Hong Sek Chern is the Head of Programme of the Diploma in Fine Art in the Nanyang Academy of  Fine Arts (NAFA) Singapore. She holds a Master of Arts in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore and a Masters of Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She was the recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award Visual Arts 2000, the prestigious President's Young Talent Award 2001 and has won numerous top prizes and notable mentions in regional art competitions including the Philip Morris Asean Arts Awards and was named Singapore's representative in the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale, held in Brazil.

In July 2007, she won the 26th UOB Painting Of The Year (POY) Competition. Using traditional Chinese painting media, her painting Aspects Of The City II was singled out from among over 1,100 entries submitted by about 800 participants for the prestigious POY Award.

Hong Sek Chern has been painting interior and exterior spaces of local architecture using Chinese ink for nine years. Sensitive to painterly surfaces and affected by the world around her, the artist hopes that what she creates would allow her to think about the world, its people and herself. At the same time, she desires to share the beautiful surfaces with others to instigate reflection. Stylistically, Sek Chern’s works tend to reflect a masterful interplay of architectural blocks and lines, and are infused with a multi-point perspective of interior and exterior spaces that sometimes collapse into one another. Many of her paintings also explore tension between the old and the new, and notions relating to space and time are sometimes destabilized through the merging and juxtaposition of urban structures that belong to different times and places.


Awards

2007
Painting of the Year, United Overseas Bank (UOB) Group, Singapore

2000
Young Artist Award, National Arts Council (NAC), Singapore

1999
1st Prize (Representational Category), 18th Painting of the Year Competition, The United Overseas Bank (UOB) Group, Singapore
Honourable Mention (Two Awards), 1999 Singapore Turf Club Art Competition, Singapore

1996
Juror's Choice / Prize: Singapore Art Awards 96, 98 and 99, The Philip Morris Group of Companies, Singapore
Chen Chong Swee Overseas Art Scholarship, Chen Chong Swee Foundation and National Arts Council (NAC), Singapore 
Top Prize, Philippe Charriol Foundation Contemporary Art Competition 1995/6, Singapore 

2015
Abstractions, Art-2 Gallery, Singapore

2014
Sleepless in the City, Art-2 Gallery, Singapore
Thinking of Landscape, Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore

2013
Made in Singapore - three quarters of a century, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore
Welcome to the Jungle, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan

2012
Home and Beyond, Artcommune Gallery, Singapore
Singapore Survey 2012 - new strange faces, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore

2011
Raised Tumpal, Art-2 Gallery, Singapore

2010
In Habitable Structures, Utterly Art, Singapore 
Singapore Survey 2010 - Beyond LKY, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore

2008
On Borrowed Skies, Jendela, Singapore
Lost City II, Sculpture Square, Singapore

2007
Gossip, 139 Selegie Road, Singapore
Singapore Art Exhibition – curated section at the Singapore Art Museum
Tales of Skylarking, Jendela, Esplanade, Singapore
Peranakan III: Evolutionarily Diverse, NAFA Art Galleries, Singapore
NUS Arts Festival Open Art Show, University Cultural Centre Foyer
Escape Clause, NAFA Art Galleries, Singapore 
UOB Painting of the Year: 26th UOB Painting of the Year Award by UOB Group

2006
Madly in Love Madly in Arts, TKS Gallery, Singapore
5th International Ink Painting Biennial of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China
WithDrawing, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery 1&2, Singapore
21st Asian International Art Exhibition, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
12th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibit 2006/ROC, Taipei Fine Art Museum
Spectrum, Telok Kurau Gallery, Singapore
1 st Prize Representational Category UOB Painting of the Year Award by UOB Group

2005
Celebration, Telok Kurau Gallery, Singapore
New Works, TKS Gallery, Singapore
Txtrapolis, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Gallery 1, Singapore

2004
Heartland Karuizawa Drawing Biennale 2005, Japan Wakita Museum of Art Tokyo, Japan
Lost City, Utterly Art, Singapore

2003
11th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibit 2003/ROC, Taipei Fine Art Museum 

2002
Sao Paolo Biennial, a Group Exhibition, Parque Ibirapuera Biennial Exhibition Hall, Sao Paolo, Brazil 

2001
9th International Drawing and Print Exhibit, a Group Exhibition, Taipei Fine Art Museum, China

2000
Modern Monuments, a Solo Exhibition, Telok Kurau Studios Gallery, Singapore
15th Asian International Arts Exhibition, a Group Exhibition, Tainan Country Cultural Affairs Bureau, China
Different Eye Different View, a Group Exhibition, Artfolio Gallery, Singapore

1999
Hexagon - Drawing Exhibition, a Group Exhibition, Telok Kurau Studios Gallery, Singapore
ASEAN Art Awards 99, a Group Exhibition, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
NAFA's Lecturers' Show, a Group Exhibition, NAFA Art Gallery, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), Singapore