Jimmy Ong, Night Banana (Night Still Life series), 2002

Charcoal on paper
100 x 70 cm
Condition: Very good, pinholes in four corners of paper

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“If we see things through the eyes of change, there is not an instant of stillness. But if we observe the changelessness of things, then there is no end to our being.”
- Su Tong Po (Sung Poet).

This series of Night Still Life was created between Spring and Summer 2002 in upstate New York featuring the flora and fauna of the artist’s garden. The Singapore-born artist who was living in New York then, and observed that the blossoms in his garden were far more spectacular that year, almost imbibing and calling him to action. Thus, he took it upon himself to draw still-life set-up by night with the bloom of the day. As the artist encountered the nightly practice of eye and hand automation, the drawings came into being as precarious mediation between representation and brushwork.  Thematically, this series of still life seems to chronicle a recurring visitation captured in an amphora of stilled emotions.

These drawings of botanical arrangements, composed on a formal central axis, are variations of nocturnal still life in light and shadow.

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Jimmy Ong (Singaporean, b. 1964) is a Yogyakarta-based artist best known for his large-scale, figurative charcoal drawings on paper, marked by a distinctive fleshy quality. He came into prominence in the 1980s, with early works that focused on sexuality identity and gender roles in the context of the traditional Chinese family.

Acquired from Plum Blossoms Gallery New York City, 1 round label "PLUM BLOSSOMS (USA) LTD []" on verso.

(Photographed in March 2025)