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Boundaries of [dis] Beliefs @ White Box
"These are interesting times." Proclaims the wall statement, thus framing "Boundaries of [dis] Beliefs" as an exhibition of art that deal with contemporary concerns. It is unsurprising then, that the...
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Good Earth @ Galeri PETRONAS
How bad can an exhibition featuring works by Raja Shahriman, Multhalib Musa, Bibi Chew, Sharmiza Abu Hassan, Eric Peris, and Soraya Yusof Talismail, (the list goes on) be? Galeri PETRONAS plumbs into...
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Small Works @ Segaris
One admires the brutal honesty and self-awareness that Hamir Soib portrays. In a recent interview with a journalist, the artist remarked, “(a)fter my mother’s passing, I’m feeding off her energy and...
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June 2017: The Month to Visit Balai Seni Negara
With six exhibitions running concurrently in the National Art Gallery, one suspects that concentrating so much glorious art into one building, is either one fortuitous coincidence, bad planning, or a...
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Bumi Larangan: Zulkifli Dahlan @ National Art Gallery
Studying one artist’s progression based on works held by the family ~40 years after his death, is a messy effort. Curator Nur Hanim Khairuddin describes in her catalogue essay ‘Yang Aneh, Nakal dan...
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ILHAM Contemporary Forum Malaysia 2009 – 2017 (I) @ ILHAM
The gallery director – a former curator – invites another curator, to select seven young curators, whom each propose five recent Malaysian“visual artworks or cultural projects” for display at a...
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Barehands 2017 @ National Art Gallery
The sequence of events that culminated in this exhibition is well worth recounting. As stated in the catalogue, it started with Juhari Said inviting Anees Maani to his studio Akaldiulu in 2010. In...
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Di Mana (Where Are) Young @ National Art Gallery
Visitors ascending the spiral walkway to the third-floor galleries are in for a treat. Walking past well-executed paintings – some surreal figurations, some abstract expressions – one is greeted by a...
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Snippets: USA, Mar 2017
Notes at SFMOMA: Fun exit by getting lost in a Richard Serra construct, although a so-so permanent hang offers little surprise. One gallery dedicated to Alexander Calder presents a great range beyond...
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1/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Even before entering the exhibition gallery, “Negaraku” makes a loud statement via the hanging of Zhang Zhou’s ‘Keranamu Malaysia’ (who?) at the lobby, flanked by a mixed media painting by Ahmad Shukri...
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2/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
With 5 curators working within 5 broad themes, one can look past incoherent curatorship, especially when the “Negaraku” exhibition is part of a larger patriotism project. Apart from works that feature...
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3/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Cecil Rajendra once commented on Lee Kian Seng’s ‘Of ' Image, Object, Illusion '– Off Series Mechanism’: “…It is loaded with symbolism that teases and invites the viewer to interpretations. Why is the...
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4/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
As the Malaysian art canon goes, the late 1970s and early 1980s seem like a dry well. The conceptual act by Sulaiman Esa & Redza Piyadasa was a once-off, while Ismail Zain’s “Digital Collage” was...
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Getaran @ White Box
Stopping in front of the monumental ‘Perentas Ribut No. 18’ on my way to White Box, I grinned in anticipation at visiting Mad Anuar Ismail’s long-awaited solo exhibition. The last couple times Fergana...
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5/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Most exhibits in “Negaraku” are culled from the National Collection, except for a small number that are loaned from local collectors. Institutional curatorial selections involving private collections...
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6/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Re Kuala Lumpur, KL – the former Railway Station is a beautiful building. Few will dispute that the architecture of the former National Gallery, is more elegant than the current one. Old KL remains a...
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7/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Why is the consciousness towards cultures outside one’s own ethnicity, so low among Malaysians? Despite the hollow calls to celebrate diversity, monoculturalism is practised among the ethnic groups...
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8/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Narrowing the timespan in looking at exhibits in “Negaraku”, I notice an inter-generational difference in making art. Looking at Fauzan Omar’s ‘Luminosity 3’ and Joseph Tan’s ‘The Formation Series’ –...
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9/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Two works by Nik Zainal Abidin are exhibited in “Negaraku”, but these are not the artist’s signature paintings of wayang. ‘Corak Bendera’ is a ‘T’-shaped composition of lines, half of it filled with...
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10/16 Musings about Negaraku @ NAG
Greeting one into the exhibition gallery, is a large collage consisting of 13 state flags, the national flag, printed snapshots of scenes captured within this country, and brushy strokes of coloured...
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