Mending Fishing Nets

Strong lines. Vivid colours. Chen Cheng Mei’s palette is deliberate, as seen in the works around you. Like fellow artist Annaratnam Gunaratnam, Chen was one of the few women artists active in Singapore’s art scene at the time. She was able to pursue art professionally, thanks in part to the support of her family.

Chen was also a member of the Ten Men Art Group, a collective of artists who travelled together in search of fresh inspiration. Their trips across the region opened their eyes to different cultures and peoples. Sometimes, Chen travelled alone. And she didn’t stop at the region. She went further to Africa and South Asia; nations that, like Singapore, were finding their footing after independence.

These journeys shaped how Chen approached her art and her use of colour. For her, colour wasn’t just visual. It was emotional. A peer recalled that Chen rarely used paint straight from the tube. Instead, she would mix and layer until she found the exact shade that expressed her feeling; and often, that feeling was joy found in her travels.  

Notice how Chen leaves out facial details in some of her works, directing our attention instead to their clothing or the setting. Her subjects may look away or linger in the background. Chen's point? Perhaps seeing is not the same as knowing. There’s always a gap between artist and subject, traveller and place. At the next stop, you’ll encounter another artist who continues this exploration of what it means to see.