Astute
April Ng Kiow Ngor
April’s approaches in her artistic practice are a reflection of her attitude to life – simplicity. Her works are inspired by nature; nature distilled to its simplest forms and shapes, re-imagined as abstract landscapes that exuberates an atmosphere of calmness and meditative silence. Movements and forms are captured excellently in the layering of chromatically rich textures of the printmaking processes. They demonstrate a mastery of the print medium and an understanding of intricate relationship between dots, lines, forms, colours and space. In her current works, the incorporation of embossing techniques leaves almost non visible marks and traces on the paper bringing forth the concept of interdependence. Here the mark of the absence presupposes a presence. To truly co-exist with nature, man needs to tune their sensory system to be more aware of the relative positions of their bodies to other non-visible organism within the same space.
April received her Diploma in Fine Art (Western Painting) from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1989 and graduated with a Master in Fine Arts (Printmaking) from The Slade School of Fine Art (UCL), UK, in 1993. She has been involved in the planning and set up of numerous printmaking facilities in primary and secondary schools since 1994. She is a Teacher’s Mentor under the Singapore Arts Council’s Artist’s Mentor Scheme where artists are engaged to train teachers for primary and secondary schools art programs.
April’s works have been exhibited in numerous shows locally and internationally, including Portugal, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Her first solo exhibition, Stiftelsen 3.14, was held in Bergen, Norway, 1994. She is the recipient of the Honourable Mention Award, Philip Morris Group of Companies Singapore Art Award (2001) and her works are in private and corporate collections both local and international. Her commissioned works includes the Royal Singapore Arm Forces, Singapore and the Land Transport Authority Singapore for the North East Line Mass Rapid Transit Art in Transit series (Woodleigh Station).
