{"id":27098,"date":"2026-06-04T10:53:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=27098"},"modified":"2026-06-06T12:47:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T04:47:34","slug":"sandwich-an-intergenerational-dialogue-in-malaysian-abstract-art-13-june-18-july-2026-press-release","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/sandwich-an-intergenerational-dialogue-in-malaysian-abstract-art-13-june-18-july-2026-press-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art) | 13 June &#8211; 18 July 2026 &#8211; Press Release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='artists-title'  class='avia-section av-2n0bkyi-92fc5856840e6381d5396b45833f5585 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-27098'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div class='flex_column av-29d4yvu-f95679767d998a9ce48f861af1210df8 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-1q3l4ai-362e97909795e246fe7ba215bae169ec\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1q3l4ai-362e97909795e246fe7ba215bae169ec{\nheight:20px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1q3l4ai-362e97909795e246fe7ba215bae169ec 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;\">works | <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/sandwich-an-intergenerational-dialogue-in-malaysian-abstract-art-13-june-18-july-2026-press-release\/\">PRESS RELEASE<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/sandwich-an-intergenerational-dialogue-in-malaysian-abstract-art-13-june-18-july-2026-artist-bio\/\">ARTIST BIO<\/a> | INSITU<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><div class='flex_column av-1cy0xq2-0ac812abd855495f12aa2ef1a302df3b 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: left;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'open sans thin'; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 25px; letter-spacing: 1px;\">Sandwich <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'open sans thin'; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: 25px; letter-spacing: 1px;\">(An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Curator: Prissie Ong<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c<em>You ever get tired of telling people what art is?<\/em>\u201d \u2014Ken to Rothko in Red (Logan, 2009, p. 34).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>&#8216;Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art)&#8217;<\/em> is a group exhibition that shares this sentiment. It is less about cementing the definition of abstract art, and more about what it can be.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Abstraction has never existed as a singular style, language, or movement as it is constantly reshaped by the artists who take it up. And across generations, it encompasses gesture, structure, atmosphere, process, material inquiry, political response, spiritual reflection, and conceptual methods. An ever-evolving frame of mind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sandwich follows how abstraction in Malaysia shifted with economic conditions, sociopolitical realities, artistic pedagogies, and cultural anxieties. Featuring works by the late Cheong Laitong, Hamidi Hadi, Iwadh Mahadi, James Ly, Khabir Roslan, Kim Ng, Latiff Mohidin, Mark Tan, Nasrul Rokes, Yau Bee Ling, Yeoh Choo Kuan, and Zulkifli Lee, this here is not an attempt to present a complete or definitive history of Malaysian abstract art. Rather, an exhibition offering one possible framing of the field through a selection of artists whose practices reflect the breadth, tensions, and possibilities of abstraction across time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The origins of Malaysian abstract art may be traced to the post-independence period of the late 1950s and 60s, when artists began problematising national identity, modernity, and regional consciousness (Abdullah, 2013; Chow &amp; Abdullah, 2024). Unlike Western abstraction which often centred on formalism and the autonomy of form. The National Culture Policy (NCP) in 1971, often cited as a major catalyst in the proliferation of Malaysian abstraction, encouraged artists to consider local culture, indigenous traditions, and Islamic values as central components in the formation of national artistic identity (Abdullah, 2020). Yet framing the NCP as the sole contributor to Malaysian abstraction oversimplifies things. Artists were already experimenting with regional modernism, expressionism, calligraphy, and non-figurative forms well before the policy existed. The NCP did not start abstraction; it reinforced and redirected ongoing dialogues.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Over the decades, the practice has continued to take on new forms. Early figures like Latiff Mohidin and Syed Ahmad Jamal drew from both international modernism and Southeast Asian contexts, emphasising structure, gesture, and material exploration. For later generations, abstraction has become less a fixed style than a method\u2014a way of thinking through memory, labour, space, systems, and everyday life. Today, it appears through installation, process, repetition, and spatial fragmentation as much as through painting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Abstract art&#8221; here remains deliberately expansive. Not a singular movement; instead, an umbrella of mutable tendencies. What connects them is an interest in how meaning is constructed through form, material, rhythm, and gesture rather than direct depiction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sandwich treats abstraction as an active, evolving field shaped by different generations responding to the conditions of their time. By placing these artists in dialogue, the exhibition traces both continuity and divergence\u2014showing how abstraction in Malaysia has shifted alongside politics, economics, urbanisation, technology, and cultural discourse. Ultimately, it is best understood not through a single narrative, but through the layered accumulation of practices and perspectives that continue to redefine what abstraction can mean here.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">References<\/span><br \/>\nAbdullah, S. (2013). Contextualizing abstraction and abstract expressionist art in Malaysia.<br \/>\nAbdullah, S. (2020). The 1980s as (an Attempt in) the Decolonialization of Malaysian Art. Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, 4(1), 3-29.<br \/>\nLogan, J. (2009). Red. Dramatists Play Service.<br \/>\nYeng, C. S., &amp; Abdullah, S. (2024). The Manifestation of Malaysian Abstract Expressionist Art in the Context of Malaysian Modern Art (the late 1950s-2010s).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018<em>Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art)<\/em>&#8216; is featured at Wei-Ling Gallery and Wei-Ling Contemporary from 13 June &#8211; 18 July 2026.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For further assistance, please contact +60322601106 or e-mail info@weiling-gallery.com<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-qv0tne-444d9c2ab2103a68046fcf04a80f17f0\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-qv0tne-444d9c2ab2103a68046fcf04a80f17f0{\nheight:40px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-qv0tne-444d9c2ab2103a68046fcf04a80f17f0 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 | PRESS RELEASE | ARTIST BIO | INSITU Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art) Curator: Prissie Ong \u201cYou ever get tired of telling people what art is?\u201d \u2014Ken to Rothko in Red (Logan, 2009, p. 34). 'Sandwich (An Intergenerational Dialogue in Malaysian Abstract Art)' is a group exhibition that shares this sentiment. 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