The Edge of Shadows #12

About the Artist

Boo Sze Yang (b. 1965, Singapore) is a distinguished artist who has amassed many awards throughout his practice. Boo works with a diverse range of subject matter in his paintings, ranging from mundane domestic objects to images of cars and airplanes crashing, derelict interiors of cathedrals and unpopulated chambers of shopping malls. Boo treats these banal objects, destructive scenes and modern architectural interiors as metaphors for the human condition, where he transforms them into symbols of contemporary life. He typically works with a restrained palette and alongside a loose, gestural painting technique, to emphasise the materiality of paint.

Boo also explores the portraiture, where he would blend his personal experiences with everyday social and political events to generate uncanny and idiosyncratic expressionistic portraitures, which serves as comical observations of everyday life.

Boo graduated from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, in 1991; completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at the University of Reading, UK, in 1995; and received his Master of Arts Degree from Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts, London, in 2004. Boo's work is held in a number of private and public collections, including National Gallery Singapore; Singapore Istana Art Collection; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore; Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Singapore; Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore; United Overseas Bank Singapore; Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts; Simmons & Simmons Contemporary Art Collection, Singapore; Ngee Ann Kongsi, Singapore; and Yingu Art Mansion, Beijing.