Jess is an aspiring curator and art historian whose practice is interested in recontextualising hegemonic historical narratives through facilitating encounters between historical material and contemporary art. Her approach to research and curating makes bold connections between unexpected elements and draws deeply on her diverse interests in art, literature, theory, public infrastructure and pop culture. In her debut exhibition, “Sights They Saw: (Re)visiting Pictorialised Lands”, juxtapositions between modern and contemporary regional artists served to foreground the inherent subjectivity in the ways that artists across time have represented places in their art.
Jess has had an affinity with art since childhood, and as a hobbyist illustrator has found community alongside artists, designers, and other creatives her whole life. Passionate about supporting, facilitating and being a part of the local art ecosystem in Singapore, she prides herself in her versatile ability to thrive in all positions from curatorial to project management to partnership development roles.
Jess is currently completing her final year in the English Literature and Art History undergraduate programme at Nanyang Technological University, where she is also part of the multidisciplinary NTU University Scholars Programme. Her previous internships include stints at the National Archives of Singapore and the Urban Redevelopment Authority. She is the Global Winner of the Art History and Theory category of the 2023 Global Undergraduate Awards, where her essay “Our Colonizers are Different— Critiquing the Contemporary Through Appropriating Colonial Vestiges in Singaporean Contemporary Art” was judged as the top entry in the category.