{"id":27600,"date":"2026-08-29T10:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T02:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=27600"},"modified":"2026-08-29T11:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:03:34","slug":"emergent-thresholds-8-september-10-october-2026-artist-bio","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/emergent-thresholds-8-september-10-october-2026-artist-bio\/","title":{"rendered":"Emergent Thresholds | 8 September &#8211; 10 October 2026 &#8211; Artist Bio"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='artists-title'  class='avia-section av-2hwcnf4-2c9dbf557f7863e9450ef04df98a35eb 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-27600'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div class='flex_column av-24e1si8-bf1a5adb12c3cc4b8125136059bf1e14 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-1nxpmr4-5736fd5ae680ea4ecf6c0f342ab9ddda\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-1nxpmr4-5736fd5ae680ea4ecf6c0f342ab9ddda{\nheight:20px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-1nxpmr4-5736fd5ae680ea4ecf6c0f342ab9ddda 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&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/emergent-thresholds-8-september-10-october-2026-press-release\/\">PRESS RELEASE<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/portfolio-item\/emergent-thresholds-8-september-10-october-2026-artist-bio\/\">ARTIST BIO<\/a> |&nbsp;INSITU<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><div class='flex_column av-15yhb0w-ebe7b0951c1b4f506ff629c5b839ae57 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;\">ABOUT THE ARTISTS<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>ADAM ABAS (B.1976)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Adam Abas (he\/him) is a painter based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He studied Modern and Classical Chinese at SOAS, University of London, and developed his painting practice on his own terms. His work appeared in the 2002 group exhibition The Teaching of Drawing at the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, and he was longlisted for the Jackson&#8217;s Art Prize in 2025 and again in 2026.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Abas grew up with mixed heritage, and that experience sharpened his sense of how identity politics can produce exclusion rather than belonging. His work answers those divisions directly, aiming for a shared human frequency instead of a fixed category. He has never fully understood how another person&#8217;s feelings could differ from his own. He accepts the idea in principle. In practice, relating to someone else directly, seeing through their eyes, still feels nearly impossible.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That paradox drives his current practice, a body of large-scale abstract paintings built from precise hand-drawn linear layouts and multiple layers of fluid acrylic. Abas works through what he calls line frequency, colour relativity and spatial tension, choosing structural logic over illustrative narrative. His aim is to locate the biological ground people share, and to transmit visual energy directly through the paint itself. Each canvas functions as its own physical object, a record of labour that no other hand could reproduce, and each one is a deliberate attempt to find a frequency that reaches past language and identity to something people hold in common.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Click to view <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Adam-Abas-CV.pdf\">CV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>ANAS AFANDI (B.1991)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Anas Afandi (he\/him) (b. 1991, Malaysia) is a Kuala Lumpur-based artist whose practice spans drawings, paintings, sculptures, and installations. His work offers nuanced perspectives on the interconnectedness and dynamic relationships within the natural world, historical narratives, and cultural identity. Prompting contemplation on their impact on contemporary society.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Drawing has always been the cornerstone of Anas\u2019 practice. His works explore the boundaries between art and life, fact and fiction, as well as, design and function. Often drawing from his personal experiences and memories, Anas believes that art should be deeply personal and closely tied to its creator. Constantly evolving, as the artist evolves through life\u2019s experiences and emotions. By reflecting his experiences in his artworks, Anas is able to question the role of art in human life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The conceptual underpinnings of his work are rooted in his close relationship with nature, a connection established during his upbringing in a familiar natural environment. His interests in history, archaeology, and botany often inform his art; with the environment serving as the foundation for his work. Anas views himself as a vessel, channelling ideas derived from this foundation, with the resulting artwork becoming a fusion of both the artist\u2019s touch and the environment\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Anas has participated in several group exhibitions, including Interwoven Realities at HARTA Space, Kuala Lumpur (2024), WLG Ignite by Wei-Ling Gallery at GMBB, Kuala Lumpur (2021), WLG Incubator Young Artist Show at Wei-Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lumpur (2020), Drawings Matter at HOM Art Trans, Kuala Lumpur (2019), and SH\/FT: A Contemporary Art Show at White Box, Kuala Lumpur (2019) and has recently done his first solo exhibition at Wei-Ling Gallery (2024).