Akeroyd Collection
Artists
Ho Tzu Nyen
b. 1976, Singapore; lives and works in Singapore.
Ho Tzu Nyen has a multidisciplinary practice that spans film, installation, painting, and performance. His work often engages with themes of history, mythology, and politics, and he frequently uses these subjects to explore the complexities of identity and power. Video works become meditations on the nature of knowledge and the limitations of language, combining elements of experimental cinema with traditional storytelling. Ho's work bridges a gap between the traditional and the contemporary, combining elements of Southeast Asian folklore and history with innovative storytelling techniques. Through film, video, performance, and immersive multimedia installations, his work mobilizes different understandings of Southeast Asia's history, politics, and religion. This is achieved through a complex set of references from art history, to theatre, cinema, and philosophy. In this way, Ho Tzu Nyen is able to engage with complex and challenging ideas, while also creating dialogue between different cultures and communities.
Ho Tzu Nyen's recent solo exhibitions include One or Several Tigers, LUMA Foundation, LUMA Arles, Zurich (2025); Time & the Tiger, Mudam, Luxembourg (2025); Time & the Tiger, Singapore Art Museum (2024); Hammer Projects: Ho Tzu Nyen, Hammer Museum, LA (2022); Voice of Void, Kyoto Art Center, Japan (2021); Night March of Hundred Monsters, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Japan (2021); Voice of Void, Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media, Japan (2021); R for Resonance, ar/ge kunst, Italy (2020); G for Gong, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg (2019); The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia Volume 3: N for Names, Kunstverein, Hamburg (2018); One or Several Works, Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai (2018); One or Several Tigers, TPAM, Yokohama (2018); The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia Vol. 1, G is for Ghost(writer), Asia Art Archive (2017); The Cloud of Unknowing, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2015); MAM Project #16, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2012); and EARTH, Artspace, Sydney (2011). He also represented Singapore at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011). Recent group exhibitions include Even Better Than the Real Thing, Whitney Biennial 2024, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2024); Thailand Biennale 2023, Chiang Rai, Thailand (2023); 13th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2021); Chroniclers, Outside of Time, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan (2019), Taming Y/Our Passion, Aichi Triennial 2019, Toyota City and Nagoya City (2019); Home Work 8, Beirut (2019), Sharjah Biennial 14, Sharjah (2019); Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2018); Light to Night Festival 2018: Colour Sensations, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore (2018); Dhaka Art Summit 2018, Dhaka (2018); 2 or 3 Tigers, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017), Field Meeting: Thinking Practice, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016); Time Of Others, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2016); Autonomous Zone, Times Museum, Guangzhou (2013), and Surplus Authors, Witte de With, Rotterdam (2012).
For further information about this artist please click here.
For Ho Tzu Nyen's entry on Asia Art Archive's website please click here.
Exhibitions
One or Several Tigers, LUMA Foundation, LUMA Arles, Zurich, Switzerland (2025)
Time & the Tiger, Mudam, Luxembourg (solo)
Three Stories: Monsters, Opium, Time, Kiang Malingue, Hong Kong (solo)
Time & the Tiger, CCS Bard, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA (solo)
Time & the Cloud , Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea (solo)
Ho Tzu Nyen: A for Agents, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan (solo)
Really? Art and Knowledge in Time of Crisis, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands (group)
Even Better Than the Real Thing, Whitney Biennial 2024, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (group)
Really? Art and Knowledge in Time of Crisis , Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands (group)
Time & the Tiger, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (solo)
Flu⽔o, McaM, Shanghai, China (group)
Videoex – International Experimental Film & Video Festival 2023, Zurich, Switzerland (group)
Theater der Welt 2023, Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt, Germany (group)
SCHEHERAZADE, AT NIGHT, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (group)
One Tiger or Another, MATHAF, Doha, Qatar (group)
Ghosts of the Machine, The Polygon, Vancouver, Canada (group)
Frequency of Tradition, Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco, USA (group)
Hammer Projects: Ho Tzu Nyen, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (solo)
Frequencies of Tradition, Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, Republic of Korea (group)
Nation, Narration, Narcosis: Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin, Berlin, Germany (group)
Safe House, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (group)
A Biography of Daphne, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia (group)
Night March of Hundred Monsters, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan (solo)
Voice of Void, Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media, Yamaguchi, Japan (solo)
Minds Rising Spirits Tuning, 13th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea (group)
Frequency of Tradition, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangdong, China (group)
They Do Not Understand Each Other, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (group)
Ho Tzu Nyen: The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia Volume 10: N for Nameless, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester, United Kingdom (solo)
R for Resonance, ar/ge kunst, Bolzano, Italy (solo)
Constructions of Truths, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Malaysia (group)
Heteroglossia, HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China (group)
Home Works 8, Ashkal Alwan, The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Beirut, Lebanon (group)
Chroniclers, Outside of Time, Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Busan, South Korea (group)
