Ong Pei Yee (b. Selangor, 1999) is a Malaysian painter whose practice traces the delicate interplay between memory, imperfection, and the quiet rituals of daily life. Working primarily in acrylic and oil, her paintings linger on the spaces and gestures that reveal how people inhabit time—moments that carry the residue of care, neglect, and persistence. She is drawn to the subtle textures of recollection: the traces of those who have departed and the ordinary objects that outlive them.
In her recent series, Perfect Imperfection, Ong Pei Yee turns her attention to the domestic sphere, reflecting on the Mandarin notion of “lying flat” (tang ping)—a quiet resistance to the pressures of constant striving. Her works observe how we make do, adapt, and find comfort in the imperfect: a bucket in the bathroom, a cardboard wedge beneath a table, a Styrofoam box turned planter. These scenes speak to the small negotiations of everyday life, where fatigue, ingenuity, and acceptance coexist.
Rendered in warm, sunset-toned hues and flattened planes, her compositions find poetry in what is makeshift and beauty in what endures. The title Perfect Imperfection captures this gentle paradox—where imperfection becomes not a flaw to correct, but a state of quiet grace.
A graduate of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang, Ong Pei Yee received the Bronze Prize in the Emerging Artist Category at the UOB Painting of the Year (2022).