{"id":4339,"date":"2018-07-01T11:02:21","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T11:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=4339"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T08:08:12","slug":"mastering-the-art-of-being-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2018\/07\/01\/mastering-the-art-of-being-uncertain\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering the Art of Being Uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Mr Lee Xin Li’s distinctive illustrations arguably first came into the spotlight after his Kueh Series \u2014 a collection of colourful, detailed artworks of 60 nyonya delights was released when he was still in his final year at NUS. \u201cI was pleasantly surprised when Mr Brown, the \u2018blogfather\u2019 of Singapore, gave the series a shout-out on his podcast,\u201d recalls the architecture major, who now works for DP Architects. \u201cFrom then on, people knew me as \u2018the kueh guy\u2019.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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KUEH SERIES<\/strong><\/p>

A collection of illustrations featuring nyonya delights<\/em><\/p>

Singaporeans have seen a lot more of Mr Lee\u2019s artwork since. These include his depiction of People\u2019s Park Complex and the drawing of the \u2018Missing Man Formation\u2019 commissioned by the Republic of Singapore Air Force Black Knights for the State Funeral of Mr Lee Kuan Yew in 2015. There\u2019s nary been a dull moment. In fact, The AlumNUS managed to chat with the 30 year-old at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) at 8Q, where his vivid illustrations of Singapore\u2019s landscape are being displayed as part of Imaginarium: Into the Space of Time \u2014 the museum\u2019s annual family-friendly exhibition.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This makes his second exhibition \u2014 his first being Sayang Singapura in 2016, which featured illustrations of places that have been transformed such as Haw Par Villa, that was held at the Urban Redevelopment Authority\u2019s Singapore City Gallery.<\/p>

Where else will he go from here? The answer is anyone\u2019s guess. \u201cI never quite know where I\u2019m going with my illustrations,\u201d says Mr Lee, who started doodling since he was in kindergarten. \u201cBut that uncertainty has been good, as along the way, opportunities have been presented to me, and I have been open to them, thus enabling more opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cIt\u2019s tough for many artists to step away from their work, because we are always trying to do better. As a result, we tend to pull many sleepless nights. Don\u2019t do that. You\u2019ll work better when you\u2019re not tired anyway.\u201d<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Mr Lee\u2019s advice to aspiring artists hoping to follow his footsteps.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Check out more of his artworks at leexinli.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The intricate and whimsical artworks of illustrator and architect Mr Lee Xin Li (Design and Environment \u201815) have presented him with unexpected opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5009,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions\/5009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}