Chen Wen Hsi
![Chen Wen Hsi Chen Wen Hsi](https://media.timeout.com/images/105449666/750/422/image.jpg)
![Chen Wen Hsi Chen Wen Hsi](https://media.timeout.com/images/105449666/750/562/image.jpg)
You’re more familiar with Chen Wen Hsi’s work than you think. He’s the artist behind the two gibbons on Singapore’s $50 bill. The Chinese artist arrived on our shores in 1948 – he initially planned to stay for three months – but ended up gaining citizenship and becoming an important protagonist of the Nanyang aesthetic. The prolific painter’s works include abstract and figurative Chinese ink paintings that can fetch a princely six-figure sum.
KEY ART Gibbon, portraying some of the friends that didn’t make it on to the $50 bill. Catch them and more of Chen Wen Hsi’s work at Merlin Gallery.