ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair (2017)

Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is pleased to present a group feature of works by three Malaysian artists which include Anne Samat, Hasanul Isyraf Idris and Yeoh Choo Kuan at ART021 Shanghai, Booth E07, Shanghai Exhibition Center, No.1000 Middle Yan An Road, Jingan District Yanan, Shanghai, China from 9 – 12 November 2017.

The gallery’s inaugural presentation at ART021 Shanghai 2017 aims to introduce divergent practices which illustrate a broad range of material concerns and conceptual focus through the new works of three emerging Malaysian artists. The artworks demonstrate the dynamic artistic and creative energies from Malaysia in practices that tackle varying issues such as, abstraction in painting, the Malaysian folklore and identity as well as the transient nature of life.

The urban landscape proves to be a source of inspiration for the artists working in urban areas. Conjugating the weaving of everyday and industrial objects through her works, Anne Samat investigates the notion of identity, gender and passage of time through her wall-mounted sculptures. She expands on the femininity and masculinity of objects through assemblage and a host of weaving techniques. Anne combines industrial and domestic objects that draw influence from Malaysia’s tribal culture and traditional craft. Stripped of utility, these refreshed identities are reintroduced through Anne’s sculptures as a dialogue for wider context.

Taking the form of drawing as a method of contemporary story-telling, Penang-based Hasanul Isyraf Idris’s mixed media drawings recycle and remixes regional myths and folktales with street and graffiti art. Popular culture and urban life in Malaysia are reinterpreted through a personal lens and articulate narratives which address existential issues such as life and death, sin, reward and love.

Drawing on his affinity for nature, Yeoh Choo Kuan’s Windows display tactile surfaces through a self-coined technique “Fleshing Abstraction” which explores the quality of layered paint through mark making gestures, they expand on the artist’s expression of pictorial thinking as metaphors of his ideas of life and society. Yeoh’s suggestion of aestheticized violence alludes to traditional chinese landscape paintings through multi-paneled pieces. He balances simplicity while emphasizing on the spacial relationships through fragmentation by presenting a multifaceted narrative