Wednesday January 23, 2008

Talented trio take the focus

By VIVIENNE PAL
Photos courtesy of WEI-LING GALLERY

THREE new faces mark a fresh start at the Wei-Ling Gallery for 2008.

The three - Hasanul Idris, Liong Mei Yin and Marvin Chan - join the ranks of artists like Chin Kong Yee, Ivan Lam, Juhari Said, Yusof Ghani and the Matahati boys to exhibit at the gallery.

Introducing these fresh faces, or “new voices” as gallery director Lim Wei-Ling calls them, is a practice adopted by the gallery every two years.

Peer pressure: Chan explores the formation of social groups, even among children at a young age.

“Every couple of years, we want to introduce to our collectors artists with a potential to have a serious artistic career,” Lim said.

In 2006, the gallery introduced Cheong Tuck Wai, Low Lee Peng and Ng Geok Hwa to mark the start of the new year.

“We’re looking for artists who are not just technically savvy, but who possess intellectual maturity and whose works have relevance,” Lim explained.

While figurative art was the common theme shared by the 2006 debutantes, this year’s trio is more eclectic, and present three distinct bodies of work, each with their own individual approaches and style.

The ‘rose among the thorns’, and perhaps the most reserved of the three, Liong Mei Yin showcases a plethora of nostalgic works inspired by the bitter-sweet experiences of life that she has experienced.

A graduate with a BA (Hons.) and Masters degree in Fine Art from the University of Robert Gordon and University of Dundee, Scotland, Liong has won many accolades abroad, including the Royal Scottish Academy’s Painting Prize.

The works render a wistful and reflective tapestry of mixed textures, elements and abstract forms that are both escapist and emotionally charged.

Forms take shape subtly - sometimes visible, sometimes not - on a canvas largely dominated by single coloured backgrounds, teasing the eye and mind into filling in the blanks the artist has left behind.

Deeper meaning: At first glance, Hasanul's Persembahan looks cute but it contains an antiwar message as well.

Familiar icons like bowls and chopsticks, and flower motifs reminiscent of the sarongs of childhood, perhaps drawn from Liong’s own memories, imbue the works with a sense of naïveté, familiarity and poignancy.

The audience is stirred not just into attempting to identify the meaning of the works, but also identifying what, really, are the forms that grace the canvas surface.

Taking on a less personal route, UiTM graduate Hasanul Idris makes a social commentary on the perennial topic of war and terrorism.

The works are both playful and satirical, thanks to the fabric and felt cutouts that form iconic shapes on a brightly primed canvas.

But, behind the superficial mischief lies a significant message that life goes on for the rest of the world despite the idiocies of war.

Personal: Liong with one of her artworks.

Closer inspection will reveal that the fabrics have been carefully cut out in the shapes of hand grenades, machine guns, tanks and warplanes.

Marvin Chan shows his artistic prowess, particularly in portraits, in his body of works themed Letters to my unborn child - Mercurial Times.

Chan was formerly an award-winning artistic director of a leading advertising company.

These reflect the conversations and thoughts that Chan imagines he would share with his children in future - the pain of exclusion from peer groups, the ache of poverty, for instance.

Although he has never had an academic background in art, Chan proves that sheer talent and discipline is good enough.

His rendition of portraits is excellent and almost life-like. These are framed by a fading background that lends greater emphasis on the subject.

In a statement, Chan describes his artworks to be “quiet and intimate, resonating a parent and child connection with varying degrees of poignancy, which I find somewhat poetic in quality, creating feelings rather signifying a statement.”

Three New Voices will show until Jan 27 at the Wei-Ling Gallery, 8, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, KL. For details, call 03-22601106.