Taming Y/Our Passion, Aichi Triennial 2019, Toyota City and Nagoya City, Japan (group)
G for Gong, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany (solo)
SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan (group)
The Fevered Specters of Art, Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, Germany (group)
The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia Volume 8: R for Rhombicuboctahedron, Kiang Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong (solo)
An Opera for Animals, Para Site, Hong Kong (group)
The 4th Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale, Shenzhen, China (group)
Offline Browser, Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan (group)
The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia Volume 3: N for Names, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany (solo)
The Mysterious Lai Teck, International Summer Festival, Kampnagel, Germany (solo)
One or Several Works, Ming Contemporary Art Museum (McaM), Shanghai, China (solo)
Beyond Bliss, 1st Bangkok Biennale, Thailand (group)
Onassis Fast Forward Festival 5, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece (group)
One or Several Tigers, TPAM, Yokohama Japan (solo)
Light to Night Festival 2018: Colour Sensations, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore (group)
Sunshower: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, Mori Art Museum & National Arts Center Tokyo, Japan (group)
No Man II, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, Germany (solo)
I Taste the Future, Lofoten International Arts Festival, Norway (group)
Ghosts and Spectres - Shadows of History, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore (group)
The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia Vol. 3, Lofoten International Arts Festival, Norway (solo)
The Principle of Uncertainty, National Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea (group)
Mekong - New Mythologies, Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC), Hong Kong (group)
The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia Vol. 1, G is for Ghost(writer), Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong (solo)
Time Of Others, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (group)
The Time is Out of Joint, Sharjah Art Foundation Art Spaces, Sharjah (group)
EARTH; Cloud of Unknowing, Dallas Contemporary and Crow Collection, Texas, USA (solo)
6th Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia (group)
The Time of Others, NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan (group)
The Time of Others, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (group)
The Cloud of Unknowing, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (solo)
The Name, daadgalerie, Berlin, Germany (group)
EARTH, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenberg, Germany (group)
The Name, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Canada (group)
10th Shanghai Biennale, Power of Station of Art, Shanghai, China (group)
EARTH, Project Fulfil Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan (solo)
Anthropos, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, USA (group)
Reality Distortion Field, Media/Art Kitchen, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan (group)
PYTHAGORAS, Michael Janssen, Gilman Barracks, Singapore (solo)
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (group)
Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (group)
MAM Project #16, Mori Art Musuem, Tokyo, Japan (solo)
The Cloud of Unknowing, Singapore Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (solo)
Liverpool Biennial, Media Landscape -Zone East, Liverpool, UK (group)
Ho Tzu Nyen, Contemporary Art Centre South Australia, Melbourne, Australia (solo)
Art Multiple, Ke Center for the Contemporary Arts, Shanghai, China (group)
The Bohemian Rhapsody Project, Artspace, Sydney, Australia (solo)
The Bohemian Rhapsody Project, Contemporary Art Center of South Australia, Melbourne, Australia (solo)
Soft Power, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China (group)
The Bohemian Rhapsody Project, Gallery 3,14, Bergen, Oslo, Norway (solo)
Belief, Singapore Biennale 2006, Singapore (group)
The Bohemian Rhapsody Project, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China (solo)
3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka, Japan (group)
Utama – Every Name in History is I, Sparwasser HQ, Berlin, Germany (solo)
4 x 4 – Episodes of Singapore Art, National Broadcast on Arts Central, Singapore (solo)
Video Art Biennial, Tel Aviv, Israel (group)
Image Smugglers, 26th Sao Paolo Biennale, Brazil (group)
Loop in Motion, Video Festival, Seoul, South Korea (group)
Utama – Every Name in History is I, The Substation, Singapore (solo)
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
Awards
Artist of the Year, Asia Art Pioneers, Shanghai
Grand Prize. the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize, Singapore
Artist in Residency, DAAD, Berlin, Germany
‘The Cloud of Unknowing’, Prix de Nuit. Signes de Nuit, Paris, France Artist in Residency, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Artist in Residency, Sudpole, Lucerne, Switzerland
National Youth Award. National Youth Council, Singapore
Young Artist Award. National Arts Council, Singapore
JCCI Singapore Foundation Arts Award, Singapore
‘The Bohemian Rhapsody Project’, The Grand Jury Prize at the 4th Pris de Courts, International Short Film Festival in Paris, France
‘The Bohemian Rhapsody Project’, Special Mention at the 5th Vienna Independent Short Film Festival, Vienna, Austria
Independent Short Film Festival, Vienna, Austria
‘Sejarah Singapura’, Silver medal, MUSE Awards, New York, U.S
Front Award for Visual Arts Arts Central, Singapore
San Francisco Bay Guardian - Film Critic’s Pick for ‘4 x 4 - Episodes of Singapore Art’, San Francisco, U.S
Research Scholarship, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Dean’s Award for Outstanding Academic Achievements, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
National Winner, Nokia Arts Awards, Eye on the World Painting Competition, Singapore
First Prize, Abstract Category, 20th UOB Painting of the Year, Singapore
First Prize, Abstract Category, 20th UOB Painting of the Year, Singapore
First Prize, The Jacques Derrida Exhibition and Prize, Melbourne, Australia
Humanities Scholarship, Public Service Commission, Singapore
2019
2015
2014
2013
2012
2010
2008
2006
2003
2002
2001
1999
1995