What It Takes to be a Pop Artist: Conversation with Jahan Loh
Presented by The Culture Story
10 March 2018
Guests attended an artist talk with Jahan Loh, one of Singapore’s leading pop artists, held in conjunction with his solo exhibition Genesis: God’s Terrarium (13 Jan – 30 Mar 2018) at The Culture Story. shared insights into his experiences living and working in Taipei and Singapore, the evolution of his visual style, and the challenges of maintaining artistic integrity while working on high-profile commercial projects. He also discussed why, at their core, all successful artists are inherently commercial.
About Jahan Loh
Born in 1976, Jahan Loh is a Singapore artist who works primarily in the field of pop art. Not restricted to canvases and walls, Jahan’s art has been featured in toy, apparel and footwear collaborations with Adidas, Nike, VANS, Puma, Subcrew, Casio G-SHOCK and BearBricks. He turned down a career in law to pursue an arts education at LASALLE College of the Arts with a scholarship. In 2002, Loh migrated to Taiwan to pursue his dream to be an independent artist. In 2004 he started a company called Invasion Studios, and entered the world of hip-hop, vinyl toys and music animation, joining the international craze of collectible sneakers and toys, pop cultural icons and figurative forms.
Loh spent a decade in Taiwan before he returned to Singapore in 2011 with a new body of work titled “Cherry Poke, Reconstituted Philosophies” which was exhibited at the Jendela Visual Arts Space, Esplanade. Loh is well known for his Ma Ling luncheon meat series paintings, representing the interplay of cultural signifiers in Singaporean identities and everyday lives today. In the 1990’s and following decades, the influence of graffiti was embraced internationally as a countercultural movement that developed to become increasingly interwoven with lifestyle sub-cultures and market branding. Street art was a symbolic outlet for artistic and youth countercultural expression, a universal point of connection among youth internationally, and this remained vital as a locus for Loh’s inspiration and identity.