I met Aik Beng Chia slightly over a year ago at a gathering for Leica photographers (at The Macallan Boutique, no less). He’s quite a character. He’s quiet, shy, yet makes the effort to ask about you. He’s the best kind of person who speaks his mind, but tries to do so without offending; plus he’s humble. He’s widely known as ABC and is best known for street photography in Singapore. The photographer Munster describes ABC’s work best, “no one who has seen ABC’s photos has ever said that they don’t like them”. It’s true. His photos are interesting and intriguing, just like the man taking them; and starting this weekend, he has a new solo exhibition showing at the Leica Galerie at Raffles Hotel — and trust me, it’s worth checking out.
ABC has steadily been photographing (and documenting) homegrown artists; the characters who have been key players in Singapore’s creative scene. In the teaser picture, we see the renowned Shane Tan, one of Singapore’s finest tattoo artists, who specialises in Japanese-style tattoo designs.
Above: Shane Tan, photographed by Aik Beng Chia.
This photo sets the story and mood for the exhibition, with all the photos taken on the Leica Q2 Monochrom, of which ABC is an ambassador for.
The exhibition is titled, Art ‘R’ Us and will feature a “behind the curtain” look at 12 artists who are makers and creators, and considered the cream of the crop in their respective fields. I’m also pretty excited for it cos I know one of the subjects is the Visual Artist, Sam Lo, who graced our September 2020 cover and according to his Instagram, just got married! Congrats Sam!
To get you excited about this exhibition, here are some behind the scenes shots that we got exclusively from ABC. Enjoy.
Art ‘R’ Us opens to the public from 2 July 2022 to 24 August 2022 at Leica Galerie Singapore, 328 North Bridge Road, #01-20, Singapore 188719.
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