On Saturday 10 March 2018, over 30 guests participated in an artist talk with one of Singapore’s foremost leading Pop artist Jahan Loh. This was held in conjunction with his solo exhibition “Genesis: God’s Terrarium” held from 13 Jan – 30 Mar 2018. Jahan shared about his personal experiences living and working in Taipei and Singapore, how he developed his visual style over the years, how to uphold one’s artistic integrity when you are working on high-profile commercial projects and why all successful artists are undisputedly commercial artists at its core.
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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.
