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.Despite the mid-1980s marking a radical change in Poh’s painting style, from representational to abstract, he did not entirely abandon his trademark watercolour work. In the two watercolour street scenes ‘Little India’ and ‘Mosque’, Poh has impassively recorded the human activity of historic Singapore locations. However, in ‘Door for Calligraphic Hand’ and ‘Red Door at Mohammed Sultan Road’ Poh has zoomed in on specific details of ordinariness, painting close-ups of neglect and of evidence of time passing by. In contrast, this attention focussed on the textured minutiae conveys a nostalgic emotion lacking in the wide-angle views.
