Poh Ling Yeow
One could say that Poh Ling Yeow is a Peranakan Chinese artist.
Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1973 into a fifth generation Chinese family, Yeow attended SMK Convent Bukit Nanas. She emigrated to Australia at age 9 with her parents and brother. After attending Seymour College and then the University of South Australia (where she earned a Bachelor design degree), Yeow worked as a graphic designer, illustrator and make up artist.
Yeow works mainly with acrylic paint on canvas. Her early works featured heavily textured backgrounds whereas recent works present a smoother, more refined and highly detailed finish.
Elements of her Chinese heritage feature in her work, including the goldfish, a symbol of prosperity and good luck in Chinese culture. A recurring character in Yeow's recent work is one that she calls The Girl, who she refers to in the third person, although the character's facial features are clearly similar to Yeow's. She says "I guess [The Girl] was developed as a cathartic act, in terms of embracing everything that I did hate about myself physically: the broad nose, the Asian eyes, the broad face".
A further theme behind her recent body of work was Yeow's split with her partner of 10 years, with titles including "Was That the Last Goodbye?" and "You Haven't Left and I Miss You Already". Her Mermaid series, with The Girl's clothes fashioned from goldfish scales and fins, is about losing your identity and taking on your partner's. *
Her paintings are to be seen on her website pohlingyeow.com
*source: wikipedia
Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1973 into a fifth generation Chinese family, Yeow attended SMK Convent Bukit Nanas. She emigrated to Australia at age 9 with her parents and brother. After attending Seymour College and then the University of South Australia (where she earned a Bachelor design degree), Yeow worked as a graphic designer, illustrator and make up artist.
Yeow works mainly with acrylic paint on canvas. Her early works featured heavily textured backgrounds whereas recent works present a smoother, more refined and highly detailed finish.
Elements of her Chinese heritage feature in her work, including the goldfish, a symbol of prosperity and good luck in Chinese culture. A recurring character in Yeow's recent work is one that she calls The Girl, who she refers to in the third person, although the character's facial features are clearly similar to Yeow's. She says "I guess [The Girl] was developed as a cathartic act, in terms of embracing everything that I did hate about myself physically: the broad nose, the Asian eyes, the broad face".
A further theme behind her recent body of work was Yeow's split with her partner of 10 years, with titles including "Was That the Last Goodbye?" and "You Haven't Left and I Miss You Already". Her Mermaid series, with The Girl's clothes fashioned from goldfish scales and fins, is about losing your identity and taking on your partner's. *
Her paintings are to be seen on her website pohlingyeow.com
*source: wikipedia
