Emerging Artists in Asia by Ka

In the summer of 2018, I attended the Koganecho Bazaar, an art festival in Yokohama, Japan, and was introduced to the work of the artist “Speak Cryptic”. At first glance his work intrigued me. A majority of his work were drawings of men depicted in black and white tones. The drawings are only of men with deep carvings in their bodies. These are characteristic of the males in the Malay tribe to which he belongs, a minority in Singapore. He draws inspiration from his friends, using a variety of themes from everyday life, from broken hearts to the setbacks unemployed people face.  His unusual artist name, Speak Cryptic, was created while he was an art student and tagged his unique moniker on street pillars and graffitied throughout the city of Singapore. These pieces caught the attention of a Singaporean art scholar, and landed his artwork in an exhibition at a local museum. Later, he exhibited in France and Japan, and this quirky name gradually became known to a wide audience. ...