Sherman is a filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. His practice has always centred on the human condition and our relationships with others within the larger milieu.
Winner of the 2010 ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award, Sherman has premiered works in Art Biennales, major Film Festivals and Museums around the world, including the Venice, Singapore and Jakarta Biennales, Mori Art Museum Tokyo, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Musee du Quai Branly Paris, Centre Pompidou Paris, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, VideoBrasil International Electronic Art Festival, Singapore Art Museum, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Queensland Art Gallery, South Australia Contemporary Art Centre and Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre, Lithuania.
He is an Associate Artist of the Substation and a founding member of 13 Little Pictures, a film collective based in Singapore. He also serves as the Artistic Manager for the Singapore International Photography Festival, as an educator at schools and universities, and as a member of juries at various film festivals. In 2009, he was invited to participate in the Singapore Pavilion, Venice Biennale which garnered a Special Mention. His works are in the collections of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Singapore Art Museum and the Seoul Art Centre Korea. He is nominated for the APB-Singapore Art Museum Signature Art Prize for 2011.
Formal Education
| 1991-1995 | National University of Singapore, LLB (Hons.), Singapore |
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Honors & Awards
| 2010 |
ICON de Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award, Singapore Hubert Bals (Script Development) Fund, Netherlands |
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| 2009 |
Special Mention (Ming Wong, Singapore Pavilion) Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Best Screenplay (Hashi), Singapore Film Awards, Singapore Forget Africa Commission, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Netherlands |
| 2007 | Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Artist Residency Award, Fukuoka, Japan |
| 2005 |
Special Jury Prize (Exodus), Independent Film & Video Awards, Hong Kong, China ArtConnexions: Goethe-Institut Artist Residency Award, Singapore |
| 2004 |
Best Experimental Film (Exodus), Int’l Panorama of Independent Filmmakers, Greece Special Jury Prize (Exodus), Malaysian Video Awards, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Special Festival Prize (Exodus), La Cittadella del Corto Short Film Festival, Italy |
| 2002 | Best Documentary (The Ground I Stand), Malaysian Video Awards, Malaysia |
Public Collections
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Seoul Art Centre, Korea
Selected Solo Exhibitions
| 2010 |
ICON de Martell Photography Award, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Singapore Ticket Seller, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, USA |
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| 2009 | Sherman Ong, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Australia |
| 2008 |
Hanoi Monogatari (Hanoi Story), Zeit Foto Salon, Tokyo, Japan HanoiHaiku: Month of Photography Asia, 2902 Gallery, Singapore |
| 2007 | Missing You, Fukuoka Art Asian Museum, Fukuoka, Japan |
| 2006 | HanoiHaiku, Angkor Photography Festival, Siem Reap, Cambodia |
Selected Group Exhibitions
| 2011 |
Unseen: Cinema of the 21st Century, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia Changwon Asian Art Festival, Sungsan Arts Hall, Changwon, Korea 17th International Contemporary Art Festival Videobrasil, Sao Paolo, Brazil Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Prague, Czech Republic Cross-Scape, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea BankART Life III, Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, Japan Ming Wong: Life of Imitation, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA Ming Wong: Life of Imitation, Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania, Australia Ming Wong: Life of Imitation, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan I want to Remember, Singapore Arts Festival, Singapore Singapore Survey 2011: Imagine Malaysia, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore Photo Ireland, Dublin, Ireland Short Cuts, Singapore National Museum, Singapore Now or Never, ION Art Gallery, Singapore Kumbukumbu Za Mti Uunguao | Memories of a Burning Tree Kandy International Film Festival, Sri Lanka When the end of Winter is almost Spring Rotterdam International Film Festival, Netherlands Tickets Gdansk Docfilm Festival (Competition), Poland |
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| 2010 |
