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Wudu @ Minut Init Art Social
Ablution – the act of washing oneself – is a common ritual in many cultural and religious customs. Practical upkeep of personal hygiene becomes a symbolic cleansing gesture. In Sophia Kamal’s...
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TP II by Cetak Kolektif @ HOM Art Trans
Compared to recent painting exhibitions that examine the act of painting beyond just image-making, creating prints are relatively straightforward. Even so, a good understanding of one’s medium is a...
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From Little Things, Big Things Grow @ Lostgens’
An upside-down wind-up toy dinosaur sucks the head, off a dismembered torso covered with spectral bodies traversing into a fluorescent river. The fist-turned-snout lies upon a zipped-up chessboard,...
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Pulse: 2H 2015 Art Auctions
As an auction house diversifies to sell designer furniture and signed art prints, another gallery opens in Klang with its owner claiming that art investment “…offers yields ranging from 10% to 100%.”...
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Art KL-itique 2015 Look Back
In a year when I lost faith in painting, the number of art events doubled, as compared with my listings two years ago. Large paintings – especially figurative literal statements and beautiful gestural...
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Khayamiya: Khedival to Contemporary @ Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia
Described as “the Egyptian art of tent-making”, Khayamiya (خيّامية) were used as doorways, canopies, or decorative walls. These beautiful textiles with geometric Islamic designs were first documented...
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Art of ASEAN: Our Exhibition @ Sasana Kijang
“…ASEAN’s fundamental and enduring purpose is to ensure a modicum of order and civility in a region where neither is to be taken for granted […] ASEAN works by consensus and can only work by consensus....
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Travelling Into Imaginaria: A Visual Poetry @ Segaris AC
The exhibition catalogue informs that Shahrul Hisham Ahmad Tarmizi commutes regularly between Shah Alam and Machang, where he teaches. A lifestyle of frequent travelling has potentially affect his...
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Snippets: Art Stage Singapore, Jan 2016
Half an hour in, and having browsed through a quarter of gallery booths, I was already visually tired. Regardless, galleries that presented a single artist offered more visual reward. My favourite art...
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After-image: Living with the Ghosts in my House @ Wei-Ling Gallery
Pushing open the gallery door, one is greeted by a toy panda souvenir encased in a suspended acrylic cube. It hangs in the balance, affixed to one bottle of 1Malaysia mineral water placed on the floor,...
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Extending Ideas @ Feeka
One often hears that “contemporary art is open to interpretation”. Meaning-making in visual art tends to be overwhelmingly personal, and reading an artwork relies on knowledge about art history,...
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(χ_+) Unknown Plus @ Minut Init Art Social
“Unknown to us, we do have a sense to appreciate beautiful and morbid things”, states a wall text in Ajim Juxta’s exhibition of drawings, paintings, and poems. The prolific artist, active in Publika’s...
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The Kings of Wishful Thinking @ Wei-Ling Contemporary
Anurendra Jegadeva utilises enlarged prints of the Malaysian banknote as a background to draw his typical cast of characters – the schoolgirl, the devotee, the poet, etc. In a stunted economy with a...
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Snippets: National Gallery Singapore, Jan 2016 (I)
As part of its Renaissance City Plan, two municipal buildings are combined to form Singapore’s new National Gallery, which boasts an 8,000 strong collection of Southeast Asian art. Despite running up...
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Snippets: National Gallery Singapore, Jan 2016 (II)
…Painting European conventions into local subject matter, evolves into incorporating local styles. Walter Spies’ ‘Balinese Legend’ looks like a crossover of Henri Rousseau with a Chinese ink landscape....
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Young Malaysian Artists: New Object(ion) III @ Galeri Petronas
In this edition of Galeri Petronas’ bi-annual platform for emerging artists, the found object as art medium is associated with the experimental nature of youthful art-making, an unsophisticated...
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Mapping, Khabar dan Angin @ NVAG
Balai’s ground floor galleries get refreshed with two new exhibitions – a selection of its modern art collection hangs at Galeri 1A, while Projek Dialog presents a show subtitled Excurses on Faith in...
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Siapa dia Tong Sam Pah? 我的名字哈苏丹。 You Look F**king Funny-lah! @ Richard Koh...
Looking at the tri-lingual exhibition title stuck on the shop window, one cannot accuse Liew Kwai Fei as a contemporary Malaysian artist who fails to engage his audience. There is something for...
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Buang Bayi @ KerbauWorks
Shika/ Shieko Reto’s art output follows a simple approach. Draw the under-represented – a transwoman’s experience of living in Malaysia, in this case – to counter prejudice. In this cosy space, Shika’s...
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Love Me in My Batik @ ILHAM
Batik is a technique. European artists were inspired by batik from Dutch colonies. Entrepreneurial Chinese immigrant fails at manufacturing batik in Malaya, but invents batik painting. Librarian...
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