Sai
(aka Chen Sai Hua Kuan)
Sai is known for his sound-interactive sculptures, installations, and public artworks that transform everyday experiences into spaces of becoming—where ordinary moments come alive with play and possibility. His practice is both perceptive and playful, often inviting fresh interpretations of the familiar and prompting audiences to reconsider habitual ways of seeing through humour and surprise.
Sai graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in 1997 and obtained his Master of Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, in 2007. His works have been widely exhibited in Singapore and internationally, including Night to Light Festival (National Gallery Singapore, 2023), Refuse (Singapore Art Museum, 2022), Sensory Grammar (Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, 2021), Outlining Space (National Centre for Contemporary Art, Kaliningrad, 2021), Gangwon Triennale 2021 (South Korea, 2021), The Sense: Breathe between Excess and Deficiency (Total Museum, Seoul, 2019), If the World Changed (Singapore Biennale, 2013), and Busan International Short Film Festival (Busan, 2010), among others.
He has received numerous awards and residencies, including the Artist-in-Residence Award at Yale-NUS College (2020), Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2015–2016), and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan (2013). His accolades also include the People’s Choice Award at Mostyn Open 18 (Wales, UK, 2013); the Visiting Artist Programme, Earth Observatory of Singapore (2012); Best of WRO at the 14th Media Art Biennale WRO – Alternative Now (Poland, 2011); and Best Film at FAFF – Fundada Artists’ Film Festival (UK, 2010).
Sai’s works are represented in both private and institutional collections in Singapore and abroad, including the Singapore Art Museum, He Xiangning Art Museum (China), Chengdu EcoGarden (China), Vehbi Koç Foundation (Turkey), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan (South Korea).