Share this
Claudia Koh’s work delves into how Southeast Asian identity, cultural memory, and Singapore’s hyper-urbanized landscape shape our perception of space, belonging, and agency. Through a practice that spans painting and sculpture, she unpacks the ongoing tension between constraint and adaptation, exploring how political systems, social norms, and the built environment mold both the physical and emotional terrains we move through.
Rooted in her own lived experiences, Koh reflects on how architecture, infrastructure, and the mechanisms of the city govern not just movement and visibility, but also embed deeper structures of control, surveillance, and ideological power. In particular, the ever-evolving cityscape of Singapore—layered with colonial histories, rapid development, and spatial scarcity—generates a sense of dislocation and temporal drift. Her work captures this ambivalence: the quiet, often internal negotiation between adapting to systemic pressures and yearning for personal autonomy.
By foregrounding the interplay of individual memory and collective history, Koh’s practice opens space for viewers to consider the postmodern compulsion to engineer comfort, individuality, and freedom within increasingly managed and dense environments. Still, amid this tension, her work seeks something more intimate: a gesture toward tenderness, connection, and the fragile pursuit of home.
Claudia Koh earned her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2025, and has exhibited internationally in New York, Milan, Brussels, and Singapore.
Hi Claudia It’s a pleasure to sit down with you. Let’s jump right into it. Your work is deeply rooted in your personal experience of Singapore. Can you describe a specific memory or place that continues to inform your artistic practice?
Claudia: Many of the environments I depict in my work are drawn from the familiar landscapes of everyday life in Singapore, particularly the interior spaces of public housing flats and sweeping views of our dense cityscape. I am especially interested in the notion of home and the experience of looking into the windows of neighboring apartments—sometimes intentionally, sometimes by chance. This recurring memory serves as a lens through which I explore the complex relationships and quiet intimacies that arise when people live in such close, often involuntary proximity to one another.
How has growing up in Southeast Asia shaped your understanding of space and identity in a way that feels distinct from Western narratives of autonomy or urban living?
Claudia: While Western ideals often emphasize independence and clear personal boundaries, Southeast Asian experiences of space and identity—especially in Singapore—are more about finding connection, harmony, and flexibility within complex, ever-changing environments. In Singapore, where diverse cultures and close living apartments are the norm, people learn to adapt and negotiate space with others. This creates a sense of identity that is shaped by community and collective experience, rather than strict individualism, making the ways we relate to our surroundings and to each other uniquely fluid and interconnected.
How does architecture and urban planning specifically in Singapore, factor into your exploration of space and memory?
Claudia: In Singapore there are a buildings and architectural infrastructure that are specifically designed to cater to Singaporeans by blending modern innovation with our needs. For example, amplifying natural ventilation and extensive greenery to combat our hot, humid climate and urban density. There are also government policies that shape architecture to address land scarcity, in public housing for example. It can help foster a sense of a close knitted community and cultural continuity unique to Singapore.
Your work speaks to a postmodern desire for individuality within highly structured environments. How do you think this desire manifests in everyday life — and in art?
Claudia: The postmodern desire for individuality within highly structured environments shows up in everyday life through acts of personalization and self-expression, even when people live or work in places that are uniform or tightly controlled. For example, people in Singapore decorate the exterior of their apartments to differentiate themselves from a structurally identical infrastructure. Or people also could develop personal routines to express their identities, despite the sameness or rules around them. In art, artists look for different mediums to the challenge notions of “traditional” boundaries. Both in daily life and in art, identity becomes something fluid and constructed, shaped by choices and the urge to be seen as unique within larger systems.
Is there an element of quiet rebellion in your practice — perhaps in your choice of form, color, or subject matter?
Claudia: The idea of liberation embodied by my figures is very important to me, especially against the backdrop of the spatial constraints that are so present in my paintings. These constraints often appear as dark rooms illuminated by a single candle, figures sitting comfortably yet cramped in a corner, or humidity fogging up windows and reflective surfaces while the subject’s image still manages to come through. In each of these settings, I find it essential for the figure to assert itself and push against these limitations, highlighting the ongoing struggle to emerge and find freedom within confined spaces.
Can you tell me about why, themes like surveillance and control, are important for you to document?
Claudia: Themes of surveillance and control are important in my work because they reflect lived experiences within Singapore’s densely structured urban environment, where architecture and social systems often shape how people move, interact, and experience personal space. By highlighting the tension between constraint and adaptation, my art explores how both physical and psychological landscapes are influenced by these forces. I use motifs of confinement to symbolize how systems of power and observation can create feelings of displacement, longing, and quiet anxiety. Through this lens, I examine how individuals and communities in Singapore navigate, adapt to, or even thrive within these conditions, while also opening up conversations about the ongoing desire for individuality and freedom in environments defined by control and surveillance.
You mention a longing for tenderness and connection in your work. Can you elaborate on that?
Claudia: By depicting soft bodies, fogged windows, and various confined spaces in my work, I aim to show that physical proximity does not always lead to emotional closeness. These elements highlight how individuals continue to yearn for genuine connection and belonging, even when surrounded by barriers. Ultimately, my layered compositions and symbolic details offer a quiet yet powerful reflection on the human desire for tenderness, bridging personal longing with broader themes of identity and the meaning of home.
Has your relationship to your subject matter changed over time? Has it grown more hopeful, more critical — or both?
Claudia: Both – hopefulness in most though.
How do you approach color?
Claudia: The colors I use in my paintings come from my own experiences of Singapore’s landscapes and architecture—shades I notice in the nature, housing buildings and everyday scenery. My Chinese heritage also shapes my palette; for instance, I’m drawn to cadmium red because it reminds me of family celebrations and traditions. Color also changes depending on what’s around them, just like the subjects in my paintings. Often, the figures in my paintings seem to push and pull against their surroundings through color, mirroring my own feelings of navigating different cultural and emotional spaces.
What qualities do you find most important in the people you choose to spend time with?
Claudia: Empathy towards the environment and people around them. And having great conversations about what interests us creatively.
How would you describe a perfect day?
Claudia: Having a nice sandwich on a beach with a bunch of Dachshunds and my dog Ginger.
Alright Claudia, I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is. What’s your favorite movie(s) and why?
Claudia: My favorite movies are Millenium Actress by Satoshi Kon and Chungking Express by Wong Kar-Wai. I love the pursuit of something fleeting—be it love, memory, or connection— the beauty and melancholy of longing for moments, people, or dreams that inevitably slip away.
The second is. What song(s) are you currently listening to the most right now?
Claudia: I have been listening to Afro-Harping by Dorothy Ashby and Sincerely by Kali Uchis.