Many Splendoured Things was an exhibition of new charcoal on paper drawings by Chong Siew Ying, for whom it was her fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

A painters painter loved for her larger-than-life infectious laughing heads, these works on paper are an impressive departure in medium and making that boast her usual level of artistic discipline, intuitive expression and intimate involvement. Taking in no less a problem than
the narrative and the allegorical, these drawings appear to focus on almost adolescent and pre-pubescent moods and manners from her memory.

Siew Ying’s skilful work combines the three-dimensional monumentality and mark-making of Western traditions with a lyrical play of space, depth and line that draws directly from classical Chinese painting. The specific subjects she depicts, from limestone formations and French roosters to old Chinese men remembering their youth to the politics of “mangosteen/durian” dating rituals, all remind us of gentler times, the remnants of which are rapidly disappearing.