Bio

Guo-Liang Tan (b. Singapore) is a visual artist working primarily in the field of painting, from which works in other mediums such as text, collage and video sometimes emerge. In his work, surfaces, painterly or otherwise, become a space for performing gestures of affect and conjuring a haunting that converses with the ghosts of abstraction. Gaps and overlaps, traces and fragmentation feature prominently in Tan’s making process. He is interested in how this frames and orientates our sense of time, body and memory.

Tan completed his BA in Fine Art & Critical Studies at Goldsmiths College, London and his MFA at Glasgow School of Art. He was also a guest student at The Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany and an artist-in-residence at the NTU Centre of Contemporary Art. He is a recipient of Singapore National Arts Council Scholarship as well as the Mackendrick Scholarship and the Antje und Jürgen Conzelmann Preis for painting. He was also a finalist in the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2018.

His work has been exhibited and collected in Asia and Europe. Past and recent exhibitions include his solo presentations ‘Ghost Screens’ (2017) and ‘Soft Turnings’ (2021) at Ota Fine Arts, Singapore, ‘A Different Way Of (Thinking About) Painting?’ (2017) at Langgeng Art Foundation, Yogyakarta, ‘Ethereal Machines’ (2018) at Ota Fine Arts, Shanghai, ‘DEPTHS: Others, Lands, Selves’ (2018) at Elevation Laos, Vientiane, ‘Reformations’ (2019) at NTU ADM Gallery, Singapore, ‘Strange Forms of Life’ (2020) at STPI Gallery, Singapore, ‘Object of Desire’ (2020) at Gerðarsafn Kópavogur Art Museum, Iceland and ‘Re-surfacing’ (2023) at STORAGE, Bangkok. 

Tan belongs to a generation of artists whose creative output extends beyond his own studio practice. Alongside his own work, he also collaborates with other artists on curatorial and publication projects, including ‘Aversions’ and ‘Found & Lost’ (2009) for Osage Gallery, ‘We Who Saw Signs’ (2011) for Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, ‘Side Affects’ (2019) for Ota Fine Arts and ‘State Of Motion 2020: Rushes Of Time’ for Asian Film Archive.

Guo-Liang Tan is represented by Ota Fine Arts.

Education

Award/Grant/Residency

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Curatorial Projects

Selected Articles

Lynda Tay, ‘Guo-Liang Tan: Soft Turnings’, exhibition review in ArtAsiaPacific, 2022

Jeannine Tang, ‘Watching Paint, Motion Picture’, in Soft Turnings exhibition catalogue, published by Ota Fine Arts, 2021

‘A Conversation with Guo-Liang Tan and Sherman Sam’, in Soft Turnings exhibition catalogue, published by Ota Fine Arts, 2021

Ian Tee, ‘Conversation with Singaporean artist Guo-Liang Tan’, interview on Art & Market, 14 Dec 2020

Bing Hao, ‘Guo-Liang Tan: Soft Obsolescence’, article in LEAP, 2018

Sherman Sam,’ How Abstraction Can Improve Your Life’, article in Art-In-Sight, published by OCULA, 2018

Jean Hui Ng, ‘Review: Ghost Screen – Guo-Liang Tan’, exhibition review in ArtAsiaPacific, 2017

Anca Rujoiu, ‘What We Take Away With Us (From A Work Of Art)’, in Ghost Screen exhibition catalogue, published by OTA Fine Arts, 2017

Kevin Chua, ‘The Uncommitted Life’, in Ghost Screen exhibition catalogue, published by OTA Fine Arts, 2017

Jeremy Sharma, ‘A flower painting by any other name… genre painting that isn’t’, article on Artitute.com, 31 Dec 2012

Adeline Chia, ‘Still life paintings play dead’, exhibition review in Straits Times Life!, 22 Nov 2012

Joleen Loh, ‘Of floods and flowers’, exhibition review in TODAY Arts section, 22 Nov 2012

Tony Godfrey, ‘Thinking Paintings’, in Play Dead exhibition catalogue, published by Space Cottonseed, 2012

Hanna Scott, ‘Voices of Revolution’, feature article in Surface Magazine, Aug 2011

Mayo Martin,  ‘Sign Language’, exhibition review in TODAY Arts section, 8 Aug 2011

Lee Weng Choy, ‘A Conversation about Drawing’, in C-Arts Magazine, Nov/Dec 2009

June Yap, ‘Found & Lost’, exhibition review in Asian Art News, July/Aug 2009