Born in 1954 in Singapore, Ng Yak Hwee is a graduate of Singapore’s former Nanyang University (Botany major). An accomplished painter and sculptor, Ng received the 1987 Silver Medal from the Salon des Artistes Français, and won First Prize (Figurative category) in the 1992 UOB Painting of the Year Competition.On the cusp of a new decade, Goh’s paintings began to swing away from the purely abstract deliverance that his work had acquired by the late 1980s, to once again include representational elements. ‘Born Free’ (expanding on a theme explored in Goh’s ‘Katuring the Sea’ series) and ‘Spring Time’ still reflect Goh’s preoccupation with travel-inspired Nature themes. However, in the former, Goh has sought to merge his Western painting technique with traditional Chinese painting pictorial arrangement. The latter heralds the beginning of Spring, the half-formed blossoms emerging from quiet hibernation, symbolising man’s spirit responding in tune with the changing seasons.
