Cristene is a mixed media painter and contemporary printmaker who extracts and combines techniques from printmaking and painting traditions to hone her own distinctive voice and expression. Her practice has been profoundly influenced by literary texts and directed by the metaphors of weaving and threads, of time, memory & reconstructions.

Cristene’s interest in the conceptual development of her work was been honed as a Fine Art graduate (Printmaking major) from Middlesex University London. Her earlier foundation was at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA).

In addition to the recent Bronze award of the UOB Painting of the Year 2014, she has also won the First Prize in the Ray Fawcett Memorial Award in London (1995), the First Prize (Abstraction), Tan Tsze Chor award [2003] and other accolades including commendations in the OUB Painting of the Year (1984 & 1986) and Philip Morris ASEAN Art Award (2003).

Cristene is one of the few artists in Singapore to own and manage her own studio press – a manual printmaking press she has affectionately nicknamed her “companion”. Her press has been exclusively adjusted and finely calibrated to handle her hand-made templates, matrix plates and odd-sized papers, producing her signature reticulate lines, rich textures and layering.