We are pleased to present an exhibition comprising of new and past works by one of Malaysia’s leading contemporary artists Choy Chun Wei, at Art Stage Singapore 2015 to be held at Marina Bay Sands from 22nd January – 25th January 2015.

With the advent of the world we live in today – gadgets, computers, brands, smartphones – the presence and essence of each individual human being is often overlooked, replaced instead by material goods (cars, clothes, shoes, bags, computers) which often define who we are. In an urban environment we are constantly confronted and assaulted by words that subconsciously enter our consciousness, be it a familiar brand or a subliminal message that is being passed to us. For many of us, we have lost our own font for the lack of hand-written letters and notes, all of which have been replaced by borrowed fonts on our computers and smart phones. In his work, the artist aims to breakdown these barriers, to get through to the basic essence of what constitutes each person he encounters. He does this through creating ‘bridges’ between himself and the people he meets, by generating conversations. Through collecting data from individuals he hopes to establish a real human to human connection and to represent tangibly in an artwork the uniqueness of human existence and identity. He strips everything down to the bare basics of who we are regardless of colour, creed, financial or social standing questioning whether we are defined by what we do and how we fit into society. Without these titles and roles, who are we?

The artist hopes to extend his personal artistic boundaries and create an inclusive rather than an exclusive art environment.
“Unknown Landscape” represents the perpetual development of my painting process, through my continuous exploration and implementation of disparate materials found within our urban landscape, all the while retaining our prevalent materialistic culture as my subject matter.

The blanket of encrustation on the surface of the work does not exist merely for the purpose of aesthetic enhancement, but also as a reflection of my engagement with urban materiality and humanity. Through the “active” interplay of layers, overlaps and colour blocks, my aim is to provide the viewer with various viewpoints to allow them to read the work in both a literal and figurative sense.

Choy Chun Wei was born in Sungai Petani, West Malaysia in 1973. He is trained in graphic design, and graduated with honours (second upper) under a full scholarship at Central St. Martin’s College in London in 1998. Since graduating he has been practicing art and has lectured at various art colleges and universities in Malaysia. Along with his wife Yau Bee Ling, Chun Wei has been involved in providing art workshops for children with special needs through the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. He has also participated in various workshops and conferences in the field of art and design. In 2003 he received an Honorable Mention at the Malaysian Phillip Morris Art Awards, and in 2004 he received the Juror’s Prize at the Malaysian Young Contemporary Art Exhibition. In 2005 he was awarded the Rimbun Dahan Artist-in Residence placement, where he spent the year developing a new series of paintings on cartography and mental maps.

In 2007 Chun Wei had his first solo exhibition at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and in 2008, he was awarded the 2007/2008 Asian Artist Fellowship by the Freeman Foundation for residency at the Vermont Studio Center in the United States. At the end of 2008, two of his unconventional and challenging mixed media and collage paintings were collected by National Art Gallery as part of their permanent collection.

He was the only Malaysian artist to be accorded a solo exhibition at ART Basel Hong Kong in 2014 with his Human Landscape project.