fourth floor | leslie sim

He's an alumnus of the Baharuddin Vocational Institute of Singapore, graduating in furniture design and production in 1978. While carving a life-long career out of making furniture, Leslie dabbled in media of all sorts -- fabric painting, metal sculpturing and woodwork -- but it's his work on canvas that best conveys his fascination with colour, texture, depth and movement.

For his debut exhibition, Leslie features a series of large canvases drawn from his fourth-floor furniture warehouse. Much of his work responds to everyday stimuli from the river -- its glistening sheen on a sunny day, the ripple effect when it rains, the lines of the steel bridges, and the neon signs by night -- all of which change colours at different times of the day.

Leslie's physical style is evident in the way he plays with movement by pouring and spreading acrylic in sweeping strokes, then scraping away the paint with water before leaving it to dry completely. Using a cement smoother and putty knife, he manipulates and peels away sections, adding texture and colour over a lengthy, layering process.

This technique is a curious reflection of his approach as a self-taught artist, and one that he acknowledges freely. "I often leave the pieces unfinished, returning in days, sometimes weeks, to add more layers of paint," he explains. The result is bold, lively abstractions bathed in an evanescence of colour, accentuated by overlapping contrasts and vein-like lines.