王文清

Acclaimed for his figurative practice in still-life and figure drawings on paper, Jimmy Ong's works explores the themes of ancestry, cultural identity and sexuality. Ong's figurative drawings in charcoal have their roots in the tradition of narrative art but their imagery and content are of a lively, contemporary nature. He builds up his figures with layer upon layer of sinuously flowing lines, such as in Forbidden Spring, A Dream of Parameswara (Lot 2594) where his figures are expressive and communicative, their bodies outlined in their entirety within the frame. They assume a sense of sanctity; much like images of deities in both Western and Eastern religious art whose identities are determined by symbolic attributes. This is in relation to the 'Legend of Parameswara', where the latter threw his crown overboard to appease the wrath of the sea god. This mythic, monumental scale gives his works a slow, epic, and mysterious rhythm, yet teases us with clever references, or confounds us with puzzling innuendoes.