David Chan (b.1979)

Singapore-based painter David Chan renders realistically painted animals, humans and hybrids against monochromatic backgrounds of intense blues, purples, yellows and pinks. With well-received exhibitions spanning various Asian countries, Chan's idiosyncratic works exemplify the artist's perspective on a rapidly globalizing and biomorphic world. Using striking visual language to comment on various issues in contemporary society, particularly genetic modification and the advances of science, the art of David Chan is immediately recognizable and unique. The artist's bright palette and signature style of incorporating finely rendered human-animal hybrids result in captivating works that tease and challenge the eye. Throne, a superbly executed work from Chan's Ego-States exhibition, is a satirical commentary on the perceived hierarchies in human society. Although most humans aspire towards grandiosity and attempt to occupy the most eminent place within their community, in truth no one can, or dares to, comfortably inhabit this metaphorical throne. Chan's tongue-in-cheek perspective depicts a little bird leaving a pile of droppings on the plush red seat of the throne - insinuating that human delusions of grandeur, in effect, amount to only just that. Are you Game for Competition? is a classic David Chan creation, showcasing two groups of animals facing off with each other. Ironically, the supposed predators, the cheetahs, wear jesters' hats and bells and are restrained by a leash. In spite of the dead duck clamped in their mouth, they are obviously incapacitated in their natural roles. Across from them, three dogs gaze at them quizzically as though wondering how these creatures, though ranking higher in the food chain have now become objects of entertainment, while they as domestic pets, roam freely. David Chan's keen sense of humor and ability to narrate poignant episodes within a single frame testify to his artistic ability as social observer and satirist.