Jimmy Ong

Sitayana

January 14, 2010 — February 27, 2010


ENLARGE

Dual Sita Dua, 2009

charcoal on paper

98 ½ x 102 in. (250 x 259 cm)

ENLARGE

Sita X Sati, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 92 in. (128.25 x 233.5 cm)

ENLARGE

Rama Wash Day, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 96 in. (128.25 x 243.75 cm)

ENLARGE

Sita Flays the Deer, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 96 in. (128.25 x 243.75 cm)

ENLARGE

Ravanna Waits, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 96 in. (128.25 x 243.75 cm)

ENLARGE

Sita & Sons, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 65 in. (128.25 x 165 cm)

ENLARGE

Khumbini & Sita, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 45 ½ in. (128.25 x 115.5 cm)

ENLARGE

Sita & Laksmana at Ganga, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 96 in. (128.25 x 243.75 cm)

ENLARGE

Oh Rama What a Beautiful Deer, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 96 in. (128.25 x 243.75 cm)

ENLARGE

Supanaka Wonderbra, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 96 in. (128.25 x 243.75 cm)

ENLARGE

The Dhobi Learns the Fundoshi, 2009

charcoal on paper

50 ½ x 96 in. (128.25 x 243.75 cm)

ENLARGE

Installation View of "Sitayana" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, January 14 - February 27, 2010

 

 

ENLARGE

Installation View of "Sitayana" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, January 14 - February 27, 2010

 

 

ENLARGE

Installation View of "Sitayana" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, January 14 - February 27, 2010

 

 

ENLARGE

Installation View of "Sitayana" at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, January 14 - February 27, 2010

 

 

Works

INSTALLATION VIEWS

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Tyler Rollins Fine Art is pleased to present an exciting new body of work by Jimmy Ong. Considered to be one of Singapore’s preeminent contemporary artists, Ong has been noted for his large scale, figurative charcoal works on paper since his first solo exhibitions in the 1980s. During the past year, he became fascinated with theRamayana, the ancient Indian epic that recounts the exploits of Rama and his dutiful wife, Sita. This epic continues to play a vibrant role throughout Southeast Asia and provides an endless source of inspiration for the region’s folk and popular cultures.

A Singaporean of Chinese descent who is now residing in the United States, Ong has brought his own unique viewpoint to this classic story. Inspired by the Ramayana’s characters and its dramatic themes of love, combat, and heroic adventure, he has created new narratives that are informed by his sensitivity as a gay man to the way gender roles play out in contemporary relationships.

Ong has refocused the epic on the Sita character – hence the exhibition’s title, Sitayana. He presents powerful and at times disturbing images of female figures. Their muscularity and contorted, aggressive poses place them firmly in the traditionally male realm of heroic action, offering a blunt challenge to the traditional image of the obedient, submissive female. But Ong’s approach is never so simple or straightforward. Duality has always been a central preoccupation for him, and his works explore the ways in which multiple identities and perspectives – whether sexual, ethnic, national, or even generational – can coexist within the individual.

With Sitayana, these tensions come to the fore, as each drawing reveals different permutations of masculinity and femininity, activity and passivity, tenderness and violence. His drawings do not present traditional images of conflict between these supposed binarisms, but rather they work to undermine the fixed quality of these very notions. Although often monumental in scale, his figures are never monolithic, but instead are multifaceted and complex, an uneasy mix of many divergent perspectives – in short, distinctly contemporary.

EXHIBITION REVIEWS

Art Info, Singapore Comes to Chelsea

January, 2010


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GENERAL PRESS

National University of Singapore Museum, Recent Gifts: Works and Documents of Lim Mu Hue and Jimmy Ong

2014


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Men’s Folio Singapore, A Room of One’s Own

February, 2014


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Blouin Art Info, Jimmy Ong Tackles Video for Second Solo Show in NY

January, 2013


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C-Arts, The Private Museum

July, 2011


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Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Jimmy Ong

2010


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Asian Art Newspaper, Politics and History in Recent Southeast Asian Contemporary Art

November, 2010


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Newsweek, Singapore: Portraits of the Prime Minister

October, 2010


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Time Out Singapore, Jimmy Ong

September, 2010


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National University of Singapore Museum: Highlights of the Collection, Jimmy Ong, Venus Rising with the Moon

2009


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VCM, Venus Rising with the Moon

2009


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The Invisible Thread: Buddhist Spirit in Contemporary Art

2004


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12 ASEAN Artists, Jimmy Ong: Talking Charcoal

July, 2000


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Asian Art Newspaper, Bodhisattva Pudica: The Nudes of Jimmy Ong

January, 2000


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Art Scene, Jimmy Ong

1999


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Asian Art News, An Intimate World

September, 1997


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The Business Times (Singapore), An artist who lets his pieces do the talking

July, 1997


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Channels & Confluences: A History of Singapore Art

1996


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The Straits Times, The play of life

August, 1990


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