CIMB ARTOBER 2023 – Art & Soul (Booth no.6)

Wei-Ling Gallery is pleased to participate in CIMB ARTOBER Art & Soul 2023. At the general booth (Booth 6), the gallery will showcase a curated selection of represented artists, offering a cross-section of Malaysian contemporary art. The featured artists include Cheong Kiet Cheng, Chen Wei Meng, Chin Kong Yee, Choy Chun Wei, Hamidi Hadi, Norma Abbas, and Yau Bee Ling, all of whom represent the varied expertise in the Malaysian art scene.

Cheong Kiet Cheng (B. 1981) highlights the relationship between human and nature. Although the fictional human and animal characters that she creates seem to convey love and beauty, signs of tensions are also present, as if to emphasise that imperfection is unavoidable. The romantic quality of her artworks is a result of her own personal feelings towards her environment, with inspirations from literature, poetry, music and theatrical drama. Cheong Kiet Cheng is the 2018 UOB Painting of the Year (Malaysia) winner and the recipient of the 2018 UOB-Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Artists Residency Programme.

Chen Wei Meng (B. 1965) spent his formative years living and growing up in and around the small towns of Terengganu. His love affair with Terengganu began as a child as he grew up living and playing on the beaches and throughout his life he has always felt a need to document its ever-changing character, moods and vistas. The beauty of Chen Wei Ming’s works have to be seen up close and personal as he painstakingly paints each blade of grass and every grain of sand, in a bid to take us to that place, to share with us the absolute purity of this glorious land.

Chin Kong Yee’s (B. 1973) paintings display his continuous search to capture his own experience of a time and place. Known for his fish-eye lens style, his works evoke a somewhat surreal feeling. 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. To the artist, nothing is ever stagnant. Images are continuously changing and evolving as you look at them. Space can never be measured or fixed and it is only present in the mobility of time

Choy Chun Wei (B. 1973) has established himself the most exciting and prominent mixed-media artists working in Malaysia today. His multi-layered collage works are tactile and tense, inviting dialogue. Moving from country to city shifted his perception of space, suffocated by giant structures and light pollution, shifting his use of materials and elevating material culture in his practice, demanding a more honest seeing, selection and handling of materials.

Hamidi Hadi (B. 1971) is regarded as one of the most prominent abstract artists of his generation in Malaysia. Industrial paints such as polyurethane, enamel paint and resin have been Hamidi’s choice of media, and his canvases radiate abstract yet poetic qualities and portray ethereal emotions. The artist’s inspiration is his love of, and passion for, painting. Sometimes the idea comes to him subconsciously in flashes of colours and visuals during his everyday life experiences: what he feels, sees, thinks, reads and collects is then researched and further developed.

Norma Abbas (B. 1951) is recognised as one of Malaysia’s distinguished women artists. Over the course of nearly five decades, her contemplative odyssey reflects a lifelong exploration of love in its myriad manifestations – from the romantic and sensual to the platonic, culminating in a spiritual affection for her Creator. What were once intricate and detailed figures have metamorphosed into singular depictions representing a deliberate departure from the physical realm in favour of the metaphysical and the body’s transcendence into the realm of the soul.

Yau Bee Ling’s (B. 1972) 25-year career is a deeply personal commentary on women’s complex roles in contemporary society, as one of Malaysia’s foremost women painters. Her own experience forms the basis for her symbolism and autobiographical themes, especially the conflict of responsibilities brought about by shifting female identities from woman, wife to mother. Family and community ties engage her inner self in a complex tango between duty and independence, hope and fear, success and failure. She explores the question of meaning within this context, probing existential questions, pondering, finally, her own legacy.

 

Admission: Free Admission

 

Exhibition Hours: 

6th October – 8th October 2023

11AM – 10PM

 

Address:

Booth 6, Level 1, Hall 1, North Entrance

Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre

Kompleks MITEC @ KL Metropolis,

8, Jalan Dutamas 2, Segambut

50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia