Silhouettes: Collecting Singapore Modern – Selections from the Collection of Su-Yen Wong and Fermin Diez

Virtual Exhibition Opening

Opening Day

Friday, 27 March 2020, 6:30PM

The Opening Reception is CANCELLED and will instead be live-streamed.

Stay home and stay tuned to our Facebook page! Join us live as we bring the exhibition to you – museum founders Daniel and Rachel Teo, collectors Su-Yen Wong and Fermin Diez, as well as museum manager Aaron Teo will be here to share more about the exhibition, the collection and its artworks. Tune in also for a special reading of the Guest of Honour, Chairman of the National Arts Council Singapore, Ms Goh Swee Chen’s written foreword for the exhibition catalogue.

The Private Museum (TPM) Singapore is pleased to present Silhouettes: Collecting Singapore Modern – Selections from the Collection of Su-Yen Wong and Fermin Diez. As part of TPM’s 10th anniversary celebrations, the museum revisits its foundation of bridging the private and the public; this exhibition is the second in a series of five featuring an array of private collections in Singapore.

Initiated in 2007, the couple’s private collection of selected artworks by first- and second-generation Singapore artists is laser-focused, involving careful deliberation and intensive research. The collection allows viewers a glimpse of everyday life in Singapore in its early decades of growth and development.

The exhibition features select modern masterpieces by the likes of Cheong Soo Pieng, Chua Mia Tee, Lim Cheng Hoe and more. These paintings capture the places and people from a bygone time, the snippets and silhouettes of an idyllic Singapore now past.

In response to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, we have launched a virtual experience of the exhibition as part of our commitment to bringing art closer to you, the public and our patrons, in the comfort of your homes. Experience the online exhibition here: https://theprivatemuseum.wixsite.com/silhouettes

Programme Documentation

Programme Media

About the Collaboration

INDIVIDUAL/ORGANISATION

Private Collection	Su-Yen Wong, Fermin Diez,
Artist	Ang Ah Tee, Chen Wen Hsi, Cheong Soo Pieng, Chua Mia Tee, Gog Sing Hooi, Leng Joon Wong, Lim Cheng Hoe, Lim Tze Peng, Loy Chye Chuan, Ong Kim Seng, Seah Kim Joo, Siew Hock Meng, Tan Choh Tee, Tay Bak Koi, Tong Chin Sye, Thomas Yeo, Yong Mun Sen,

Having lived in a total of ten countries and travelled to over a hundred, Fermin Diez and Su-Yen Wong share a passion for culture and an appreciation of stories encapsulated in visual form, be they Aboriginal cave paintings, Ethiopian icons, or Mexican murals. Wanderlust notwithstanding, Singapore is home for the couple, which is why they have focused on developing a narrative that reflects the country’s culture and history in its formative years. Comprising artworks by first- and second-generation Singaporean artists, their collection captures the zeitgeist of an emerging nation, as manifested in vanishing trades, disappearing traditions, and shifting landscapes. They commenced their collector journey in 2007 with the serendipitous acquisition of an oil painting, Country Road executed in 1956 by Cheong Soo Pieng.