Loh Khee Yew is an artist and a pioneer of design education in Singapore. After studying art, design and advertising at the Alberta College of Art in Canada on a Colombo Plan scholarship in the late ’60s, he returned to Singapore to work in advertising and subsequently pioneered the design curriculum at LASALLE College of the Arts as the dean of the design faculty from 1992 to 1995. Concurrently a practising artist with Joseph McNally’s Group 90 artists’ alliance, he retired from teaching in 1996 to focus on art-making. Since then, he has become an established Singapore contemporary artist, known for his exploration of different techniques and media and for his skill at using calligraphic strokes to illustrate the human body.

Born on 15 Oct 1933 in Singapore, Loh Khee Yew’s primary school studies were halted temporarily for three years during the Japanese Occupation. During this period, he worked as a grass-cutter with other children for a year, then as a young apprentice at an engineering firm at Pulau Brani for a year, and finally as a shoemaker for a few months. After the Japanese surrendered, Loh resumed his studies at Rangoon Primary School, where he was an avid boy scout and poster contest participant. He moved on to Victoria School for his secondary school education, followed by Raffles Institution.

After graduation, Loh, who had always loved art since he was a young boy, flirted very briefly with thoughts of being an artist, but became a teacher instead. His education career would be a long and fruitful one, lasting from 1958 to 1982. At the same time, he never left his passion for art behind, taking portraiture lessons from pioneer Singapore artist Liu Kang. A creative thinker with an eye for design, he also offered his design services to advertising agencies for free during school breaks.

In 1966, Loh was awarded the Colombo Plan Scholarship and went to Canada where he embarked on a four-year programme at Alberta College of Art studying art, advertising and design. Although the experience was challenging for him because he had to leave his wife and young children at home in Singapore while he stayed in Canada, it opened a world of opportunities for him, none of which could be found then in Singapore which at the time had no design school.

When Loh returned to Singapore in 1970, he was determined to bring design into his teaching, becoming a pioneer of design education in Singapore. He refocused his teaching subjects to design and he continued in this vein until 1982 when he left the teaching profession. During this time, he had little time to practise his art, but painted when he could.

In 1982, Loh embarked on his second career as a designer. He started out in corporate design for blue chip companies, holding positions of creative head, director and design consultant with three different agencies, before eventually starting his own design agency, LO-DESIGN.

In 1990, he retired from the design industry and joined Group 90, a pioneering artists group encouraged by Joseph McNally. Loh and the other members would gather at the old LASALLE College of the Arts campus at Telok Kurau on Saturdays to practise drawing the human form using live models. The same year, he held his first solo exhibition Homage to the Line at the Empress Place gallery. The following year, he participated in Group 90’s first exhibition, the groundbreaking Figurama, held at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts gallery.

Two years later, he re-entered the teaching profession after he was approached to revamp the school of design at LASALLE College of the Arts. From 1992 to 1995, he served as dean of the design faculty at LASALLE College of the Arts, establishing the design department and reconceptualising the faculty’s design curriculum. At the same time, he continued to create art and exhibit at Group 90’s group exhibitions, but was too busy to dedicate much time to art-making. By the end of 1995, after he felt that he had done what he could at LASALLE College of the arts, he retired from his post and accepted a position as consulting lecturer at LASALLE Design International so that he could finally embark on the career he first had designs on—Loh became a full-time artist.

Loh was aged 62 when he could devote time to focus on art. He had realised while in design school that he had a natural talent and love for design and art, and he now plunged into creating art. With Group 90, he did many figurative works and participated in several group exhibitions. In 1996, six years after his first solo showing, he held his second solo exhibition The Lines are My Eyes at Gallery 21, Riverwalk Galleria.

Since then, he has held eight solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions. His diverse body of work is marked by an exploration of different media and different techniques. It comprises both figurative and abstract works in various media including watercolour, oils, charcoal, ink, pastels, acrylics and collage. His latest exhibitions include 2008's Yin Yang Poetry: The Unfinished Finish, 2009’s Yin Yang Poetry: The Realm of Psychedelia and 2010’s Naked Trees. Exhibited at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Naked Trees featured a series of inked line drawings that celebrate the natural beauty of bare, stripped trees with intimacy, and a thematic poem.