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Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance
Arcus Pride Art 2022 – Singapore<br />

Arcus Pride Art 2022 – Singapore

Explore our gallery

Clifford Chance Singapore is delighted to provide a platform for some of Singapore's brightest upcoming talent.

The artworks uses a variety of mediums and methods our local artists explore queer themes including the infinitely faceted transgender experience, journeys of self-discovery, freedom of expression, and the lived experiences of being in this tight-knit community whose identities may not align with social norms.

We invite you to be inspired by their creative spirit and celebrate the diverse selection of art from up-and-coming illustrators, animators, and artists who each share a unique perspective and lens on queer culture in Singapore.

Annie Hung

Annie Hung is an animator and illustrator based in Singapore, working with both 2D and 3D animation mediums to bring her humanoid cat characters to life.

This illustrator and animator is known for bringing ideas surrounding body positivity, sexual exploration, sexuality, personal identity and cats to her canvas. She depicts the joyful and harsh realities of life through bright hues and quirky doodles. Get acquainted with her artworks via Annie's online portfolio.

Funghi Town by Annie Hung

Funghi Town was born during the monsoon season. The mood was cloudy skies, stagnant water, heat and sogginess. But that was the perfect environment for mushrooms to grow all around my neighbourhood. The blooming and ever spreading mushroom community really inspired me to get a new perspective on the depressing weather. Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Bhavani Bala (She/They)

Bhavani Bala (b.1994, India) is an illustrator, storyteller and improv coach based in Singapore. She received her BA (Hons) in Architecture at NUS in 2016, and is moving to the UK in 2022 to do a MDes in Communication Design at the Glasgow School of Art.

This bisexual artist vibrantly weaves in stories through her artwork by using colours and world-building to bridge the gap between the everyday and the extraordinary. Her art style tends to the whimsical and is reminiscent of impressionist paintings, incorporating a variety of mediums to achieve this. Her inspirations come from film, video games, and her own lived experiences, especially as a third culture kid, and her struggles with mental illness.

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Queer In Plain Sight 1

Part 1 of a three part series, Queer in Plain Sight is an observation of how we as part of the LGBTQ+ community have to hide in plain sight, only giving small clues as to our identity to other queer people in solidarity.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Queer in Plain Sight 2

Part 2 of a three-part series, Queer in Plain Sight is an observation of how we as part of the LGBTQ+ community have to hide in plain sight, only giving small clues as to our identity to other queer people in solidarity. 

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Queer in Plain Sight 3

Part 3 of a three part series, Queer in Plain Sight is an observation of how we as part of the LGBTQ+ community have to hide in plain sight, only giving small clues as to our identity to other queer people in solidarity.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Shophouse Pride 1

Melding together the Singapore Kampong spirit with the LGBTQ+ community, the shophouse pride series shows different pride flags flying outside the true symbol of Singapore. A way to say "you are not alone" to the queer community in Singapore.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Shophouse Pride 2

Melding together the Singapore Kampong spirit with the LGBTQ+ community, the shophouse pride series shows different pride flags flying outside the true symbol of Singapore. A way to say "you are not alone" to the queer community in Singapore.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Pride Parade Breakfast

What would a traditional Singaporean breakfast before a pride parade look like? When will we be able to celebrate our pride over a meal, rather than as a protest?

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Story time

This illustration harkens back to the first kind of community; when we sat around the campfire and told stories. This timeless image captures the reason we all gather, even today.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Joy Ho

Joy is an illustrator, cartoonist, and designer based in sunny Singapore. They graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in illustration with a minor in art history. Their illustrations often take the form of colourful people-centered work, or inked dog comics. They work with clients internationally including NPR, Channel News Asia, National Singapore Museum, and also organise and design for the local Queer Zinefest.

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Moon Song

The cozy setting of Moon Song is meant to depict the comfort when building something together with a loved one. Something special just for the two of you and no one else.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Friday Nights

Friday Nights celebrates when friends come together to revel and be at home with each other, figuratively and literally, exploring the freedom of expression and community without judgement.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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Marla Bendini

Marla Bendini (b. 1986, Singapore) is a BFA Interactive Media graduate of School of Art, Design & Media (ADM), Nanyang Technological University (2013), where she focused on interactive video installations, film and performance. She started painting and making installations during her junior college education (2004).

