Sherman Ong

Filmmaker, photographer and visual artist based in Singapore, Sherman Ong develops a wide corpus on various themes linked by his photographic fragile and moving aesthetics. Human figures evolving in disrupted public places and overwhelmed by the changing nature of space – affected by the monsoon, the wildness or the bundling up of urban sites, seem to be looking for a localized identity. Seeking relationships and belongings, characters are often immortalized in action as if the latter was a unique conveyor of meaning, the only common ground in such a varied and fluid environment. Is space escaping or are humans running away from it? Sherman Ong patterns and unfolds this recurrent question structured by the paradoxical human quest and suspicion to infrastructures.

Sherman Ong was born in 1971 in Malaysia. Winner of the 2010 ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award, Sherman Ong has premiered works in art biennales, major film festivals and museums around the world, including the Venice, Singapore and Jakarta Biennales, Mori Art Museum Tokyo, Japan; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Germany; Musee du Quai Branly Paris, France; Centre Pompidou Paris, France; Institute of Contemporary Arts London, UK; Noorderlicht Photo Festival, The Netherlands; Rotterdam International Film Festival, The Netherlands; Video Brasil International Electronic Art Festival, Brazil; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brazil;  South Australia Contemporary Art Centre, Parkside, Australia and Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre, Lithuania. He is a founding member of 13 Little Pictures, a film collective based in Singapore. He collaborated on the Little Sun project headed by Olafur Eliasson which premiered at the Tate Modern London in 2012. His work is part of many private and public collections including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore and the Seoul Art Centre, Korea. The artist lives and works in Singapore.