A recipient of the NATIONAL ARTS COUNCIL Young Artist Award for the year 2013, Mohammed Zulkarnaen Othman, commonly known by his artist moniker ZERO has been a practising artist since late 2003. His is an unconventional practice, opting to delve into the subculture norms of street art and graffiti. His notions of a street artist being a pseudo documentarist of contemporary urban life is reflected in his growth as an artist throughout the years. His artistic research and works revolve around contemporary issues on urban social life and space, current affairs and adverse effects of pop culture. A reactionary artist, Zul's body of works attempts to negotiate the oddity of street and graffiti art in a regulated space while creating social commentaries on the notion of society and space.

 

Zul is also one of the founding artists for the collective ARTVSTS, a group of artists seen as the pioneers of street art and graphic-influenced graffiti in Singapore. The ARTVSTS collective paved the way for the growth of street art in Singapore in the early to mid 2000s. Zul has since founded the RSCLS collective since the hiatus of his former collective- the RSCLS collective seeks to create a vibrant and sustainable practice in the urban arts and places importance in the evolution of urban arts and its integral purpose to urban landscape and society. The nurturing of of younger artists in the collective is also important to the growth of the urban arts culture in Singapore. RSCLS constantly engages the community in their projects through talks and workshops. Zul has also recently initiated THE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT, an ongoing initiative to archive, research and document urban arts in all 21 countries in East and South East Asia, creating a network between all practitioners of street and graffiti art throughout the region through urban cultural exchanges and symposiums.