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Click to view <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Anas-Afandi-CV.pdf\">CV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>HIRENDRAN SIVAGANAM (B.1996)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hirendran Sivaganam (they\/them), also known as Hirashe, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kuala Lumpur working across digital collage, video, and installation. Their work often draws on the diasporic symbolism of the communities they belong to, alongside the natural world, and pushes those references through the tools of contemporary digital production. The practice traces the space between personal memory, dreams, and lived reality, building images that feel suspended somewhere between the concrete and the imagined.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Colour and material recur as a kind of vocabulary across the work: chrome surfaces that seem to run and pool, and tones pulled from soil and earth. Each piece lays out a version of the natural world in flat pixels, one the artist seems to move through rather than simply depict. Identity runs as a persistent question underneath the work. Hirendran has described the self less as a fixed thing than as several overlapping circles, small and partial, crossing into each other. That image of layered, incomplete selves shapes how they approach ambiguity, treating it as a starting point for the work rather than something to resolve.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">They received a BSc (Hons) in Architecture from Taylor&#8217;s University, Malaysia, in 2019 and have exhibited locally and internationally, including Hanging Garden by Tenthaus in Oslo (2025), Apophenia: Perceiving Meaningful Patterns in Random Data at Ritual Cafe, Penang (2025), Paraphrase Part 1 at A+ Works of Art, Kuala Lumpur (2023), and Despite it All This Fertile Soil Remains Stained at Findars Art Space, Kuala Lumpur (2022). Their work has also appeared in virtual exhibitions, including a solo online show, POTLUCK \u2606 2.01 (2023), and Wawasan Directory with Cloud Projects (2021).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Their work has been featured in Process Magazine (2026), NOWNESS Asia (2025), SEARCH Magazine Vol. 2 (2024), and Coeval Magazine (2021).<\/p>\n<p>Click to view <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hirendran-Sivaganam-CV.pdf\">CV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>KEVI SZE (B.1986)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kevi Sze (he\/him) (b.1986, Muar, Johor, Malaysia) is a Malaysian artist based in Kuala Lumpur. He received a Diploma in Graphic Design from Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC) in 2007.<br \/>\nTrained in graphic design rather than fine art, Sze works primarily in watercolor, moving through the space between figuration and abstraction. His paintings center on the human figure, broken into fragmented structures and expressive forms that let a viewer approach the subject gradually rather than meet it head on. His work draws on lived experience, both what is visible on the surface and what sits underneath it, holding onto the emotional residue of daily life.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His work has been recognized internationally, including as a finalist for Splash 27: The Best of Watercolor (Artists Network, USA, 2026) and with merit awards at the Singapore IWS International Watercolour Exhibitions (2021, 2024) and the International Watercolour Masters (2021). He was shortlisted for the UOB Painting of the Year in 2016.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He has exhibited across the region at festivals including Fabriano in Acquarello, the Urbino in Acquarello International Festival, and the CAT AIR Malaysia International Watercolour Festival, and internationally at the Qingdao International Master Artists Invitation Exhibition (2024) and the IMWA Colorful Asia International Watercolour Exhibition (2022).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Click to view <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kevi-Sze-CV.pdf\">CV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>ONG HIENG FUONG (B.1995)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ong Hieng Fuong (he\/him), known as Hieng, is an artist from Tanjung Sepat, Selangor, Malaysia, now based between Chongqing, China, and Kuala Lumpur. He grew up in a small fishing town where life moves at a slower pace, and the routines of daily existence there became a lasting source of material for his work. His paintings and prints hold the people he has met and the places he has visited, rendered in detail precise enough to function almost as a record.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He works from the sense that as the country develops and time moves forward, the people and places that once mattered to us start to fade and disappear, along with the smaller textures of everyday life. His work holds onto these textures: characters, architecture, and objects stand in for the politics, religions, and social habits of people around him. Through this, he points, often without stating it outright, to problems that have sat unresolved in Malaysian society for a long time, hoping to prompt the viewer toward some reflection of their own.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He completed a Diploma in Fine Arts at Dasein Academy of Art in Kuala Lumpur in 2017 on a full scholarship, a Bachelor&#8217;s degree in Fine Arts, majoring in Printmaking, at Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2024, and is currently completing an MFA in Printmaking at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, graduating in 2027.