Singaporean artist Alvin Ong is redefining contemporary figuration through a surrealist lens that is as visceral as it is thought-provoking. Dividing his time between Singapore and London, the Royal College of Art graduate and UOB Painting of the Year winner has garnered international acclaim for his “liquefied” depictions of the human form in scenes of everyday life. His canvases—characterized by extra limbs, blurred features and elongated proportions—act as psychological mirrors reflecting the anxieties and desires of our screen-saturated, “glitched” digital age. By collapsing the boundaries between abstraction and representation, he transforms the body into an elastic vessel for exploring intimacy, domesticity and the fluidity of identity. His work, featured in prestigious collections worldwide, including the Peranakan Museum in Singapore, Fosun Foundation in Shanghai and London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, challenges viewers to find beauty in the distorted and the uncanny. In the following conversation, Ong delves into the restless creative process behind his evocative brushwork, the challenges of his work and why he views the artist as an empowered outsider in modern society.

Tell me about your fascination with the human body.

It’s a vehicle for desire but also a vessel for the possible. I love to play with its proportions, exaggerate, conceal, expand and contract it like an abstract form.

Why do you sometimes blur the faces of your subjects and give them extra limbs or digits, elongated proportions and contorted poses? Do you feel that your works blur the line between abstraction and figuration?

Yes, very much so. The blurriness often stems from an underpainting, or when I’ve changed my mind and I’ve decided to keep both or more options open at the same time. It’s probably due to my restlessness and my varying states of mind. I like that painting collapses time in this way.

Tell me about your studios in Singapore and London, if you work alone and how many projects you work on at any one time. Why do you choose to live and work in two different locations, and what have you been able to achieve there that you wouldn’t have been able to anywhere else? How do you divide your time? How do your Singaporean roots and London expatriation inform your artworks?

I found my London studio by chance. I was offered a free studio in East London for a year when I graduated from the RCA, and at the end of the period, my neighbor just happened to be moving out of an amazing space and I offered to take over. I divide my time mostly depending on the shows I’m working on. Most of the Asian fairs like Art SG and Art Basel Hong Kong are in the first quarter of the year, so I try to spend the festive period with my family in Singapore.

What are the greatest challenges you face when creating your artworks?

It really depends. If I’m showing a body of work for a solo exhibition, they must work as an ensemble. If it’s a group show, it can’t be too obvious in relation to the theme. If it’s for a fair, it’s best to not look too discreet or it will be lost at sea. If it’s a small work, it should command an equal presence as a three-meter-long canvas. But most importantly, if the heart and mind are tired, it’s not possible to create.

How has your work evolved over the past two decades?

I try not to look back!

What do you feel is the role of the artist in society? What do you hope to achieve or what message do you hope to convey through your art at the end of the day?

As a self-employed person, the artist is often an outsider. But this open-endedness is also empowering. My paintings function as windows and mirrors. They reflect something of myself but also of the world we live in.