Born in 1948 in Singapore, Poh Siew Wah is a self-taught painter and lifelong art teacher. A recipient of several awards, including the Tan Tze Chor Art Award (1987) and a Merit Award, IBM Award (1990), Poh is known for his diverse styles ranging from representational watercolours to abstract paintings.Poh’s abstract paintings first appeared in his third solo exhibition “Realism to Abstraction” at the then National Museum Art Gallery in 1987. Having taught himself to draw in the representational manner, Poh started to believe that abstract art could offer him more: “I picked up watercolour as a recording medium, but later saw a need to put spiritual abstraction in my art. There comes a time when one finds what has been done is not enough. Pure painting without pictorial references is the next step for me. A painting does not need to tell a story...”
