Tan Swie Hian

Tan Swie Hian is one of Singapore's most talented and versatile artists, equally at home with painting, calligraphy, printmaking and sculpture. He is also a poet, writer, critic and translator. Tan has received many awards for his artistic and literary achievements, among them the French Knighthood of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1979, a Gold Medal of the French Artist Salon in Paris in 1985, the 1987 Singapore Cultural Medallion and an appointment as Correspondent for South East Asia of the French Academy of Fine Arts. His work is honoured by the Tan Swie Hian Museum in Singapore.

In May 1995, Tan won the Outstanding International Artistic Paragon Award from Taiwan. A sculpture of his was selected for the 6th Triennale of Small Scale Sculpture 1995 held in Germany, Hongkong and Taiwan. At the invitation of the Romanian Government, Tan, in August 1995, became the first Singapore artist to go to Romania to hold two exhibitions in Bucharest and Bacau. In September 1995, he represented Singapore at the '95 Kwangju Biennale in Korea. At the same time, he became the only Singapore artist among 135 artists from around the world whose paintings, calligraphy and seals have been etched on the rocks of the Three Gorges along the Yangtze River of China, in what will be the world's first open-air contemporary Chinese art museum. He also wrote the preface to the museum.

Tan Swie Hian has been conferred the Excellence for Singapore Award 1996 by the Singapore Totalisation Board. He was also awarded the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum in 2002. He will also be representing Singapore in the Venice Biennale 2003. He works at Telok Kuraru Studios in Singapore.