Chin Kong Yee (B.1973)
B. 1973, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Lives and works in Selangor, Malaysia
Since graduating from the Central Academy of Art in 1990, Chin Kong Yee has had an illustrious 25 year journey as an artist, which has seen him traverse the world for inspiration for his work. Chin Kong Yee’s paintings display his continuous search to capture his own experience of a time and place.
Chin Kong Yee’s works are warped in perspective, with a fish-eye lens effect to them. By combining the present, past and future through a depiction of two perspectives (realistic and unrealistic) his paintings have an exciting, dramatic edge about them that draws the viewer into his space. Chin Kong Yee seeks his audience to feel and see what he has experienced in the creation of his artwork. He has labelled his style as Actuality Accorded Painting (AAP), whereby, in painting and portraying an object, it has to have existed, and have undergone the process of being real, in order for it to be translated onto the canvas as art.
There are a couple of facets to the enjoyment of Chin Kong Yee’s works. First, and the most evident, is the visual pleasure that his paintings bring. Saccharine yellows flirt with lush cobalt blues on the canvas, and swirling landscapes send the eyes on a kaleidoscopic viewing journey that has become the artist’s signature offering. Less obvious, though, are the subtle nuances that make up each work. There are the personal tales and precise moments in time when the scene was captured, and philosophical musings that simmer beneath the surfaces. So, despite their seemingly benign facades, Kong Yee’s works are complex creatures. And the artist, a critical filter of life.
His painterly style hinges greatly on European painting legacies, and his use of photographic tools throw his practice into more recent times. This decisive, unrepeatable moment – the photographic punctum or punctuation, as described by Henri Cartier-Bresson – is exactly what Kong Yee captures in his works, and like a flower that blooms, each scene is a compression of thousands of moments, stories, and elements rolled into one. Kong Yee’s compositions are anything but linear. There’s some logic then, in Kong Yee’s adoption of the Golden Ratio. A mathematical principle that constitutes two rectangular shapes and a golden spiral, Kong Yee uses its principles to lay out the formal properties of his works.
Kong Yee aims to encapsulate as many sensorial experiences into his works as he can. Indeed, Kong Yee presents a very keen and observant view of the world. He always has, and as an artist, plays the role of a ‘fly on the wall’ and a secret eye on the streets. With years of experience charting life unravelling before him, he has developed highly-tuned sensitivities to the temperaments of the weather, how these may have an effect on people’s moods, and even considers real-world developments like the fluctuating oil prices, headlines that inevitably seep beneath the conscious human skin. In many ways, he ruminates all of this to try to bring us back to the very moment when the flower first ‘bloomed’ before his eyes.
The elasticity of time is mentioned by the artist in descriptions of his work, and he hints that the warmer shades of his palette play a role in his past, while the cooler blues are a reference to the future. Perhaps Kong Yee’s own words sum it up best. “I have been a practising artist for 20 years now. From ‘Undulating Spaces’ till today, I have been on a continuous exploration of space and time, and I have finally figured out that time is not linear. The past, present, and future are all happening simultaneously. The past continues to change as our state of mind changes, in turn affecting how our future plays out.” There’s hope and promise in those words, and a palpable belief that nothing is permanent.
With his 2022 solo exhibition at Wei-Ling Gallery titled ‘#tomorrow’, Kong Yee pushed the boundaries by experimenting with wearable paintings, video work, and performance, all while staying true to his signature artistic expression. His work was a testament to the meticulous detail and thoughtful approach applied to every aspect of its creation – from the choice of materials to the immersive experience and interaction within the exhibition space. The concept of presenting the past, present, and future was vividly reflected through the different periods of time explored in this exhibition. By depicting flooded scenes from Venice, Bali, and the Klang Valley due to rising sea levels, Kong Yee uncovered the beauty amidst the grittiness of these scenarios. Personally affected by environmental catastrophes occurring one after another, he emphasised the urgent need for collective action to address this pressing issue, highlighting the potential disappearance of our lands if we fail to unite our efforts.
Chin Kong Yee has a strong following of local and international collectors who appreciate the expansive and detailed vistas captured on his canvases. His works can be found in numerous private and public collections such as The National Visual Arts Gallery, Shearn Delamore, Wong & Partners, The Aliya and Farouk Khan Collection, HSBC, Anika Insurance Brokers, and the United Overseas Bank. Chin Kong Yee has also exhibited in multiple international art fairs and exhibitions in China, France, Indonesia, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Romania and Pakistan.