Career
Between 1960 and 1970 he was employed in various occupations, including four years as a merchant seaman travelling the world. He received a Diploma in Art and a Post Diploma from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Scotland and Masters in Research from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, in Melbourne. When describing his work, Heng explains his process of emptying out his paintings, "no vulgar brush strokes and no detail to distract – just gently modulated pigment to activate flat shapes of colour.
I want the visual response to my new paintings to be rapid, if possible, after which the viewer, should he or she wish, can invest further time in unpacking the content, or in discovering the paintings" secrets.
By seeking this pictorial suddenness, formally speaking my aim is to avoid the "expressionistic", and to privilege instead the flatness of the painting"s surface." While Heng"s work is contemporary in practice his imagery is not always contemporary in origin. He has long been influenced by Italian iconography, medieval paintings and frescoes, and 16th century Mogul art
Heng has been able to spend considerable time in Italy, thanks to his teaching post at the Prato Centre, and aspects of the country"s art and landscape have crept into his work. Since 1973, Heng has held thirty-five solo exhibitions in Australia, Italy and Scotland and has participated in over seventy curated and juried group exhibitions in Australia and internationally, including the United Kingdom, North America, Europe and Asia.
His most recent shows were Reading the Space: Contemporary Australian Drawing #3 at New York Studio School in the United States and Interlude Suspended at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne.
Additionally, he has participated in the Auckland Art Fair and Melbourne Art Fair representing Niagara Galleries and Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney and the Drawing Biennale at Drill Gallery in Canberra.
