Chong Choon Woon, in his second solo show with the Townhouse Gallery, invites us to look at the fast-paced cities of China through a series of different viewpoints. Urban Perceptions depicts his search for the unreachable image during his many sojourns to the fast-paced cities of China namely Shanghai, Nanjing & Shandong. His work speaks of his struggle to grasp the core of the bewildering images encountered as he wanders aimlessly through city hustle and bustle. The wanderer is forced to focus his perception onto one vista at a time, thus perhaps only seeing other images in the periphery of his vision. This is the feeling that is conveyed through Chong’s canvas.

In viewing the art, one gets the feeling that they are actually standing in the painter’s place and experiencing the view as he is. One moment, from the birds-eye view, one feels like they are soaring high above and the next moment finds you hidden under a bridge peeping upwards. The highly intimate ambiance created brings the viewer closer to understanding and appreciating Chong’s frame of mind at that moment.

Chong aims to express concepts, synthesize personal experiences and establish a unique painting style. Inspired by the French Impressionists, Chong creates a truly fusion style as he replaces traditional oil painting strokes with the bold sweeps of the Chinese brush. His paintings provoke not only interest in one’s individual daily life but also interest in other space relationships existing in the external world.

Chong credits his main influence to Alberto Giocametti, who said, “The art of painting is just a kind of viewpoint.” In viewing an image from different angles, one is eventually able to grasp the essence of the image, separate from its surroundings.