New York
(1962 - 1966)

In 1962, Goh left Singapore to study at the Art Students League of New York where he attended classes by Abstract Expressionist painted Sidney Gross, alongside several of his peers from Singapore. Goh made the most of his time in New York by visiting the many galleries and museums in the city regularly, taking the opportunity to study the works of leading Abstract Expressionist artists such as Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, and Robert Motherwell.

Goh’s time in New York from 1962 to 1966 flew by in a flurry of feverish activity as he shuttled back and forth between attending art classes, working long shifts at a Chinese restaurant, and taking frame-making jobs to support his art education. This was a ground-breaking moment in his practice as it introduced him to the spontaneous, unbridled approach of the abstract expressionists. Correspondingly, his paintings underwent a dramatic change during this time, as he abandoned naturalism altogether and embraced abstraction in his works, focussing his attention on issues of form, brushstroke, and colour.

In the summers of 1964 and 1965, Goh had the opportunity to attend the Provincetown Workshop in Massachusetts, with the aid of a scholarship. Under the tutelage of collagist Leo Manso, Goh began to work with materials sourced from his surroundings to produce collages with harmonious, painterly compositions, marking the beginning of an approach to collage that would sustain him for the rest of his career.