by-side, absorbed by their phones; a delivery courier moves through the frame; and an elderly man walks bythe center, his thoughts framed by a stark red neon glow.
Following the mall's recent demolition to make way for major new developments, this immersive study of atmosphere stands as a powerful, haunting archive of a lost vernacular space and the quiet, unnoticed human presences that once defined it.
7:23PM, 2020, Oil on canvas, 164 x 412.5cm (2 panels)