House Style 218

Credit line: Collection of SMU

Tan Chin Chin (b. 1966, Singapore) draw deeply diverse cultural and religious motifs in her collage practice. Throughout her career, she has explored the confluence of culture and religion using textiles and paper within collage on varying surfaces. Her interest is in the exploration of complexities surrounding our history within contemporary culture. The effect of collage enables discoveries through layer upon layer of patters, textures, and paper cutting, and create shifting planes of colour and texture. Seen from a distance, the work takes on the air of homogenisation, but a closer inspection reveals distinctive qualities of cultural histories.

Tan trained in Applied Arts at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts from 1987 to 1989, and Fine Arts Painting at Byam Shaw School of Art in London from 1994 to 1995. She completed her Master of Fine Arts (Painting) at Parsons School of Design (The New School) in New York in 1998. She has received several art awards, including the Dr Tan Tsze Chor Art Award from the Singapore Art Society (1991), the Philip Morris Group of Companies Singapore Art Awards (1993 and 1994), and Grand Prize at the UOB Painting of the Year (1995).