Colour at the heart of Om Mee Ai’s grids

SINGAPORE — Last year’s UOB Painting Of The Year for Singapore, Om Mee Ai’s N-PIN56L, is getting another airing; and the dark-toned abstract work, comprising minute grids that evoke a starry night sky, will be sharing space with 13 of the artist’s other works that one might think are simple variations on that theme. But have a closer look and you’ll see the differences, said the Singapore-based Korean artist.

Her latest solo show, Colour Of Mind, at the UOB Art Gallery, was announced along with the call for entries for the 34th edition of the bank’s annual regional art competition. As in recent years, the contest is open to artists in Singapore as well as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia for two categories: Established Artist and Emerging Artist. The UOB Painting Of The Year winner from each country — itself taken from the Established Artist category — will receive US$25,000 (S$33,500) and stand a chance to be selected for a one-month residency programme at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. Out of the four, one will also win the South-east Asian prize and an additional US$10,000.

For Om, herself a three-time winner in the contest’s previous abstract medium category before winning last year’s award, her series of paintings echo what has been an ongoing interest — the idea of colour and people’s perceptions of it. For instance, we may all think of the colour blue, she said, “but we have a different kind of blue in our mind, which comes from personal experiences”.

Om said her shimmering grids are best appreciated when seen in person, and different vantage points reveal different things. “They may look monochromatic from afar but one can examine the details when you come very close,” she said.

Her love affair with abstraction began during her years as a fine arts student at LASALLE College of the Arts, when she decided to focus on colour and a certain sense of complexity to reinterpret what has already been done before. While she reckoned she was “actually good” doing figurative art, Om was drawn to freer, personal expressions of lyrical abstractions. But to minimise this, she would eventually move towards the geometric style of abstract art. Initially using bigger forms and lines, her grids would eventually become smaller and narrower, like what it is today.

Working on two to three paintings simultaneously for two to three months, she achieves the shimmering effect by painstakingly applying a minimum of 20 to 30 layers of translucent paint to build up the colour, which changes according to the light. Her grids are created using 6mm masking tape, which is the thinnest she can find in the market, she said.

As for Om’s enigmatic code-like titles — such as S-BR76, S-RD80 or M-DKG — there’s a rationale behind these, too: It’s a playful way for her to remember her paintings. Most of the titles pertain to the colours used and the size of the painting. The “N” in the work titled N-BM150, for instance, stands for “nemo”, which is Korean for “square” (or “new”), she said. “BM” stands for “blue mist” while 150 refers to the dimensions of the artwork, which is 150mm by 150mm.

But these are all extra fun facts — she doesn’t want her titles to burden on the viewer, especially when it comes to abstract art.

“When people look at painting, they look at the title first. And sometimes, in abstract art, they’re not certain what they’re looking at,” she said, adding that her deliberate use of codified titles is to allow the viewer to “see things for themselves”. It’s this freedom to read into abstract works that Om wants to encourage.

“Some may be scared of (abstract art), that they won’t understand it,” she explained. “That’s why you need to slowly educate people on how to look at a painting.”

Colour Of Mind runs until July 31 at the UOB Art Gallery at the lobby of UOB Plaza 1, 80 Raffles Place. Free admission. Artists in Singapore who want to take part in the 2015 UOB Painting Of The Year can submit their artwork on Sept 25 and 27, 11am to 5pm, at Artspace@Helutrans, 39 Keppel Road, #01-05 Tanjong Pagar Distripark. For more details, visit http://www.uobpoy.com.