Born in Singapore in 1964, Jimmy Ong won the 1980 UOB Painting of the Year Competition (Youth 2nd Prize), and during the mid-1980s to early-1990s received scholarships to study in the USA and in Italy. Accomplished in sculpture and painting, Ong’s trademark are his expressive charcoal drawings.During Ong’s year at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit (1984-85) he learnt the fundamentals of life drawing, while frequent visits to the Detroit Institute of Art sparked a particular interest in the (self-) portrait drawings by Michelangelo, Kokoschka, Nolde and other German Expressionists. Following his return to Singapore, Ong concentrated on self-portraits and still lifes before turning to his friends as subjects for his drawings. With these works he has attempted to capture for posterity not only a physical likeness, but also a certain emotion particular to that time and place; recording significant moments of his life.
