This is the first time that a Singapore work has won notice at the prestigious art event although the Republic has taken part in the Biennale five times since 2001.

The 37-year-old won for his work, Life Of Imitation, which focuses on the cinematic culture and films of Singapore and Malaysia in the 1950s and 1960s. The award was bestowed at the Giardini garden, one of the venues for the Biennale, during the opening ceremony.

Wong's work, curated by Tang Fu Kuen, 36, was singled out by the five-member international jury led by Italian academic Angela Vettese at the prestigious art event.

Jury member Homi K. Bhabha, the director of the humanities centre at Harvard University, said: 'I thought it was an extremely good piece, very clever in artistic terms and also socially perceptive.

'There was a splendid mix of both a sense of history and a sense of current and contemporary issues emerging.'

Berlin-based Singapore artist Wong, who said representing Singapore at the Venice Biennale has been the peak of his career, called this 'a big homecoming'.

Said Wong, whose works often explore the tensions of multicultural identities and representation: 'I do what I do because of where I come from, where I was born and where I grew up.'

National Arts Council chairman Edmund Cheng, who attended the event, said: 'We are all thrilled. I think this is a boost for artists and art groups in Singapore. In a way, we are coming of age. Our artists are getting more and more mature and I think our standing, both in the region and in the world, is being noticed.'

This latest cultural milestone caps a series of achievements by Singapore artists in the past year such as Singapore film-makers Eric Khoo and Ho Tzu Nyen's selection for competition at the past two Cannes film festivals.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.