Lee Wen
Lee Wen
Lee Wen (b. 1957, Singapore – d. 3 March 2019, Singapore) was a multidisciplinary artist and one of Singapore’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists. A local pioneer of performance art who is best known for his Yellow Man series, Lee promoted the art form during a time when it was difficult to do so.
Lee’s work has been shown in more than 30 international arts festivals and biennales in countries such as France, Germany, Japan and China. For his contributions to the local art scene, Lee was conferred the Cultural Medallion for Visual Arts in 2005.
Education
1990
Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore
1992
City of London Polytechnic, UK
2006
MA Fine Arts, Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore
Lee Wen was one of Singapore’s most representative performance artists, whose artistic practice exerted a profound and enduring influence on the development of performance art in Asia. Working with the body as his primary medium, Lee Wen employed performance, video, and actionbased interventions to critically examine issues of identity, ethnicity and racial politics, freedom, and the complex relationships between the individual, society, community, and environment His work was consistently grounded in specific historical and cultural contexts.
Lee Wen’s most emblematic body of work is his performance art series The Journey of a Yellow Man, sustained over more than two decades Initiated in 1992, the series began as a critical response to racial stereotyping and the construction of ethnic and national identity. Over the course of more than ten years, it gradually evolved into a contemplative inquiry into freedom, humility, spirituality, and religious practice. By covering his body with vivid yellow poster paint, Lee Wen created a highly exaggerated and tensionfilled visual symbol that both signified his ethnic identity as a Singaporean citizen and pointed to the political realities of being “seen,” “named,” and “othered.”
Beyond his individual artistic practice, Lee Wen was deeply engaged in artistrun initiatives and transnational networks, playing a pivotal role in shaping Singapore’s contemporary art ecosystem. He was closely involved with The Artists Village (TAV) and was a core member of the international performance collective Black Market International. In addition, he actively contributed to and curated several internationally significant performance art platforms and festivals, including Future of Imagination and Rooted in the Ephemeral Speak (RITES), providing vital sites for exchange and development in Asian and global performance art.
Internationally, Lee Wen’s works were presented at more than thirty international art festivals, biennales, and major exhibitions in countries including France, Germany, Japan, and China, positioning Singaporean and Southeast Asian performance art within broader global contemporary art discourses. His practice extended beyond personal expression to constitute an ongoing interrogation of institutions, historical narratives, and the boundaries of art itself. Lee Wen passed away on 3 March 2019 due to sickness, at the age of 61. Through his sustained and resolute artistic practice, he significantly expanded the conceptual depth and expressive possibilities of performance art in Singapore and across Asia. His works and intellectual legacy continue to exert a lasting influence on subsequent generations of artists and on scholarly research.
Threshold
117 X 82 cm
Anthropometry LW No.7
110 x 79 cm
Anthropometry Revision: Yellow Period (After Yves Klein) Part 2
210 x 500 cm
