Donna Ong

"I promised myself as a child, never to forget what it felt like to be a child - to dream and invest in the imaginary, the fantastic, the impossible. My work is about trying to keep that promise.” Donna Ong

Donna Ong is a young artist from Singapore, already well known and popular in Asia for her evocativeinstallations, developed through the harmonious use of furniture, antiques or nostalgic objects and herartistic work.

Obsessive, detailed and meticulous are the first words that come to mind when encountering the work of Singaporean artist Donna Ong. Coming from the generally well-ordered state of Singapore, where trees of uniform height line-up quite neatly and where concrete flyovers are painted over in grey, one is rather acutely aware of the various categories one should contain oneself within.

Since her early works, her practice appears marked by complex assemblages and rigorous details. While featuring apparently dissimilar content, her installations manifest a desire to be consumed by the particular, to be absorbed into a world of minutiae.

Ong’s predilection for painstaking detail bears on her fascination with Japanese miniatures and the imaginary worlds they create. The sense that remains of Ong’s imaginary spaces and landscapes is that of a lingering curiosity, that as the whole dissolves and details are unveiled, as our examination delves deeper and layers are peeled back, what one finds is the object, the ordinary, from which an entire world evolves.

Education

2011-2012

Lasalle College of the Arts
MA Fine Arts

1999-2003

Goldsmiths College, University of London
BA (Hon) Fine Art

1996-1999

Bartlett School, University College London (UCL)
B.Sc. Architecture

Selected Exhibitions/ Residencies:

2013

And We Were Like Those Who Dream, Primae Noctis Art Gallery, Lugano, CH

2012

Deep S.E.A., Contemporary Art from South East Asia, Primo Marella Gallery, Milano, IT
Come Away With Me, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, SG
Show: Future Proof, Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, SG
The Collectors Show: Chimera, Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, SG

2011
Singapore’s Writers Festival, Singapore Art Museum , SG
Fatto a Mano for the Future, Fendi, IT
Boutique at Takashimaya, SG
Dust on the Mirror (SOLO), Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore , SG

2009
President‘s Young Talent Exhibition, Singapore Art Museum, SG
Photographer Unknown, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, AU
National Museum of Singapore, Night Festival 2009, SG
AROUND Sound Art Festival, Tung O Beach, Lamma Island, Soundpocket , HK
Fluid Zones, Jakarta Biennale , Jarkarta, ID
BMW Young Artists, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, SG

2008
I have a Dream, 10 Solos by 10 Asian Artists, Taipei, TW
11. International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia Singapore Supergarden; An Ecosystem of Design Thoughts, Venice, IT
Arts Initiative Tokyo Residency (March 1 - June 30), Tokyo, JP
8Q, Singapore Art Museum, SG
Non|Sense SMU Arts Festival, SG
Always Here But Not Always Present: Art in a Senseless World, SG

2007
2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Footnotes on Geopolitics, Market and Amnesia, Moscow, RU

2006
Singapore Biennale, SG

2005
City Link, Singapore Art Show, “Project : Waterfall”, SG

2004
Palace of Dreams (Solo Exhibition), The Arts House at the Old Parliament, SG