Leroy Sofyan: Unfinished

27 April - 8 June 2019

Leroy Sofyan: Unfinished is an invitation to consider deliberate and accidental dialogues through working with both constructed and readymade objects. For his solo exhibition at 1961, Leroy considers the constant oscillation between security and growth, and the fine distinction between protection and being stifling. Are we wired to choose comfort over striving and growing? Does losing ignorance make one knowing or complacent? These disparities become woven into our daily lives, our visual perception and our knowing. Leroy Sofyan’s work invites us to parse the overlap of what we take for a given to re-examine the values which shape our judgement and behaviour. After we see, can we unsee?

Leroy Sofyan (b. 1973, Singapore) is a contemporary artist based in Singapore. His practice is centred on found objects and tools, with a preference for wood and stone. His previous career as an Emergency Paramedic exposed him to the grit and grime of everyday living at its most basic level. He is concerned with the struggles of the common person and the responsibility of choice.  His work Chalk & Cheese (2013) was shown at the Singapore Biennale 2013: If the World Changed. He participated in the Asia Contemporary Art Exhibition at Gwangju National Museum in 2010 in Korea. Leroy Sofyan read Fine Art at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts with a second upper class honours, BA(Hons) from the University of Huddersfield, UK.