Southeast Asia’s Visual Language
Jeffrey Wandly’s "Capitol Theatre: A Heritage Echo" portrays the iconic Capitol Theatre in Singapore
Curating Southeast Asian Art for Interior Design Today
As you drive into Navapark BSD country club in Indonesia, an imposing steel sculpture catches the light, perched prominently in the entryway as the first invitation for guests to experience its contemporary architecture amidst the lush tropical surroundings. Whilst at Bandlab office in downtown Singapore, a more subtle black-and-white portrait of Capitol Theatre hangs quietly outside the CEO’s door.
These aren’t just art pieces. They’re place-markers - textured, local, and alive. Encapsulating a narrative of nostalgia and achievement while inspiring visitors with its storytelling elements.
In design and in art, storytelling matters. For architects, interior designers, and hospitality leaders seeking to create spaces that feel distinctive yet grounded, Southeast Asian art offers a visual language shaped by heritage, movement, and quiet resilience.
It’s a region where identity is constantly being reshaped through urbanisation, migration, tradition, and innovation. But more than geography, Southeast Asian art is a perspective: one that holds history in one hand, and reinvention in the other.
Commissioned by Fiidaa Art, the steel sculpture by Indonesian artist Pintor Sirait stands prominently in the resort’s entrance, setting the tone and guest experience (Image credit: Navapark)
Identity in Flux: Capturing Change Through Art
Southeast Asia is shifting. Skylines are rising and ideas are moving faster than ever. And in the background — or sometimes, right up front — artists are capturing it all. Across the region, artists are reflecting the transformation through modern interpretation of traditional art, giving interiors a fresh take on regional nuance.
Heavy histories juxtaposing the electrifying excitement of the progress are themes emerging from Southeast Asian art
Take Than Kyaw Htay’s Silent Steps series (above, left) which offers a contemplative response to displacement, identity, and the weight of change. His works are quiet - almost painfully so. We see lone figures crossing open landscapes of Myanmar, creating a kind of visual stillness that invites reflection in otherwise fast-moving environments.
Then there’s Singapore-based French artist, Nicolas Damiens, whose City Pop (above, right) digital artworks bring a different energy altogether. An ode to Singapore’s modern density, they are playful yet architectural, high energy but not chaotic. He draws on the visual language of Asian cityscapes in his works to create a dialogue where boldness and pushing the boundaries are welcome, but identity still matters.
Cultural Continuity and Reinvention
Ling Yang Chang’s abstract art using traditional calligraphy brushes
Many Southeast Asian artists are also turning traditional art forms into modern expressions, carrying a cultural memory forward not through nostalgia, but through reinvention.
Singaporean Ling Yang Chang offers a modern take on Chinese brush painting. Using traditional calligraphy brushes and techniques, he creates abstract, rhythmic works that retain the spiritual discipline of ink art while expressing something looser and more intuitive. These pieces can sit beautifully in contemplative spaces like meeting rooms, corridors, or lounges where they subtly hold the energy of traditions.
‘Hanoian’, a burnt wood portrait by Vietnamese artist, Ngo Van Sac
Another regional artist with a signature style is Ngo Van Sac who discovered his wood burning technique by accident when he was burning his own failed paintings. Through the charred wood, he saw something new: emotion, depth, and raw beauty.
“My artworks are about desires: the tension between real life and fantasy and the intricate relationships between humans. To show this intensity, I like strong renderings of figures and the effect of different surface textures” – Ngo Van Sac
Today, Ngo’s wood-burned portraits combine fire and pinewood to tell deeply personal stories rooted in Vietnamese identity. Each piece fuses control and unpredictability, tradition and emotion — proof that even destructive forces can become tools for reinvention.
In Malaysia, tradition takes on a sculptural scale. At Courtyard by Marriott Setia Alam, Fiidaa Art commissioned over 100 handcrafted ceramic plates from a local ceramicist to create a striking wall installation in the hotel’s dining space.
Ceramic plates hold a special place in Malaysian cultural heritage, not just as functional objects, but as symbols of craftsmanship, tradition, and local identity., These handcrafted pieces often feature floral motifs, natural dyes, and intricate patterns that reflect the biodiversity and artistic legacy of Malay culture.
Long used in homes for both daily rituals and decorative display, this quiet elegance and regional significance made ceramics a natural choice for this project.
Spanning across the all-day dining space, the ceramic piece merges craft, culture, and colour — proof that cultural materials can be scaled and styled for high-impact, contemporary environments.
Why It Matters
In a design world filled with perfect surfaces and universal palettes, Southeast Asian art offers a layered alternative to generic décor. It brings texture, narrative, and grounded beauty to modern spaces. Whether it’s through subtle storytelling, handcrafted materiality, or culturally informed abstraction.
For the designer, it’s a way to anchor the space in place. And for guests, clients, or teams who enter these spaces, the result is tangible: a sense of being somewhere meaningful.
And that’s what lasts.