WLG Incubator Young Artists Show 2025
Trilogy: The Lightseeker

The WLG Incubator was launched in 2020 as a platform to highlight and collaborate on projects with artists at various stages of practice who are shaping Malaysian contemporary art today. It was founded on the belief that each artist deserves a safe space to discuss, experiment, and create within a supportive environment. The selection process involved curatorial research to identify candidates, who were then invited to share their vision as part of the final selection. Following interviews, the chosen artist, Iwadh Mahadi, worked with his mentor, established contemporary Malaysian artist Choy Chun Wei, over a period of seven months before the gallery opened its doors to showcase the results of his dynamic process. Guest mentor Adam Chodzko, gallery mentor Lim Wei-Ling, and program coordinator Prissie Ong also contributed to the discussions.

Wei-Ling Gallery is proud to present ‘Trilogy: The Lightseeker’, an exhibition featuring works by Iwadh Mahadi. This exhibition traces a pilgrimage through faith, memory, and renewal, reflecting the human struggle toward light as both direction and devotion.

Trilogy: The Lightseeker unfolds as a journey across three bodies of work, bound by a single pursuit: the search for righteousness. Rooted in faith, vulnerability, and resilience, the trilogy draws from everyday materials and the symbolic weight of ritual to create spaces for reflection. Rather than a collection of separate works, it is a pilgrimage through questions, scars, and prayers that map the human struggle toward light.

Each chapter speaks to the others. The first turns to wounds and prostration, where the body bends in prayer while carrying the weight of imperfection. The second gathers collective memory, with sejadahs1 and flags echoing rituals of worship as well as the need for guidance and belonging. The third moves toward renewal, where fragments of pattern and prayer form rhythms of affirmation — open-ended, never final.

Light, in this context, is both personal and universal. It is not a destination but a direction: a qibla2 that calls the heart back to its path. The Lightseeker rests in this ongoing condition of seeking, trusting that each act of sincerity brings us closer, even if righteousness can never be claimed fully. It is a witness to struggle, and an invitation to hope, remember, and rise again toward light.

Note:
1 A sejadah is a prayer mat used by Muslims during their daily prayers, often decorated with geometric patterns or motifs that indicate the direction of Mecca.
2 The qibla is the direction Muslims face during prayer, oriented toward the Kaaba in Mecca.

Trilogy: The Lightseeker is featured at Wei-Ling Contemporary from 7 October – 1 November 2025. Wei-Ling Contemporary is located at 2nd Floor, Wei-Ling Gallery Annexe, No 8, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Admission hours are Tuesday – Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm. Exhibition is open by appointment only. For appointments and further assistance, please contact +60322601106 or e-mail siewboon@weiling-gallery.com

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Iwadh Syafiq Ikhwan bin Mahadi (b. 1999, Sabah) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work reflects on the relationship between humanity, nature, and the fragile balance between chaos and order. His rural upbringing in Sabah, surrounded by bamboo groves and cultural traditions, grounds his explorations of heritage, identity, and belonging.

Bamboo remains central to his practice, symbolising resilience, adaptability, and interconnectedness across familial, societal, and ecological systems. Through this motif, Iwadh bridges existential thought and Islamic principles, creating works that speak to both personal and universal experience. Evolving from realism and surrealism into conceptual naturalism, he works across bamboo mosaics, frottage, printmaking, and experimental processes with found textures, maintaining a tactile engagement with material and process.

Since 2020, Iwadh has consistently participated in group exhibitions each year and was also part of the ILTIZAM Seni Art Residency Program by Ekuinas.

ABOUT THE MENTOR

Choy Chun Wei (b. 1973, Kuala Lumpur) is a Malaysian artist celebrated for collage-based works that investigate urban landscapes, consumerism, and shifting identities. A graduate of Central Saint Martin’s School of Art in London, he has received major recognition, including a Philip Morris Art Award Honourable Mention (2003) and residencies at Rimbun Dahan (2005) and Vermont, USA (2008). His early series, such as Link-House (2001) and Construction, explored urban density and entrapment, later evolving into more fluid, material-based works like Kaleidoscopic Landscapes (2007). Major projects include Here and Now (2011), The Human Landscape (2014, Art Basel Hong Kong), Tectonic Traces (2018), and Encountering Mass Man (2021). His solo exhibition, Changing Identity (2023), and his presentation at S.E.A. Focus (2024) expanded his exploration of technology, fragmentation, and human experience.