KCR Spring Summer 2026 Mag final - Flipbook - Page 20
Yap Pau Ling at Khaw Gallery
Yap Pau Ling is a London-based, award-winning multidisciplinary artist
whose work bridges Eastern traditions with Western sensibilities,
disciplines, and materials. Pau Ling is of Malaysian Chinese heritage and her practice is rooted in storytelling—expressed through an
expansive visual language that spans Chinese ink painting, calligraphy,
oil, charcoal, pencil, watercolour, metalwork, and installation. Alongside her artistic career, Pau Ling is also an actuary—a rare duality that
underpins her distinctive approach. Her work balances analytical rigour
with intuitive exploration, examining materials, relationships, and the
structures that shape human experience.
Her artistic journey began early. She trained in Chinese ink painting and
calligraphy from the age of ten and held her 昀椀rst solo exhibition at just
thirteen. She later studied architecture, completing her Royal Institute
of British Architects (RIBA) Part 2, an education that continues to
inform her spatial awareness, material experimentation, and
approach to installation design. Pau Ling’s work has received
widespread recognition. She is the recipient of the Din Tai Fung Art
Competition (2025), the AON Prize (2017), and the Liberty’s People’s
Choice Awards (2021, 2024) at the Lloyd’s Art Group Winter Exhibitions. She has also been listed for the Jackson’s Art Prize. Her work
addressing workplace bullying was published in Haus-A-Rest, and her
Pandemic Portrait series—capturing the emotional realities of lockdown,
including a triple portrait of Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey—
is held in the Bank of England Museum.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is held
in both private and corporate collections, including Sompo and the
Bank of England Museum. Extending her practice beyond exhibitions
and collections, she undertakes commissions and leads workshops and
corporate events for organisations such as the Bank of England, AXA
XL, Aspen, the City of London Club, and Hilton Hotel.
At the core of Pau Ling’s practice lies a restless curiosity, and it is
through art that her curiosity 昀椀nds its most compelling and resonant
expression. Her latest works continue to push boundaries in materiality,
from painting with co昀昀ee on rice paper to translating calligraphy into
laser-engraved metal. KCR readers will be thrilled to know that her
latest solo exhibition, Still Depth – Whispers of the Wild, currently on
display until 13 June 2026 at Khaw Gallery, Dāku Kensington, o昀昀ers a
particularly vivid example. The series is a meditation on tropical plant
fragility and impermanence, and the quiet resilience of nature.
The exhibition title itself carries a dual meaning. “Still” evokes the
delicate equilibrium of the natural world, while “Depth” refers both to
the tonal richness of Dāku co昀昀ee and the layered density of tropical
ecosystems. Together, they frame a body of work that is as conceptually
rich as it is visually subtle.
The series comprises eight unique works depicting tropical plant species
from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Each piece is created
using brewed Dāku co昀昀ee sourced from the plant’s country of origin,
combined with traditional Chinese ink techniques on rice paper and
mounted as silk scrolls. Painting with co昀昀ee is technically ambitious
and involved extensive experimentation with binders to stabilise co昀昀ee
whilst enabling its full range of tonal and textural expression. 20% of
proceeds will support Kew Gardens’ Tropical Important Plant Areas
conservation programme.
Fans of her work can also look forward to Traces of Humanity, a group
exhibition inspired by the Gorham’s Cave Complex in Gibraltar, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. Pau Ling explores humanity’s lineage of
knowledge and innovation through laser-and hand-engraved calligraphy
on metal. See it at the Schwartzman Gallery, Margate until 28 May (with
a talk by Pau Ling on 9 May), and at the Gustavo Bacarisas Gallery,
Gibraltar from 30 June to 31 July.
Visit www.pauling.london/still-depth to learn more.
