NOT LISTED IN ORDER

Sam Ng

08.02 - 28.02.2025

In his phenomenological approach to painting, Sam Ng explores the complex relationship between imagery and the painted surface, blurring the lines between abstraction and figuration. His work reflects a deep engagement with memory and loss, drawing from fragments of the past to create a visual language that speaks beyond time and context.

La(mo)rt, 2024
Oil on canvas
45.7 × 43.2 cm ​

Reflection of Repeat, 2024
Oil on linen
50 x 30 cm

Reflection of Repeat, 2024, detail

Ng’s inspiration comes from the everyday, finding meaning in the ordinary and the fleeting moments that often go unnoticed. For him, nothing is ever just “being-in-itself” if observed closely. Every action, object, and moment carries potential for deeper understanding, revealing layers of significance once overlooked. Through painting, Ng reimagines these moments, giving them an eternal presence that transcends the constraints of time and space.

Untitled, 2021
Oil on canvas
30 × 30 cm ​

Love and Hate Are The Two Sides of the Same Coin, 2024
Oil on linen
58.4 × 76.2 cm 

Serpentine, 2022
Oil on linen
30.5 × 50.8 cm 

Vice versa, 2024
Oil on canvas
40 × 60 cm ​

The theme of forgetting runs throughout Ng’s practice, drawing from Milan Kundera’s The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Forgetting is not simply the inability to recall: it is the subtle erasure of history, identity, and memory, a process that shapes our lives without our awareness. Ng confronts this notion, questioning how collective and personal histories are obscured or deliberately buried. His paintings are an attempt to reclaim these lost fragments, reasserting their presence and significance. For Ng, painting becomes an act of recovery, a way to revisit and reinterpret memories and histories that have been neglected or forgotten. His paintings become a means to speak through silence, to give voice to what has been erased, and to depict the presence of absence.

Untitled, 2023
Oil on canvas
33 × 43.2 cm

Untitled, 2023
Oil on canvas
33 × 43.2 cm ​

The Wind Rises (Indigo), 2023
Oil on canvas
43.2 x 33 cm

Blowing In, and Away, 2024
Oil on linen
60 × 40 cm ​

To Sebastiano, 2024
Oil on canvas
121.9 × 91.4 cm

Colour is central to Ng’s exploration of memory and emotion. Each hue is carefully selected to evoke specific feelings, creating an atmosphere that is both calm and unsettling. His works are deliberately vague, leaving traces and fragments for the viewer to follow, yet never fully revealing their meaning. This allows the viewer to engage with the work on a personal level, resonating with their own experiences and memories, much like an emotional landscape waiting to be discovered.

Minim, 2023
Oil on canvas
45.7 × 30.5 cm ​

Watched and Washed, 2024
Oil on canvas
40.6 × 30.5 cm

Stay Warm, 2023
Oil on canvas
140 × 80 cm

Three Kind of Scents That Bound Us Together, 2023
Oil on canvas
50.8 × 35.6 cm

Fragments From Tomorrow, 2023
Oil on linen
30.5 x 35.6 cm

In Not Listed in Order, Sam Ng invites us to reflect on the complexity of memory, forgetting, and the way history shapes our lives. Each piece is a fragment of the past reimagined, a delicate balance between what is remembered and what is lost. Through his work, Ng offers a space to pause and reconsider what has been overlooked, urging us to reconnect with the silent, forgotten parts of our shared and personal histories.

Sam Ng

Born in 1999 in Hong Kong, Sam Ng lives and works in London, where he graduated with first-class honours in BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2022.

Growing up in a fast-paced city, Sam became acutely aware of the passage of time and learned to capture the essence of ordinary moments, infusing them with beauty and meaning to preserve fleeting emotions within a still frame. Through painting, he sculpts time- merging past and future to give form to both the lightness and weight of everyday life. His works encapsulate the significance of the ephemeral, preserving the present in its most vibrant form and revealing deeper meaning within the small and trivial.

Sam Ng’s works have been exhibited in notable venues, including the Beep Painting Biennial 2024: I Won’t Stay In A World Without Love at Elysium Gallery, Swansea, and Just The Powder of the Flute at Safehouse, London, in 2023. Other exhibitions include The Lido Open 22 at The Lido Stores, Margate, and Innocent Pleasures Suit Me, hosted by Warbling in London, both in 2022. He was long-listed for the Beep Painting Biennial 2024 and received the SCMP Student of the Year – Visual Artist Award in 2016.