Kenneth Lee, an autistic artist, works in a hotel and loves painting in his spare time. In the middle of last year, he stopped drawing with pencil outlines and switched to using an ink pen to sketch freehand instead. This was a turning point in his practice. In group exhibition Turning Points, he challenged himself to draw on a much larger scale, interspersing city streets, dining scenes, buildings, and characters into a fantasy world to form a 1.5-meter-high giant illustration titled “The Great Scene of Things.” Under the guidance of exhibition curator John Tung, this comic-style art piece demonstrates Kenneth’s unbridled talent and mastery of perspective and spatial design.

When interviewed, Kenneth said that he drew the first few scenes carefully. Later after some practice, he became more confident and comfortable and thus started to draw faster. Where before he was demanding perfection and obsessed with details, he now paints more fluidly, sharing: “Drawing a subject repeatedly builds more and more information in my memory bank, and this allows me to draw it more clearly every time.” Influenced by the cartoonist Kim Jung Gi, he dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, with the hopes of publishing his own graphic novels one day.

The group exhibition Turning Points, organised by ART:DIS in conjunction with Singapore Art Week, also exhibited the works of Deaf photographer Isabelle Lim and artist with Down Syndrome Fern Wong.

Isabelle Lim, who graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts and was under the guidance of artist Robert Zhao Renhui, processed colour photos taken in Bangkok, Sydney and Seoul from 2018 to 2022 into a black-and-white series. The contrast effect is strong, capturing life in the city aptly. The themes of love and travel are also evident and give each photo a warmth. She founded her own photography company issyshoots nine years ago to provide family and wedding photography services. But her first love remains as street photography, sharing: “Photography represents my voice and is also a way to communicate with others. I hope the public can hear my voice from my images.”

Isabelle takes photos of interesting people and things, whether with a mobile phone or a camera. Equipment aside, she believes the most important thing is the perspective. The exhibition is also a tribute to her recently passed uncle, who encouraged her photography.

Fern Wong won the 2006 UOB Painting Competition with her gorgeous pointillism and is also the winner of the 2023 UOLxART:DIS Art Prize. This time, under the guidance of Jong Tung, she exhibited two paper-cut installations. Her practice began with drawing, but has since evolved to recycling church bulletins into paper cut-outs.

Fern’s paper-cuts are not traditional in any sense and instead is a combination of abstract patterns and colors. These are framed into 2 mobiles hanging from the ceiling, titled NET and JOY. Each paper-cut takes four to five months to complete, and she is working towards a solo exhibition later on this year. When asked what motivates her practice, she said: “Art makes me happy. I get a lot of fun from it.”

Read the original article in mandarin here