Mak Kum Siew (Singaporean, b.1940) is a painter whose practice bridges Chinese calligraphy, collage, and abstraction. Trained under pioneering Singapore artists Chen Wen Hsi and Cheong Soo Pieng at the Chinese High School, he later studied at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. During his years in Britain, Mak developed a distinctive visual language that evolved from expressive figurative forms into geometric abstractions, informed by Chinese brushwork, collage, and modernist experimentation.
Working through an innovative process of arranging coloured paper cut-outs before translating them into paintings, Mak explored the relationship between form, space, and the human figure. His work gained recognition in the United Kingdom after being selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1968, with his painting White Arch subsequently receiving the Best Oil Painting award at the McLellan Galleries Annual Exhibition in Glasgow. Widely exhibited in Britain and Singapore, Mak is recognised for his unique synthesis of Eastern calligraphic traditions and Western abstraction, establishing him as an important figure in Singapore's post-war modern art history.