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He has exhibited locally and internationally, with solo shows including Innocent Bystander at The Back Room, Kuala Lumpur (2026), Southern of the South at North Gate Art Centre, Beijing (2023), and That Day, I was sketching on the street, also at The Back Room (2022). His group exhibitions span the region and beyond, including the Ilham Art Show at Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur (2025), Carving Dissensus: Contemporary Printmaking Practice in Inter-Asian Context at Espace Noir in Saint-Imier, Switzerland (2025), Marka\/Matriks at Salihara Gallery, Jakarta (2025), and art fair presentations at Art SG in Singapore and Art Jakarta (2024), both with The Back Room, Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His awards include the UOB Painting of the Year Bronze Award in the Established Artist category (2025), Thematic Creation Awards from Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing (2024, 2023), the UOB Painting of the Year Gold Award in the Established Artist category (2019), and the UOB Painting of the Year Most Promising Artist of the Year award and Nando&#8217;s Art Initiative Grand Prize, both in the Emerging Artist category (2017). He completed a residency at Rimbun Dahan in Kuala Lumpur as part of the Southeast Asian Arts Residency program (2021). His work is held in the collections of Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, National Taiwan Normal University, Durham University in the United Kingdom, United Overseas Bank in Singapore and Malaysia, Rimbun Dahan, and Nando&#8217;s Chickenland Malaysia Sdn Bhd.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Click to view <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ong-Hieng-Fuong-CV.pdf\">CV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>WONG XIANG YI (B.1987)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wong Xiang Yi (she\/her) (born in 1987, Kuala Lumpur) received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2010 and a Master of Fine Arts from Taipei University of the Arts in 2016.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wong majors in ink painting, trained under traditional Lingnan Chinese ink painting, and shaped by China&#8217;s New Ink Painting movement, Japanese Nihonga, and the currents of thought around ink painting she encountered during her master&#8217;s studies in Taiwan. Since returning to Malaysia, she combines her painting with local traditional and mainstream visual art forms, batik and Islamic miniature painting, to arrive at a visual language of her own.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Her work draws on mythology and symbolism from across Malaysia&#8217;s multicultural surroundings: Hindu religious epics, indigenous stories about forest animals, and national historical narratives that have often been misread or simplified. She takes these cultural symbols apart, traces their original meanings, and reassembles them into her compositions, so a single image can hold several histories at once.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wong has a strong interest in gender studies, and uses a subculture of Japanese manga, BL (Boy&#8217;s Love), as her subject matter. She sees BL culture as a lens onto how a younger generation understands desire and identity, and works to merge this way of seeing with the discipline and formal language of ink painting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally, including at Tainan Art Museum in Taiwan (The Fantasy Wonderland, 2025; Survival of the Exceptional, 2020), the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur (Di Mana(where are) YOUng, 2017), and Grotto Fine Art in Hong Kong. She completed a year-long residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2018, which led to the solo show &#8216;You Belong to Night&#8217;. Her paintings were featured in publication 100 Painters of Tomorrow (Thames and Hudson, 2014), and she has exhibited through Maybank&#8217;s NAFAS Emerging Women Artists Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Click to view <a href=\"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Wong-Xiang-Yi-CV.pdf\">CV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-q0av80-452fbba00d3d2279f0e682587588fbb0\">\n#top .hr.hr-invisible.av-q0av80-452fbba00d3d2279f0e682587588fbb0{\nheight:40px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='hr av-q0av80-452fbba00d3d2279f0e682587588fbb0 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 | ARTIST BIO |&nbsp;INSITU ABOUT THE ARTISTS ADAM ABAS (B.1976) Adam Abas (he\/him) is a painter based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He studied Modern and Classical Chinese at SOAS, University of London, and developed his painting practice on his own terms. His work appeared in the 2002 group exhibition The Teaching of Drawing [...]","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[],"class_list":["post-27600","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27600","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=27600"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27606,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27600\/revisions\/27606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27600"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weiling-gallery.com\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=27600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}