Victor Tan is a relatively well-known wire artist due to his unique and uncommon choice of medium to express his creativity.

Having wire as the only material he works with for over the past years, his fingers have become nimble as a result. Most of his works touch on human emotions, his views on the world and focus on the love of God.

1995 • Victor started using wire as a medium for art despite studying a ceramics major. An alternative to pencil and paper, wire allows him to draw a line while feeling it and draw subsequent lines from there because he can get feedback from being in contact with the wire, something he cannot achieve with pencil strokes and pencil lead on paper. To him, the space in between the wires are equivalent to paper while the wires themselves are like the pencil strokes. 

1998 • Victor graduated from RMIT University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, more specifically in Sculpture. In this year, he also completed his first commission – A set sculpture of five larger-than-life human figures representing the fingers of a hand making the “OK” sign.

1999 • He was awarded The Commonwealth Arts and Crafts Award which led to a 6-month residency in London and his first solo exhibition in the year 2000 (also in London). This entire experience and the opportunities to get exposed to students, other artists, museums and galleries greatly widened his perspectives of the arts industry in London, which in turn gave him a more defined direction on his career path. 

2001 • His second solo exhibition entitled Between 2 and 3 was in Singapore at Gallery Everson Hotel. His sold-out art pieces were a series of entrances; man in the moment of crossing through a frame into a new space. His description of his works suggests a metaphor for human existence being in a continual state of flux and that the frame does not draw out the boundaries but instead offers a platform of possibilities. Meanwhile, he was also commissioned to create sculptures that are currently permanently at the Singapore Botanical Gardens, Orchard Central, Sentosa and others. 

2006 – 2007 • Victor had his third solo exhibition which lasted 3 months at the Singapore Esplanade concourse. He brought the spirit of his studio and all his works across the past decade, which amounted to nearly a hundred, to the public. The sheet number of works exhibited together was a pleasant, rare explosion of sorts, all seemingly floating and dancing around in a dreamlike state.

2021 • Having completed 2 cat sculptures Jia Miao Miao & Marble for a recent project he is undertaking, Victor is bringing his piece of work to the next level and exploring to utilize the world of technology and 3D scanning to transform these art pieces into Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), allowing it to be preserved and perhaps better appreciated by different audiences. 

To read Victor’s full bio, click here.