Meet Ivan David Ng | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ivan David Ng and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ivan David, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I understand risk in a rather broad way- I see risk as a state of vulnerability.

From this lens, risk is woven throughout my art practice and career. Making and exhibiting art are inherently risky acts. It goes without saying that artists are concerned about the public and critical reception of our work. The positive perception of others can lead to opportunities and connections that can be career defining but the reverse is also true. Recently, alongside my painting practice which I had been known for, I began developing some performance art pieces that involve human-computer interaction. Conceptually, it makes sense for me to work with my own body this way, as an art medium, given the concepts of lineage and ancestry that working with. Yet to be honest, I have been cautious of exhibiting these pieces, for the reasons above and also because I have never been a “performer”. This is new territory for me, so it feels really vulnerable. Putting my work out there in the world can be exciting and vulnerable at the same time.

What amplifies the feeling of vulnerability, I believe, is that truly significant art making requires that an artist shares a portion of themselves with the outside world. The portion of themselves might be a conversation about identity, a childhood memory, a story about grief, a gesture of the artist’s body or even a way of seeing the world through the artist’s eyes. The artwork I create is both a product and some kind of slice or fragment of myself. The artist offers up this portion of themselves, embed it into the artwork and whomever beholds the work is nourished by what is embedded, by way of contemplation, conversation or confrontation.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My family is from a people group called the Hakka, which fanned out from central China after AD 800. Some settled in Southeast Asia and later became Singaporean. But the ancestral homeland is lost, swallowed up by the passing of time. Much of my Hakka identity is also lost, through unrelayed oral history and denatured by the construction of “Singaporean”. My lived experience in the 21st century is so different from that of my Hakka ancestors a millenia ago. But the same sun and moon preside over our existences. I mark the night sky, with the moon as my pencil. The images of the sun function as both pigment and muse. I meditate, capture and collage with their light, coaxing a connection backwards in time. Ethnicity is often entwined with land. Every culture tells stories about themselves, their land and the sky. But if I do not have a native land to claim but I can still claim the sky. It is yours as much as mine. I use the story of my family ancestry as a launching pad into making work, as I contemplate what it means to be human, wedged between earth and sky. I primarily make paintings and my paintings tend to have a dimension of technology embedded in them like digital printing, laser engraving and 3D modelling. I also create performance art pieces where an accompanying animation is being generated real-time through the interaction of my body and a computer system I devised.

I am realising that perseverance is a key part of building a career as a professional artist because things ebb and flow. There were exciting seasons where there was a lot of attention on my work and so many opportunities came my way that it became hard to keep up with. And there were also other seasons where things were quieter and rejection emails came relentlessly. I have learnt to just keep making work and keep connecting with people in both the exciting times and the quieter times.

I’ve also learnt not to compare myself with other artists so much. I choose to believe that in the art world, there is space for me, as well as the person I am comparing myself with. We will each have our turn. We just need to keep making the good work.

I’ve come to expect a level of the professionalism and ethics from those I work with. In 2023, I ended my partnership with a gallery because I did not agree with the how artists were being treated and a lack of transparency around sales. There were financial and opportunity costs associated with this decision, but dignity is priceless. I believe in the quality of my work, so I don’t have to settle for an arrangement that I feel uncomfortable with.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am based in Columbus, Ohio, but born and raised in the city state of Singapore. In many ways, Singapore is still home.

If I had friends travelling from the US to Singapore, I would recommend one of those long haul direct flights from LAX, SFO, JFK or EWR. I recently flew from Newark to Singapore with Singapore Airlines, and it was a really good experience. And the best part was- my roundtrip tickets were under USD1000.

