S.E.A. Focus 2023

Wei-Ling Gallery is pleased to announce our participation in the fifth edition of S.E.A. Focus 2023, featuring works by Malaysian artist Cheong Kiet Cheng.

The Gallery made its S.E.A. Focus debut in 2020 with Malaysian artist Cheng Yen Pheng in 2020, followed by Malaysian artists Chen Wei Meng and Sean Lean in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

The curatorial theme of S.E.A. Focus 2023, ‘a world anew’, explores the idea of new beginnings and how vast potential can be found in minuscule or humble sources – as the region looks forward to renewed opportunities post-pandemic.

With the most challenging times behind us, we step into a new season where optimism and caution intermingle, and will see some of the most creative expressions, compelling introspection and bold experiments emerging.

Just as how large formations of nature begin with a speck, a seed, or an atom, the potential in the region’s artistic landscape is immense and awaits discovery.

VISITOR INFORMATION

5th January 2023 (Vernissage), 6PM – 9PM

6th – 15th January 2023 (Public Days), 1PM – 8PM

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Cheong Kiet Cheng’s paintings have consistently highlighted the relationship between humans and nature, and although the situations she creates seem to convey over-riding feelings of beauty and love, the underlying elements of tension between human and animal figures emphasise that imperfection is unavoidable. Yet, one is still likely to find a tranquility within each of her works – an effect she achieves through a unique method of meditative and repetitive forms. As an artist, she is most interested in sharing positive energy through her work, rather than conforming to the conventional aesthetics in art.

The artist is unrestricted by any particular medium, choosing instead to experiment with materials from acrylic paints in earlier bodies of work to black ink in her latest series, which allows her to evolve into new discoveries. The romantic quality of her work is a direct result of her own personal feelings towards nature, drawing much of her inspiration from philosophy, literature, poetry, music and theatrical drama.

She has won several major awards and prizes over the years, including the main prize at the 2018 UOB Painting of the Year (Malaysia) competition; Creative M50 Awards in Shanghai, China (2016); Nanjing International Art Festival Competition in China (2015); Water Color Category at Tanjong Public Limited Company, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2006). Cheong Kiet Cheng was also the recipient of the esteemed UOB-Fukuoka Asian Art Museum’s Artists Residency Programme in 2018, where she spent two months expanding on her practice in Japan.

Kiet Cheng has participated in a number of solo and group exhibitions both within Asia and in Malaysia. Her last solo exhibition ‘We Are Dreaming and Awake In the Air’, was held at Wei- Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lumpur in 2021.