Hasanul Isyraf Idris – Spiritual Zoo

Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is pleased to announce Malaysian artist Hasanul Isyraf Idris (b.1978) first solo exhibition in Singapore. Titled, Spiritual Zoo, it is slated to run from 1 – 23 October 2021 at Richard Koh Fine Art Singapore, Blk 47 Malan Road Singapore 109444.

Spiritual Zoo is a recent project by Hasanul Isyraf Idris for his latest solo exhibition at Richard Koh Fine Art. This body of work comprises a series of intricate, vibrant, and ‘unearthly’ drawings laden with narrative potentials that have come to be the visual signature of the artist. These evocative imaginings and imaging draw their momentum from a multiplicity of sources as Hasanul reflects upon the death of some of his family members. While pondering on the journey of their passing souls, he encountered in a bookstore a collection of Buddhist death poems and the much-studied Mantiq Al-Tayr (The Conference Of The Birds). Spiritual Zoo is a sustained plea for understanding, healing, and redemption. It is a plea that began long ago in Hasanul’s art, memory, and history which continues to find its articulation through lines, colors, and creatures, again and again.

HASANUL ISYRAF IDRIS (b.1978, Malaysia) was trained at Mara University of Technology (UiTM), Perak, and is presently based in Penang. His practice spans a variety of media, including painting, drawing, installation, video work, and sculpture. His works typically manifest a fictional, surreal iconography drawn from the personal invention as from a melange of pop-cultural references, such as comic books, science fiction, street art, and film. He personifies his personal struggles as an artist with strange characters that inhabit his invented universes.

He was a finalist in the Bakat Muda Sezaman (Young Contemporaries) Awards in 2007 and has shown in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, India, Switzerland, and Jakarta. Selected exhibitions include HOL: Scab: Crying Tiger In The Night Market (2019) at Art Jakarta, HOL Chapter 2.3, Wound: Environment of Naga and Doubt (2016) at VOLTA NY, United States, HOL Chapter 3, Scab: Lucky Draw (2018), HOL Chapter 1: The Fall (2016), Back from Planet Luvox (2014), Clash of the Pigments (2011), all at Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Public collections include Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Galeri Z (Malaysia) and ILHAM Gallery (Malaysia).