The internet is awash with all kind of touristy things to do in Singapore, so I shall not rehash them. I would recommend a lot of wandering around Singapore. Take the subway to a residential neighborhood like Commonwealth, Jurong East, Bishan or Toa Payoh and see the lives of the common Singaporean person. Take a walk in the neighborhood parks (you might see families of otters) and eat at the neighborhood food centers. People are generally warm and the country is very safe. You might make a friend with busker or have a long conversation with someone’s mom. Singapore is not quite what you see on tourist ads and Crazy Rich Asians. I think visitors shortchange themselves if they don’t venture out into where Singaporeans live, eat and hangout. I also would recommend a trip to Pulau Ubin, an island about a 15 minute boat ride away from the mainland. I used to go camping there a lot as a boy scout. You will likely see families of wild boars, monkeys and monitor lizards up close while you are there. There is also a beautiful boardwalk over the water in a nature reserve area called Chek Jawa. Some might find this island trip a welcomed change of pace from the bustle of the city.

Singapore is a food heaven. In my first few years abroad, I missed the food more than I missed people. The street food culture in Singapore is a unique fusion of southern Chinese, Indian and Malay flavors and culinary styles. If you have not visited the region, you probably have not tasted anything like it before. It is distinct from Thai and Vietnamese flavors which Americans tend to be more familiar with. Whenever I had friends visit, I would ensure that they has a taste of Nasi Padang (think Chipotle-style rice, entree and sides, but Malay flavors), Satay (barbecued meat skewers), Sambal Stingray (barbecued stingray doused in spicy shrimp chili paste), Hokkien Mee (stir fried noodles in a shrimp broth), Laksa (noodles in a savory but spicy coconut soup), Roti Prata (fried dough served with curry), Char Siu Rice (sweet and savory roasted pork over rice). Some of my favorite spots include Lagoon food center by the beach for Satay and Sambal Stingray, Enaq in Jurong East for Prata and Hajah Maimunah in Kampong Gelam for Nasi Padang. I could go on and on.

Singapore is also a short 2-3 hour flight from beautiful beaches in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, like Bali, Phuket, Krabi and Langkawi. I would definitely recommend a “hop” to some of these destinations since you’re already “in the neighborhood”.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
In 2019, I was working as a high school art teacher. I was getting a lot of positive affirmation at work and even got a promotion to become a junior administrator, overseeing student affairs. Simultaneously, I received rejection emails from every art open call I applied to (I think I applied to eleven things). I took those rejections hard and very personally. In light of these, I said to my wife Jen, that perhaps I should stop trying to grow an art career and just focus my energy on doing well as a school administrator. Her response to me was “I think you will regret giving up on your art.”

Jen had the foresight to see what I couldn’t see. Five years later, my art career is in a very different place. I won a major painting prize in Southeast Asia in 2020 and I had my first major solo exhibition in 2022 with Chan + Hori Contemporary. I was admitted into the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the US and I had the privilege of working on commissions with corporations like Louis Vuitton, Singapore Land Group and Uber Technologies Inc. My work has also been published in New American Paintings. My wife’s support, both in words and in action has allowed me to pursue my art career wholeheartedly. She deserves a special shout out.

I also wanted to acknowledge:

Khai Hori, the founder of Chan+ Hori Contemporary. Thank you for believing in my art practice when I was just starting out.
Deborah Lim, who is now a curator at ArtScience Museum Singapore, whom I met as a young artist awhile she was working at Chan + Hori Contemporary as a curator. Thank you for working tirelessly to help me bring to reality some amazing exhibitions.
Great teachers I’ve met along the way, Jo Smail, Jay Gould, Nate Larson Dominic Terlizzi, Jyung Mee Park from The Maryland Institute College of Art and Laura Lisbon, Carmen Winant, Dani Restack and Alex Oliszewski from The Ohio State University. Thank you for your wisdom and insight, and teaching me how to love making art.
My personal mentor Josh Glaser. Thank you for walking with me through thick and thin over the years.

Website: https://www.ivandavidng.com

Instagram: @ivandavidng

Image Credits
Personal Photo Image Credit: Harlan Bozeman, 2023