HEMAN CHONG

Early Years

Born in Muar, Malaysia, Chong was raised in Singapore, where he currently resides and works. He received his MA in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2002. His formative years in Singapore and abroad, as well as his ongoing engagement with literature and public infrastructure, have shaped his multifaceted practice.

Heman Chong Artworks

Chong’s contemporary art practice spans installation, painting, performance, photography, and writing, often centring on the infrastructures of knowledge, the circulation of information, and the everyday rituals of reading, walking, and writing. His artworks transform the mundane into conceptual experiences, exploring how meaning is constructed through repetition, systems, and participation.

Language, Books, and Participation

Books and language are central to Chong’s art. In projects such as The Library of Unread Books (with Renée Staal), he invites the public to donate unread books, creating a participatory library that challenges notions of knowledge, ownership, and value. In LEM2 (2016), he constructed a functioning bookstore that sold Stanislaw Lem’s science fiction novels, inviting viewers to purchase books for a nominal fee and consider the translation and transmission of ideas across cultures.

Painting and Seriality

Chong’s ongoing painting series, Cover (Versions) (2009–), features imagined covers for books he has not yet read, using bold brushwork and abstraction to evoke the essence of each title. His Labyrinths (Libraries) paintings explore the logic of grids and the shifting perspectives within libraries, reflecting on the organisation and dissemination of knowledge.

Installation and Everyday Infrastructure

Chong’s installations often engage with public infrastructure and signage, as in THIS PAVILION IS STRICTLY FOR COMMUNITY BONDING ACTIVITIES ONLY (2015), which appropriates bureaucratic language from Singapore’s public spaces to highlight the absurdities of regulation. In Abstracts From The Straits Times (2018), he transforms newspaper PDFs into unreadable abstractions, commenting on media saturation and information overload.

Survey Exhibition: Singapore Art Museum

The 2025 exhibition Heman Chong: This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness at the Singapore Art Museum. It is his first major survey, featuring 51 works from the early 2000s to the present, including six new commissions. Organised across nine thematic rooms—Words, Whispers, Ghosts, Journeys, Futures, Findings, Infrastructures, Surfaces, and Endings—the exhibition highlights Chong’s conceptual approach to the anxieties and absurdities of contemporary life, inviting viewers to reconsider the value of art in the digital age.

Public Commissions

Public commissions include:

• The Library of Unread Books (with Renée Staal), installed in various locations including Serpentine Pavilion, London
• Legal Bookshop (Shanghai), Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai

Awards and Accolades

Awards and accolades include:

• Represented Singapore at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003)
• Numerous international biennials and triennials, including Gwangju Biennale, Asia Pacific Triennale, Manifesta, Performa, and Singapore Biennale

Exhibitions

Heman Chong has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions at important institutions. A selection of important exhibitions is provided below.

Solo Exhibitions

• Heman Chong: This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2025)
• The Endless Summer, UCCA Dune, Qinhuangdao (2024–2025)
• Writing While Walking and Other Stories, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2020)
• Ifs, Ands, or Buts, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2016)
• Overview, Fundamentals, Performance, Transactions, Wilkinson Gallery, London (2015)
• Never, A Dull Moment, Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2015) * Calendars (2020–2096), NUS Museum, Singapore (2011)

Group Exhibitions

• Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2022)
• Sharjah Biennial 16, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE (2023)
• Tate Modern, London (2015)
• Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2014)
• Venice Biennale, Italy (2003)
• Asia Pacific Triennale 7, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia (2012)

Website and Instagram

Heman Chong’s website: hemanchong.com, and Instagram: @heman.chong

Critical Reception

Chong’s practice has been featured in leading publications, including Frieze, Art Asia Pacific, Artforum, and Ocula.

Heman Chong FAQs

Elliat Albrecht | Ocula | 2025