Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art)

Curator: Prissie Ong

“You ever get tired of telling people what art is?” —Ken to Rothko in Red (Logan, 2009, p. 34).

‘Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art)’ is a group exhibition that shares this sentiment. It is less about cementing the definition of abstract art, and more about what it can be.

Abstraction has never existed as a singular style, language, or movement as it is constantly reshaped by the artists who take it up. And across generations, it encompasses gesture, structure, atmosphere, process, material inquiry, political response, spiritual reflection, and conceptual methods. An ever-evolving frame of mind.

Sandwich follows how abstraction in Malaysia shifted with economic conditions, sociopolitical realities, artistic pedagogies, and cultural anxieties. Featuring works by the late Cheong Laitong, Hamidi Hadi, Iwadh Mahadi, James Ly, Khabir Roslan, Kim Ng, Latiff Mohidin, Mark Tan, Nasrul Rokes, Yau Bee Ling, Yeoh Choo Kuan, and Zulkifli Lee, this here is not an attempt to present a complete or definitive history of Malaysian abstract art. Rather, an exhibition offering one possible framing of the field through a selection of artists whose practices reflect the breadth, tensions, and possibilities of abstraction across time.

The origins of Malaysian abstract art may be traced to the post-independence period of the late 1950s and 60s, when artists began problematising national identity, modernity, and regional consciousness (Abdullah, 2013; Chow & Abdullah, 2024). Unlike Western abstraction which often centred on formalism and the autonomy of form. The National Culture Policy (NCP) in 1971, often cited as a major catalyst in the proliferation of Malaysian abstraction, encouraged artists to consider local culture, indigenous traditions, and Islamic values as central components in the formation of national artistic identity (Abdullah, 2020). Yet framing the NCP as the sole contributor to Malaysian abstraction oversimplifies things. Artists were already experimenting with regional modernism, expressionism, calligraphy, and non-figurative forms well before the policy existed. The NCP did not start abstraction; it reinforced and redirected ongoing dialogues.

Over the decades, the practice has continued to take on new forms. Early figures like Latiff Mohidin and Syed Ahmad Jamal drew from both international modernism and Southeast Asian contexts, emphasising structure, gesture, and material exploration. For later generations, abstraction has become less a fixed style than a method—a way of thinking through memory, labour, space, systems, and everyday life. Today, it appears through installation, process, repetition, and spatial fragmentation as much as through painting.

“Abstract art” here remains deliberately expansive. Not a singular movement; instead, an umbrella of mutable tendencies. What connects them is an interest in how meaning is constructed through form, material, rhythm, and gesture rather than direct depiction.

Sandwich treats abstraction as an active, evolving field shaped by different generations responding to the conditions of their time. By placing these artists in dialogue, the exhibition traces both continuity and divergence—showing how abstraction in Malaysia has shifted alongside politics, economics, urbanisation, technology, and cultural discourse. Ultimately, it is best understood not through a single narrative, but through the layered accumulation of practices and perspectives that continue to redefine what abstraction can mean here.

References
Abdullah, S. (2013). Contextualizing abstraction and abstract expressionist art in Malaysia.
Abdullah, S. (2020). The 1980s as (an Attempt in) the Decolonialization of Malaysian Art. Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, 4(1), 3-29.
Logan, J. (2009). Red. Dramatists Play Service.
Yeng, C. S., & Abdullah, S. (2024). The Manifestation of Malaysian Abstract Expressionist Art in the Context of Malaysian Modern Art (the late 1950s-2010s).

‘Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art)‘ is featured at Wei-Ling Gallery and Wei-Ling Contemporary from 13 June – 18 July 2026.

Wei-Ling Gallery is located at No 8, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Admission hours are Tuesday – Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm.

For further assistance, please contact +60322601106 or e-mail info@weiling-gallery.com