Marla Bendini is a cross-disciplinary artist and trans woman working in painting, text, sound and performance to articulate the infinitely faceted transgender experience on her own terms.

Bendini's current painting practice uses the female gaze through a combination of writing, drawing, painting, collage and printmaking to create layered 'documentations' of a unique woman's experience.

Marla Bendini is represented by Cuturi Gallery, Singapore where she will present her 9th solo exhibition in November 2022. She has performed and exhibited in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Macau, Hong Kong, Sweden, Spain and the United States of America.

My wish is to create art through my own lived experiences, to talk about love, relationships, otherness, trauma and imbuing with notions of spirituality, divinities and mythologies to elevate the complexities of these subject matters towards collective healing. I believe the personal is political and our storytelling prompts us to seek alternatives towards community building as we resist the hegemony of social, cultural and national narrative.

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Pillowtalk / It Is Safe to Look Within, 2021

A poignant painting by Marla Bendini, Pillow Talk / It Is Safe to Look Within, 2021, exemplifies the emotional depth in her most recent series of paintings. The dreamlike scenario pictures a seated female figure intertwined with a second undefined protagonist, who are flanked by two cosmic cats that appear to be very comfortable in their surroundings. The dominant red and black tones of the paint elicit a visceral intensity that can be uncomfortable. However it proves to be rewarding for those willing to enter into this private space. The emotional depth of her practice separates Bendini from her more obtuse contemporary peers and the beauty of her oeuvre exists in the spaces between fantasy and reality, mystery and definition. The approach she takes to painting is an act of invitation to consider the meandering path to wholeness and presence.

Medium of art: Oil on linen 190cm x 170cm

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This Beloved Is A Spirit That Cannot Be Broken, 2021

In This Beloved Is A Spirit That Cannot Be Broken, 2021, the artist reveals her face to us as a gesture of openness, or of being content to engage with the world. Bendini's vision of the future is one that characterized by art that dares to plum the depths of the human consciousness. Bendini paints herself as an angel beside her friend's death bed, symbolized here by a "bed" of grass. Her dying friend's hands are a jaundiced yellow: one cradling the grass that will soon be a comforting home, and the other pointing toward heaven, which illuminates the scene via a lightning bolt. Bendini, indignant and stoic, nevertheless prays for comfort and love in these trying times. The work is one of intense meaning and expressiveness, as well as beauty.

 

Medium of art: Oil on linen 122cm x 91cm

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Nikkei

Nikkei is a Singaporean illustrator and designer who draws at work and then draws after work. Their work often involves funky colours and bold lines, and draws inspiration from the intensity and oddness of the world we live in, whether its love, comfort, religion, or gore.

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NARCISSUS, FOUND

This drawing was compelled by the loveliness of mythical nymphs, portrayed here as androgynous non-corporeal spirits. At the time, I was also thinking very hard about the flamboyance and drama of the figures in the work of Aubrey Beardsley, who is one of my favourite illustrators, and often depicted subjects that were erotic, decadent and grotesque.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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CONGRUENCE

Congruence is a comic inspired by a memory I hold very dear to my heart. My friend and I had just finished watching the film Love, Simon at like 2a.m., and after a while of talking, they decided to come out for the first time. It was a feeling of closeness and warmth that was hard to encapsulate, but it was so overwhelming that I almost cried.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

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LOVE, VARNEY

Love, Varney is a comic borne from my musings about how an old-timey vampire would fit in with modern Twilight-esque vampires at the vampire academy. While I just intended to make a silly little comic at the time, I have retroactively realised that at its heart, it’s about finding people who embrace your differences rather than those who shun you for them.

Medium of art: Digital Illustration

About Arcus

Arcus is our global inclusive employee network open to all Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans*, Intersex, Queer people and their Allies​​​. Arcus aims to encourage an inclusive and integrated culture within Clifford Chance that gives colleagues the choice to be open and out.

Learn more

Arcus archives

Explore some of our previous exhibitions to see how Arcus Pride Art has evolved in recent years.

Visit the archives