2013 Young Artist Award recipients

BANI HAYKAL, 28

Who: Multi-disciplinary artist prominent in the sound art, indie music and spoken word scene. An associate artist of The Substation arts centre, he is also the vocalist and songwriter for alternative rock band b-quartet and a member of indie band The Observatory.

He says: "Receiving the award is a sign that you must have been doing something right, that whichever direction you're heading, there's another light source at the end of the tunnel."

CHUA YEW KOK, 35

Who: Founding member of home-grown traditional Chinese music ensemble Ding Yi Music Company, which bagged a silver award at the 28th Shanghai Spring International Music Festival last year. He is also a noted pipa soloist and educator.

He says: "This award represents national recognition as well as a certain social responsibility. With it, I hope to reaffirm the value and place of traditional Chinese music in society."

KOH HUI LING, 34

Who: Associate artistic director of Mandarin theatre company Drama Box, the director, actress and educator explores social issues such as problem gambling and family violence. Productions devised or acted in include the mockumentary series Dua Dai Ji (2005-2013) and A Stranger At Home (2006).

She says: "It is a recognition of my field of practice, applied theatre (youth and community theatre). I hope more people would be aware of the power of theatre and how it can be used in their lives in a multitude of ways, the endless possibilities limited only by their imagination."

GRACE TAN, 34

Who: Visual artist trained in fashion design. Known for her series of bulbous "cloud" installations, woven from millions of tiny white plastic loops.

Selected for the President's Young Talent Award earlier this year and the ongoing Setouchi Triennale in Japan.

She says: "Coming from a design background, the award is very meaningful to me because it recognises the rather unconventional approach in my practice."

RUTH LING, 33

Who: Music producer, composer and performer working in diverse genres from musical theatre to pop. Has released five albums including Christmas Never Ends (2011), scored the Singapore Repertory Theatre's production of Twelfth Night (2012) and performed with Mando-pop stars A-Mei and Stefanie Sun.

She says: "With this award, I feel I have crossed over from one stage of my practice to the other. The first stage was finding myself as an artist. The second stage is giving back to the community, facilitating collaborations and incorporating multi-ethnic influences into contemporary music to create something that is vibrant and can be a classic.""

M. ZAKI RAZAK, 34

Who: Contemporary artist whose work spans diverse genres including street art, graphic design and performance art. Selected for the President's Young Talent Award earlier this year, his installation, Revising Art: The Ten Year Series, questioned art education practices. His work was also recently shown at a group show of young Singapore artists at the Palais de Tokyo art space in Paris.

He says: "This is a recognition of a decade of artistic practice and paves the way for more opportunities. The journey of wisdom, trials and tribulations I went through guides me to a better understanding of art and life."

ZUL OTHMAN, 34

Who: Renowned urban artist and founder of street art collective RSCLS. His works have been shown at the Singapore Art Museum, Shanghai's Museum of Contemporary Art and the Istanbul Biennale in Turkey.

He says: "The award is a surprise because I don't see myself as coming from a background that is always seen in a very positive light - street art and graffiti. I am happy that people can look at the kind of art we do as something which is quite serious as well."