In Singapore’s canon, few artists loom as large as Cheong Soo Pieng (1917–1983). Born in Amoy, China, Pieng studied art in Xiamen and Shanghai. In 1946, he moved to Singapore and began lecturing at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, where for decades he taught generations of young artists. Indeed, the school’s name comes from the “Nanyang style” of Chinese artists like Lim Hak Tai and Pieng—an approach to painting that blended traditional Chinese techniques with elements of Western art (still life, Cubism). Now hosting a massive survey of Pieng’s work, Singapore’s National Gallery honors the artist’s long and prolific career. —Clara Molot