About

May Oon was a journalist in Singapore and in Hong Kong. She started painting at 40, and is a contemporary figurative painter who works in oil and charcoal. She started with a restricted palette based on a range of gray tonalities, but in time has expanded into full and vibrant colours.

“I often use photographs as the source or object of my paintings. Transforming photographs into paintings seems to allow me to create tension and ambiguity, as well as to suggest a whole range of meanings and narratives.”

Nostalgia can also be said to underlie Oon’s works, as seen by her first show which featured Peranakan culture in the past, or her paintings of the Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in the 60s to the 70s.