Ming Wong: Life of Imitation, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Malaysia-Singapore Cinema, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Daegu Photography Biennale, Daegu Culture and Arts Center, Korea Nanjing Biennale, Jiangsu Art Museum, Nanjing, China Rainbow Asia, Hangaram Museum, Seoul Art Centre, Seoul, South Korea The Tropics-Views from the Middle of the Globe, Jim Thompson Art Centre, Bangkok, Thailand The Last Book, The Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Switzerland Banjir Kemarau | Flooding in the Time of Drought Kumbukumbu Za Mti Uunguao | Memories of a Burning Tree When the end of Winter is almost Spring Tickets |
| 2009 |
Ming Wong: Life of Imitation, Singapore Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy Code Share: 10 Biennales, 20 Artists, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania Fluid Zone: Jakarta Biennale, National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia Die Tropen – Views from the Middle of the Globe, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany Banjir Kemarau | Flooding in the Time of Drought Hashi |
| 2008 |
Wonder, Singapore Biennale, City Hall, Singapore In-between (Asian Video Art), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Cut2: New Photography from Southeast Asia, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore The Last Book, Biblioteca Nacional Buenos Aires, Argentina Photo Art Asia, Bangkok, Thailand Out of Berlin…pass the picture! Goethe Institut, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia OsTropicos – Views from the Middle of the Globe, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Cut: New Photography from Southeast Asia, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Exodus – Wanita Yang Berlari, Clermond-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, France Hashi State of Things |
| 2007 |
Photoquai-World Visual Arts Biennale, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France OsTropicos – Views from the Middle of the Globe, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasilia, Brazil Singapore Art Show, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Making Heroes, Striking The Missing Chord, National Library, Singapore Exodus – Wanita Yang Berlari HDB Housing Project |
| 2006 |
Another Asia, Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands 40°1`N/3°36`W, Aranjuez, Plaza de Parejas, Aranjuez Spain Landscape & Architecture, Art Salon, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ArtConnexions, Goethe Institut/IFA Exodus – Wanita Yang Berlari The Circle |
| 2005 |
Exodus – Wanita Yang Berlari Videobrasil International Electronic Art Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil 10th Hong Kong Independent Film and Video Awards, China Jakarta International Dance Film Festival, Indonesia VideoLisboa#5, Portugal Drought Is it easy to kill/pray? Meat, Vegetables & Dessert The Circle El Pollo de Quijote State of Things |
| 2004 |
Singapore Season, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK Month of Photography, Singapore Arts Festival, Alliance Francaise, Singapore Spirituality in Modern Singapore, Goethe Institut, Singapore Exodus – Wanita Yang Berlari State of Things |
| 2003 |
Towards the Month of Photography 2004, Alliance Francaise, Singapore
Exodus – Wanita Yang Berlari Di Mana Bumi Dipijak | The Ground I Stand State of Things |
| 2002 |
60′s Now, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Di Mana Bumi Dipijak | The Ground I Stand |
| 2001 | Time-Image in the Peranakan House, Central District Arts Festival, Singapore |
Scholarships/Grants
Singapore Government ASEAN Scholarship (1989-1990)
Singapore Film Commission Bursary (2001)
Associate Artist, Substation (since 2002)
Asia-Europe Foundation Young Photographer’s Forum Singapore (2002)
Asia-Europe Foundation Cultural Exchange (2007)
Singapore Film Commission Grants (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010)
Singapore National Art Council Grants (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011)
Commissions
I want to Remember (2011, dance film)
commissioned by Singapore Arts Festival 2011
When the end of Winter is almost Spring (2010, dance film)
commissioned by Singapore Arts Festival 2010
Memories of a Burning Tree (2010)
commissioned by Rotterdam International Film Festival, Forget Africa Programme, Netherlands
3 works on Cinema (Ticket Seller, Poster Painter and Collector)
commissioned by Tang Fu Kuen, curator for Singapore Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2009
HDB Housing Project (2006)
commissioned by the National Museum Singapore
Exodus – Wanita Yang Berlari (2003, dance film)
commissioned by the Indonesian Contemporary Dance Centre
60s Now (2002)
commissioned by the Singapore Art Museum
Artist Residencies
Goethe Institute Art Connexions Residency (Hanoi, Vietnam) 2005
Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan 2007
Rotterdam Film Festival Forget Africa Residency (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) 2009