SINGAPORE – UOB on May 3 launched the 43rd edition of its Painting of the Year competition, on the occasion also debuting six “edible art” menus by Pan Pacific Hotels Group chefs inspired by previous winners’ works.
The colourful high tea sets were part of the bank’s efforts to broaden opportunities for winners of its flagship prize, the longest running in Singapore. It counts among previous winners Cultural Medallion recipients Goh Beng Kwan – who won the first edition in 1982 – as well as Anthony Poon and Chua Ek Kay.
The 87-year-old Goh was present at the event held at The Southern Depot in arts precinct Gillman Barracks, where Ms Christine Ip, head of UOB’s group strategic communications and brand, also announced the formation of an alumni association for winners.
The competition is held in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam before the winners of each country are pitted against one another for the coveted UOB South-east Asian Painting of the Year.
Submissions are open till July 31 at UOBandArt.com and the competition comes with a variable country winner cash prize, which in 2023 was $33,000 for Singapore. The overall winner, to be revealed on Nov 13, receives an additional $13,000. There are also residencies in Paris and at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Nafa) for artists.
Nurul Afiqah, 30, 2023’s winner of the gold award in the emerging artist category, was one of the six artists selected for the food tie-up with Pan Pacific Hotels Group. She said the competition has helped relatively new artists like herself expand their social network.
The Nafa graduate has just moved back to Singapore after a stint in Australia. “It helps me to put myself out there as an artist. It’s pretty hard unless you join competitions or actively find galleries,” she says.
Her pen on paper work, In A Kiyokawa Calm, is a placid oasis of overlapping blue mountains, drawn from her travelogues at a lake in the Aiko district in Japan. It was bought within hours for $5,000 online on May 3.
Executive chef Chan Tuck Wai of Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay used blue pea to mimic the running blue of the work in a red berries cheesecake popsicle and urban farm pandan coconut gateaux. These will be available at participating restaurants from October to December.
Other visually arresting food creations include a piece of chocolate mimicking the complex iconography of David Chan’s history painting by executive chef of Pan Pacific Orchard Pedro Samper; and a mini panda with red bean paste by the executive Cantonese chef of Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant, modelled after Leo Liu’s rice paper sketch of the bear.
But executive chef of Parkroyal on Beach Road Vincent Aw’s tart might be the most delicious, resembling the dome of Sultan Mosque as painted by Andrew Huang, and containing nuts, mousse, kueh pie tee and chicken bak kwa.
All proceeds from the sale of art – up for silent auction at 32auctions.com/ARTDIS – and part of the menu sales available seasonally from May to December will go to Art:Dis, a charity dedicated to creating opportunities for disabled artists.
