In December 2006, Wei-Ling Gallery will embark on one of its most ambitious exhibitions to date, and will take the works of 18 of Malaysia’s most progressive, contemporary Malaysian artists to an exhibition in Karachi ,Pakistan. This momentous exhibition, entitled ‘18@8, Kuala Lumpur-Karachi’ will be held at the renowned Pakistani sculptor Amin Gulgee’s gallery space – Amin Gulgee Gallery.

Amin Gulgee and Wei-Ling Gallery share the idealogy that art transcends borders, and that dialogues are necessary to connect people. In an increasingly globalised world, we believe that by creating a cross-cultural dialogue through art exhibitions around the world we are able to defy borders and boundaries. Following Amin Gulgee’s successful exhibitions in Kuala Lumpur, we have decided to take a group of 18 contemporary Malaysian artists to an exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan in December 2006.

This exhibition will be the first of it’s kind, as Pakistan has never seen a show of contemporary Malaysian art of this scale before. This will also be the first time that such a significant show of contemporary Malaysian art will been seen outside of Malaysia!

In line with their objectives of taking contemporary Malaysian art beyond the shores of Malaysia, and exposing it to a more international audience, Wei-Ling Gallery looks at ‘18@8, Kuala Lumpur-Karachi’, as the first of many more international exhibitions to come.

Gallery Director, Lim Wei-Ling says,

“We opened Wei-Ling Gallery with 18@8 last September, so this exhibition holds a lot of sentimental value for us. Essentially we selected 18 artists whom we felt best represented our gallery and what we believe in. As our gallery is located at No.8 Jalan Scott, the title 18@8 was coined. 18@8 will be an annual feature for Wei-Ling Gallery, however the list of artists will change on a year to year selection, based on the development of the artists works. Our aim is to take every alternate 18@8 exhibition to an international venue.”

Our pick of the crop for the 2006, ‘18@8, Kuala Lumpur-Karachi’ exhibition are:

Yusof Ghani, Anurendra Jegadeva, Phuan Thai Meng, Chan Kok Hooi, Bayu Utomo Radjikin, Hamir Soib, Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, Umibaizurah Mahir, Ahmad Fuad Osman, Choy Chun Wei, Yau Bee Ling, Izan Tahir, Sabri Idrus, Hamidi Hadi, Multhalib Musa, Ivan Lam, Chin Kong Yee and Juhari Said.

In line with their sponsorship and launch of 18@8 at Wei-Ling Gallery last year, HSBC Malaysia is once again generously presenting the ‘18@8, Kuala Lumpur-Karachi’ exhibition.

Support has also come from MAS Kargo and two established Pakistani corporations namely, International Industries Limited and Arif Habib Investments Limited.

In this troubled world it is with the backing of generous corporate sponsors from both Pakistan and Malaysia, that allows for such important cross-over exhibitions to take place and for dialogues that transcend borders to occur.