THE art exhibition “Painted Stories, Conditional Love” by Anurendra Jegadeva is the artist’s first solo exhibition since his return from Australia in 2005.

The exhibition from Aug 11 to Sept 4 at Wei-Ling Gallery in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur gathers nearly 20 new works from the past year. They find the artist “still baffled” about the world around him.

Addicted to news, sitcoms, reality television and pulp fiction, the artist references the world around him in his paintings, touching on a broad range of issues as if he were surfing channels.

From Tibet to detention-without-trial in Guantanamo Bay, from Punjabi love songs to the recent general election in March, from vampire brides to little children with their dogs, the artist has used a mix of nostalgia and romanticism tinged with an enjoyable dose of cynicism to tell his stories.

Love is merely their back-drop as “love’s conditions are much more interesting”.
“Conditional Love” sees a departure from his predisposition to the organised picture planes within the brightly-coloured, luscious canvases of his previous works.

Among the interesting works at the exhibition is “No Parking” where a devotee performs both his religious and civic duties during the annual Thaipusam celebration, “For The Love Of God” is a series of paintings which takes to task people who go to war in the name of religion and narrow nationalism, “Playful Priests” depicts two temple devotees playing a game of charades and “Good Year For The Roses” is a tribute of sorts to iconic soul group The Alleycats.

Wei-Ling Gallery is located in Jalan Scott, off Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Kuala Lumpur. It is open from noon to 7pm from Monday to Friday and from 10am to 5pm on Saturdays. Call 03-2260-1106, 03-2260-1107 or 012-302-5302.