Programme Leader, MA Fine Arts

Dr Ian Woo

LASALLE MA Fine Arts Programme Leader Dr Ian Woo
  • Doctor in Fine Arts, RMIT University Australia
  • MA European Fine Art, Winchester School of Art, UK
  • BA (Hons) Fine Art, Kent Institute of Art & Design, UK

Dr Ian Woo is an artist and musician influenced by forms of modernism, perceptual abstraction and the sound structures of music improvisation. His paintings and drawings are characterised by a sense of gravitational and representational change.

As an educator, Dr Woo leads the MA Fine Arts programme which focuses on developing artistic practice as research. He developed the curriculum for studio practice research through validations by Open University and Goldsmiths University. He has supervised artists who have had representations in the Venice and Singapore Biennale, as such, he has been instrumental in shaping the artistic profile and history of Singapore art since the turn of the millennium. Dr Woo has exhibited globally and his works are in the collection of major institutions such as ABN AMRO, Singapore Art Museum, The Istana Singapore, National Gallery Singapore, UBS, and the Mint Museum of Craft & Design, USA.

His paintings were featured in the publication Art of the New Cities: 21st Century Avant-Gardes, a publication by Phaidon Press, 2013. Since 2016, together with Beth Harland, David Thomas and Laura Lisbon, Dr Woo has been part of the experimental painting collaborative project Impermanent Durations – On Painting and Time. As a musician, Dr Woo has composed and performed  with anGie Seah, Closing Time, ID and Qianpima. He has performed at Singapore’s C.H.O.P.P.A Experimental Music Festival from 2008–2017.

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Exhibition catalogues (select)

  • ‘In Conversation with Ian Woo, in conjunction with Haven’t seen you lately’, The Esplanade (online) (2024)
  • For the House; Against the House, OH! Open House, pp. 34–35; Singapore (2022)
  • Sam, Sherman. ‘I don’t know yet: some vague guidelines to see Ian Woo’, Joy of a preverbal dispenser, FOST Gallery; Singapore (2020)
  • In The Garden by Silke Schmickl, Objectifs; Singapore (2017)
  • Super Natural – A Survey of Recent Singapore Contemporary Art by Michelle Ho, Gajah Gallery; Singapore (2017)
  • Impermanent Durations by Guo-Liang Tan, DyfanDesign (2017)
  • PAINTING from ACT and FACT by David Thomas, Tomio Koyama Gallery; Singapore (2015)

  • Finalist, Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2010)
  • Recipient of the National Arts Council Local Bursary Award (2003)
  • Juror’s Choice, Philip Morris Group of Companies ASEAN Art Awards (2000)
  • Juror’s Choice, Philip Morris Group of Companies Singapore Art Awards (2000)
  • Juror’s Choice, Philip Morris Group of Companies Singapore Art Awards (1999)
  • Category Winner of the Abstract Medium, The 18th UOB Painting of the Year Art Competition (1999)
  • Recipient of the JCCI Singapore Art Award 1999 presented by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1999)

Solo exhibitions

  • Haven’t seen you lately, Jendela (Visual Arts Space), Esplanade; Singapore (2024)
  • 1998, FOST Gallery; Singapore (2023)
  • Joy of a preverbal dispenser, FOST Gallery; Singapore (2020)

Group exhibitions (select)

  • 1 x 1 x 1, FOST Gallery; Singapore (2025)
  • From Palais to Pulau: Rethinking ‘home’ and ‘oddities’, 125 Jalan Sultan; Singapore (2025)
  • Fibre Optics: Exploring Works on Paper, FOST Gallery; Singapore (2024)
  • Thinking about Abstraction Part I, 39+ Art Space; Singapore (2023)
  • The Lie of the Land, FOST Gallery, Singapore (2022)
  • Somewhere in Bedok Blooms the Blushing Rouge of Embroidered Roses; Singapore (2022)
  • For the House; Against the House: Life Imitates Art, Gillman Barracks; Singapore (2022)
  • Echoes of Anticipation, FOST Gallery; Singapore (2021)
  • On Time, STPI Creative Workshop and Gallery; Singapore (2021)
  • The Lie of the Land, FOST Gallery; Singapore (2021)
  • Oscillations: Adventures in Metamodernism; Singapore (2021)
  • Strange Forms of Life, Singapore Tyler Print Institute; Singapore (2020)
  • How To Read The Paper (online exhibition), FOST Gallery; Singapore (2020)
  • Come Together (online exhibition), FOST Gallery; Singapore (2020)

Commissioned works (select)

  • Facebook Marina One Office; Singapore (2018)
  • Suzhou Center; Suzhou, China (2017)
  • Forest Noise, Victorian Tapestry Workshop; Melbourne, Australia (2004–2005)
  • Chocolate Bar Bench, Seat Art project organised by MacDonald’s, Plastique Kinetic Worms and STPB (2005)
  • Art in transit project, Land Transport Authority, Harbourfront North East Line Train Station; Singapore (1998–2003)

Workshops, seminars and lectures

  • Fabrication is Forthcoming: Less is Less and More is More, National Gallery Singapore; Singapore (2019)
  • Why Make Art?, Yale-NUS College; Singapore (2019)
  • Visiting professor, Musashino University; Tokyo, Japan (2015–2025)
  • Visiting professor, Transcultural Collaboration, Zurich University of the Arts; Zurich, Switzerland (2018)
  • Remediation – Streaming the Mental, LASALLE College of the Arts; Singapore (2018)
  • A Different Way of Painting: A Different Way of Thinking about Painting, Langgeng Art Foundation; Jogjakarta, Indonesia (2017)
  • Panel discussion, Impermanent Durations: On Painting and Time, Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University; Lancaster, UK (2017)
  • Impermanent Durations: On Painting and Time, seminar at Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore and Bundoora Homestead Art Centre; Singapore (2016)
  • Reframing Modernism, National Gallery Singapore; Singapore (2016)
  • Abstract Speaking, Centre of Contemporary Art Singapore; Singapore (2016)
  • Visiting professor, RMIT University (2015)
  • How to Create an Artist Studio, Yeo Workshop; Singapore (2015)
  • How to Appreciate Contemporary Painting, Yeo Workshop; Singapore (2015)

Press (select)

  • Abstraction
  • Contemporary music
  • Modernism
  • Painting
  • Phenomenology