{"id":25422,"date":"2025-07-24T12:23:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T04:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=25422"},"modified":"2025-09-27T14:33:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T06:33:18","slug":"leon-leong-making-room-2-30-august-2025-press-release","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/leon-leong-making-room-2-30-august-2025-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Leong &#8211; Making Room | 2 &#8211; 30 August 2025 &#8211; Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='artists-title'  class='avia-section av-2ktbbou-996265f78dce555110bc8924cc7c9fe9 main_color avia-section-default avia-no-border-styling  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  avia-bg-style-scroll  container_wrap fullsize'  ><div class='container av-section-cont-open' ><main  role=\"main\" itemprop=\"mainContentOfPage\"  class='template-page content  av-content-full alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-25422'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div class='flex_column av-21r7e5q-b196f1af38a746aa8b5c7bfcce4e7752 av_one_full  avia-builder-el-1  el_before_av_one_full  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div '   ><p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-1sse5ym-934e03462af164bb2a61d4796116acd2\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1sse5ym-934e03462af164bb2a61d4796116acd2{\nheight:20px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1sse5ym-934e03462af164bb2a61d4796116acd2 hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-2  el_before_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-first  '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div><br \/>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><h3 class=\"p1\" style=\"font-family: 'eb garamond'; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase; text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/leon-leong-making-room-2-30-august-2025-works\/\">WORKS<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/leon-leong-making-room-2-30-august-2025-press-release\/\">PRESS RELEASE<\/a> |<a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/leon-leong-making-room-2-30-august-2025-insitu\/\"> INSITU<\/a>\uff5c<a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Leon-Leong-Bio-and-CV.pdf\">CV<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Leon-Leong-Making-Room-E-booklet.pdf\">E-booklet<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/leon-leong-making-room-2-30-august-2025-news\/\">NEWS |<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Leon-Leong-PJ-Razak-AISYALAM.pdf\">ARTWORK STATEMENT 1<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Leon-Leong-Stilt-House-Artwork.pdf\"> | ARTWORK STATEMENT 2 <\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><div class='flex_column av-18l7bou-4019d94e43d15ef06de48a2a95ba134b av_one_full  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_one_full  avia-builder-el-last  first flex_column_div column-top-margin'   ><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '  style='font-size:14px; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'open sans thin'; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 25px; letter-spacing: 1px;\">Making Room<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018<em>Making Room<\/em>\u2019 marks the first solo presentation of Ipoh-born artist Leon Leong at Wei-Ling Gallery. Over the past decade, Leong has developed a research-driven practice shaped by sustained engagement with informal architecture, displacement, and spatial memory. This exhibition brings together works from 2017 to the present, including new pieces, offering insight into his patient and iterative approach to place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the main gallery space, the <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Leon-Leong-Stilt-House-Artwork.pdf\">installation houses<\/a> the miniature works within a skeletal framework that bears the imprint of time. It recalls the timber dwellings once common in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur. Raised on slender legs and joined using \u201ctanggam\u201d carpentry, the structure honours indigenous craftsmanship and gestures toward gotong-royong, the ethic of shared labour that continues to sustain local communities. The suite of miniatures draws on the visual traditions of Indo-Persian illuminated manuscripts, compressing familial, and political narratives into layered compositions that remain deliberately open-ended.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The exhibition also includes works from \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Leon-Leong-PJ-Razak-AISYALAM.pdf\"><em>Cracks in the Wall<\/em><\/a>\u2019 and \u2018<em>AISYALAM: The Tree Nation<\/em>\u2019, shaped through on-site engagement and shared conversations. In these pieces, Leong registers a clear concern for the conditions in which shelter is negotiated, as communities respond to eviction, neglect, and changing urban landscapes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">To &#8220;make room&#8221; is not to clear space. It is to acknowledge what endures. Habitation leaves behind dust, punctures, stains, joinery, and repairs, the marks of ongoing life. In this, it reflects the structures it references, always in the process of becoming.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018<em>Making Room\u2019 <\/em>is featured at Wei-Ling Gallery and Wei-Ling Contemporary from 2 &#8211; 30 August 2025. Wei-Ling Gallery is located at No 8, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Admission hours are Tuesday \u2013 Friday 10am \u2013 6pm, Saturday 10am \u2013 5pm. Exhibition is open by appointment only. For appointments and further assistance, please contact +60322601106 or e-mail siewboon@weiling-gallery.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>ABOUT THE ARTIST<\/strong><br \/>\nLeon Leong (b. 1971) is a Malaysian artist and author. His work typically addresses man&#8217;s interaction with the built environment and explores the broader themes of people, place, and history. It combines social critique and creative storytelling, weaving fact and fiction, documentation and memory into narratives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His work \u2018<em>Stilt Houses\u2014The Floating World of Kampung Baru\u2019<\/em> (2022) was shown at Ilham Gallery&#8217;s Triennial Ilham Art Show 2022, and then at the IX Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art, where it received a special jury prize. His mixed-medium installation series \u2018Cracks in the Wall\u2019 (2018) was shown at the inaugural Kuala Lumpur Biennale and featured in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage 20\/20 Forum.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Leon&#8217;s novel, \u2018<em>Beautiful Things<\/em>\u2019 (2006), published by Crown Publishing Taiwan and serialized in Sin Chew Daily, was a top five finalist for the Crown World Fiction Prize. His short stories have won international accolades and included in an anthology of Malaysian fiction. In 1992, he got a Bachelor of Science in Communication from The University of Texas at Austin in the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-lqt9se-b0dba1317a4ab0a6b51413eaa4c55efa\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-lqt9se-b0dba1317a4ab0a6b51413eaa4c55efa{\nheight:40px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-lqt9se-b0dba1317a4ab0a6b51413eaa4c55efa hr-invisible  avia-builder-el-6  el_after_av_textblock  avia-builder-el-last  '><span class='hr-inner '><span class=\"hr-inner-style\"><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WORKS&nbsp;|&nbsp;PRESS RELEASE | INSITU\uff5cCV | E-booklet | NEWS | ARTWORK STATEMENT 1 | ARTWORK STATEMENT 2 Making Room \u2018Making Room\u2019 marks the first solo presentation of Ipoh-born artist Leon Leong at Wei-Ling Gallery. Over the past decade, Leong has developed a research-driven practice shaped by sustained engagement with informal architecture, displacement, and spatial memory. This [...]","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[],"class_list":["post-25422","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/25422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25422"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/25422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25693,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/25422\/revisions\/25693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25422"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=25422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}