Ruben Pang (b.1990, Singapore) focuses on automatism, the neurosis, and drama of the human condition. Beginning with painting, Pang’s practice has also led him to explore the dynamism and spontaneous response sculpture and the sensitivities and collaborative spirit of music production and performance.

Often, Pang resists binaries in genres such as ‘abstraction’ and ‘figuration’ and simultaneously enjoys the stability of established formats such as the finitude of the edges of a painting and a perfectly varnished surface. Working without a preconceived image of the final composition, his approach allows the imagery to surface spontaneously; a “visual syncopation, like searching for a melody in white noise”. Pang insists that the creative process is an adventure, with a narrative arc and conflict. He believes that the residual object distilled from a creative journey, is more than a memory, in the sense that it is a record that can inspire new experiences.

Using a combination of oils, alkyds, and acrylics he paints, scratches, and erases his paintings using brushes, hands, palette knives, and sandpaper, revealing layers of color that reflect projections of his psyche. Pang prefers aluminum panels as their rigidity reflects and captures the nuances of each moment and gesture in a way that canvas cannot. Its durability allows greater freedom to transform the image as it develops.