Carolyn Law is a Singapore-based artist and art educator who graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 2012. She is the founder and programme planner of ARThausSg, a fine arts studio established in 2010 for art enthusiasts from all walks of life.
Rooted in her identity as a Nyonya, Carolyn’s practice explores Peranakan heritage through a contemporary lens. Her work brings traditional motifs, bridal attire and decorative practices into dialogue with present-day experiences, reflecting both her personal connection to the culture and its place within Singapore’s multicultural landscape.
Characterised by vibrant colours, intricate detail and signature gold embellishments, her paintings consider how cultural traditions are preserved, interpreted and transformed across generations. Her exploration of Peranakan bridal heritage examines expectations surrounding purity, chastity and the identity of the bride, questioning how these conventions sit alongside contemporary values and social media culture.
Carolyn’s work has been exhibited in Singapore, Hong Kong, Düsseldorf and New York. Alongside painting, her practice encompasses commissioned design and collaborative projects that offer new ways to engage with cultural heritage.

Peranakan-Inspired Helmets for the 2026 Singapore F1 Grand Prix

In 2026, Carolyn brought her heritage-inspired practice into motorsport through a helmet project for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for the Singapore Grand Prix. For Oscar Piastri, she developed the Peranakan-inspired concept and drawings for a hand-beaded helmet and its digital counterpart. Inspired by kasut manek, traditional Peranakan beaded shoes, the designs featured a phoenix and pink peonies against a turquoise-blue background.
Master beader Angeline Kong contributed guidance on colour choices and Peranakan-inspired design details. Her input helped translate the beadwork into the digital design, ensuring that the printed version reflected the direction, arrangement and style of the beads. Carolyn and Angeline worked together on the beadwork and final assembly of the hand-beaded helmet, combining design development with specialist craftsmanship and hands-on making.
They also collaborated on the design of Lando Norris’s digital helmet, which featured a qilin and lotus against a rich yellow background. In their interpretation, the motifs conveyed protection, prosperity, strength and resilience, carrying auspicious wishes on the track.
Carolyn is grateful to Angeline for recommending her for the project and for their collaboration throughout the process. She also extends her thanks to the entire project team for the expertise, care and support that brought the helmets to life.

An Ongoing Practice

Alongside her heritage-focused work, Carolyn paints landscapes and wildlife inspired by her travels. She sees painting as a restorative practice, making space for observation, reflection and personal expression.

Her paintings attempt to capture the landscape as she experiences it with a veneration towards nature only an artist would have, using various palette knives to present scenes filtered through her temperament and personal vision. A strong dialogue between artist and nature is conveyed through a language of trees, basking wildlife and mountains, canvases aglow with the nostalgia of travel. Her subjects are protagonists in a grand odyssey of quietism and picturesque radiance against the unceasing noise of the quotidian world.

Carolyn’s realistic portrayals of animals convey exquisite states of light and form, the memories of her mind as a radiant exploration of pictorial traditions. Undisturbed animals are rendered by her palette knife, canvases applied with dramatic tonal contrasts extend these travels memories with mystical qualities. Her unique tonal style paintings introduce a unified space of light and atmosphere, scenes based on refined observation and an appreciation of nature indulged in reminiscence. Carolyn lives and works in Singapore