A self-proclaimed 'rojak-teer'. Zan Mei (b.1986) finds herself sinking her teeth into different aspects of life; be it work or her varying interest in anything and everything. She is constantly interested in different issues towards art/art making and can never stick to a particular subject for too long.

Zan Mei graduated with a BA(HONS) in Fine Arts Painting from LASALLE College of the Arts in 2008, she is a multidisciplinary artist who has participated in various exhibitions of various art genres and performance art pieces in and out of school. She is currently practicing as an artist, a freelance illustrator/writer and a part time art educator where she gets to teach art to adorable children.

Her recent installation works deal with the ironies of the beauty industry. She taps on mass media culture as a means of showing how identities and the notion of beauty are constructed today. Focusing on men's obsession with a face perfected and how it has been further propelled by the hyper-accelerated frenzy of modern global technology and consumerism.

She draws inspiration from artists like Tracey Emin, Orlan, Christian Boltanski, Yayoi Kusama, Stella lai, Lucille martin and Matthew Barney.


I am for an art that has no boundaries; that can never be institutionalized.
I am for an art that is ever-changing and mirrors the wonders of a kaleidoscope.
I am for an art that goes beyond the façade of mere aesthetics.
I am for the artist who knows that the way up is to start from the bottom.

“It is far more difficult to murder a phantom than a reality.”
-Virginia Woolf

Today beauties is power and not just solely about aesthetics, it can symbolize wealth, capability and the overwhelming affluence of a person. All of which deals with the underlying issues of the need to conform to ridiculous codes of societal values, the need to be needed and accepted under the watchful gaze of society.

My works deals with the ironies of the beauty industry today, with a central focus on woman’s obsessions with the “face”, whitening and plastic surgery trends, desires that are constantly provoked by visual culture but never satisfied.

I tap both mass media culture and popular culture as a means of exploring how identities and the notion of beauty are constructed today and how it has been further propelled by the hyper-accelerated frenzy of global technology and consumerism, a market-motivated society dominating men and women alike.