Acrylics

In 1962, Goh enrolled in the prestigious Art Students’ League of New York in the USA to further his art education. He studied oil painting under Sidney Gross until the latter’s passing in the same year. Eventually, Goh abandoned the confines of representational painting to explore the freedom afforded by Abstract Expressionism. While pursuing his higher education, Goh received the Allen Tucker Scholarship as well as the Ford Foundation Scholarship - evidence of his artistic talent at an early stage in his career. In 1964, during his summer stint at the Provincetown Workshop in Massachusetts, Goh had the opportunity to attend courses by painter Victor Candell and collagist Leo Manso. At Manso’s behest, Goh began to explore the potential of abstract collage works while embracing his East-Asian heritage, looking towards Eastern traditions and philosophy for inspiration. This led to Goh incorporating Chinese artistic principles and traditional calligraphic strokes in his paintings and collages, as well as integrating assemblages that inherently alluded to his cultural inheritance.