Justin Lim – Sometimes I’d rather talk to flowers

Richard Koh Fine Art is proud to present Malaysian artist Justin Lim’s (b.1983) presentation titled, Sometimes I’d rather talk to flowers. The body of work comprises of seven new paintings which forms an extension of his recent 2021 solo exhibition; Sanctuary. In the exhibition, Lim presented dreamlike spaces juxtaposed with the everyday life in disjointed, constructed and at times, artificial environments. The series places the human figure, painted from Lim’s personal photographs of friends and acquaintances, in a field of tension between imaginary landscapes, architecture and collage-esque ‘glitches’.

This small body of work advances Lim’s interest in exploring painting as a window to observe and deconstruct, to position an image within a frame of reality, and reality within a frame. It depicts still life and interior scenes that are completely collaged and imaginary. The paintings are completely void of people and are considered a reflection of his experiences in Malaysia during the three-month lockdown period under the 3rd Movement Control Order (MCO). Flowers have been a constant part of Lim’s oeuvre since 2008 and part of his fascination is the underlying quality – that a flower by itself can be symbolic and imbued with meaning.

JUSTIN LIM (b.1983, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) completed his postgraduate studies in 2006 with the Master of Art (Fine Art) program by The Open University UK conducted at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore after obtaining a BA(Hons) Fine Art majoring in painting. He has exhibited widely in Southeast Asia in various solo & group exhibitions and was the recipient of the 2008 Malaysia-Australia Visual Artist Residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia.

He has since held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, USA (2011 – Asian Artist Fellowship/ Freeman Fellowship), Red Gate Gallery Beijing (2013 – Khazanah Nasional Artist Residency), and The Tasmanian College of the Arts, the University of Tasmania, Australia (2016 – International Artist in residence). Selected group exhibitions include the Asian Art Biennale: Viewpoints & Viewing points, Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2009), Modern Love, Earl Lu Gallery / Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore (2015), Asia Young 36 / Asia Contemporary, a survey of contemporary Asian art practices, Jeonbuk Museum of Art, Jeonju, South Korea (2016) and Contemporary Chaos, curated by Demetrio Paparoni, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway (2018). He currently lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.