Ryf Zaini completed a diploma in interactive media and graduated with First Class Honours in Media Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts. With a background in engineering, Ryf’s interest was drawn toward utilising his understanding of electronic engineering and translating it into artistic content.
Ryf's installations merge ideas relating to technology and the arts, creating unique hybrids of tech-art. Ryf's work has been exhibited locally and overseas, including Singapore Art Museum (Singapore), the Esplanade (Singapore), ARTRIANGLE (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), and Bermonsey Space (London). He created interactive light installations for the 2012 and 2014 editions of iLights Marina Bay. Ryf has also completed a residency in 2008 at Yamaguchi Centre for Arts and Media (Japan), and Singapore Science Centre in 2011.
More recently, Ryf has shifted his interest towards constructing large-scale sculptures of mythical creatures, which reflect issues relating to a society’s reliance on technology and the social constructs which encourage it. His sculptures have been exhibited at the Singapore Art Museum as part of the Singapore Biennale’s fringe event “Disarming the Lion”, and at the Sea Art Festival 2011, organised by the Busan Biennale Committee (South Korea). In 2013, he was one of the artists in the prestigious President’s Young Talents, where he was selected by senior curators from Singapore Art Museum for a new commission work, “Unveil the curtain of the window with no ledge”.
Ryf’s new works were also featured in Bermondsey (London), alongside British artists. In 2014, he was part of the Young Artist Programme to exhibit series of new works for Affordable Art Fair. In 2015, Ryf exhibited an interactive installation, KA’FIRE Express for the Art Garden in Lille (France), as part of a France-Singapore cultural exchange. In the same year, he was invited to be part of the Florence Biennale to showcase a new installation series with selected fellow South-East Asian artists.
Ryf has been teaching for 10 years in institutions including LASALLE College of the Arts, Republic Polytechnic and Nanyang Technological University. He also organises workshops and classes for the community - working with community centres, People’s Association, and special needs organisations such as Rainbow Centre. Through such workshops, he hopes to bring the public closer to art, to understand art or to use art as a form of therapy.
As an artist, Ryf tries to bridge an understanding of how technology functions within a society. Using art as the driving tool in his work, he attempts to connect them to the emphatic and emotional aspect of society.