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Alvin Ong

ALVIN ONG

Long Distance Ames Yavuz 14 May–6 June 2020 Sydney
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Press Release

Yavuz Gallery Sydney is proud to present Long Distance; Singaporean-artist Alvin Ong’s debut exhibition in Australia. Steeped in Western and Asian painting traditions, as well as the narrative structures of painting within the art history canon, his figurative paintings playfully combine a diverse range of visual vocabularies. He repositions the local within a global context, considering various forms of connection, attachment and longing in relation to physical and emotional distance, situated within a broader understanding of “belonging”.

Based between London and Singapore, Ong’s latest body of work explores the accentuated emotional longings that accompany prolonged periods of isolation, distance and displacement. Released from the limitations of time and space within the physical world, his figures merge and collide across different perspectival planes in fragmented yet intimate scenes, emphasising dislocation over location. Planes of pattern and colour intersect the spaces and their respective inhabitants, never cleaving them from the site nor each other, but rather, providing them opportunity to dwell in a multitude of locations simultaneously.

Alvin Ong (b. 1988, Singapore) is a graduate from the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford (UK), and the Royal College of Art (UK). At the age of 16, he became theyoungest winner of the UOB Painting of the Year Award, Singapore (2005). He wasawarded a residency in 2017 with the Royal Drawing School, as well as the 2018Chadwell Award. His works have been exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum (2007,2012, 2013), Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (2010), Peranakan Museum,Singapore (2015), Northampton Contemporary, UK (2017), National Portrait Gallery, UK(2018), and Royal Academy of Arts, UK (2019). His works are collected by the ILHAMGallery, Malaysia, the Ingram Collection, UK, and the Victoria & Albert Museum (PrintCollection), London, UK.

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Alvin Ong's Paintings Close the (Social) Distance Spotlight Alvin Ong's Paintings Close the (Social) Distance Showing at Yavuz Gallery in Sydney, Alvin Ong’s interlinking bodies are visceral depictions of intimacy. Read the story
About the Artist

Alvin Ong (b. 1988, Singapore) is a graduate of the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, UK (2016) and the Royal College of Art, London, UK (2018). His paintings playfully combine diverse visual vocabularies, culminating in surreal bodily configurations suspended between moments of pleasure and pain. At the age of 16, he became the youngest winner of the UOB Painting of the Year Award, Singapore (2005). He was awarded a residency in 2017 with the Royal Drawing School, as well as the 2018 Chadwell Award. His works have been exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum (2007, 2012, 2013), Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (2010), Peranakan Museum, Singapore (2015), Northampton Contemporary, UK (2017), National Portrait Gallery, UK (2018), and Royal Academy of Arts, UK (2019). His works are collected by the ILHAM Gallery, Malaysia, the Ingram Collection, UK, and the Victoria & Albert Museum (Print Collection), London, UK. He currently lives and works in Singapore and London.

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Elle Wickens
ELLE WICKENS Skin After Successive Skin Ames Yavuz 23 May–20 June 2026 Sydney
About the Gallery

Ames Yavuz embraces its diverse cultural background through a strong international focus and perspective. The gallery’s vision is underpinned by robust curatorial practices that form the core of our program and foster intercultural discourse on a global scale.

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Address
114 Commonwealth Street
Surry Hills
Sydney
Australia
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm

Sundays, Mondays and Public Holidays
By appointment only
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Sydney 114 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills
Ames Yavuz contemporary art gallery in Sydney Australia
Ames Yavuz
114 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia
+61 2 8040 8838
http://yavuzgallery.com

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10am – 6pm

Sundays, Mondays and Public Holidays
By appointment only
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