Kok Yew Puah: Portrait of a Malaysian Artist (Ilham Gallery)

ILHAM Gallery is a public art gallery committed to supporting the development, understanding and enjoyment of Malaysian modern and contemporary art within a regional and global context. They also have a nice giftshop. – http://www.ilhamgallery.com/
– http://www.ilhamgallery.com/gift-shop/ – https://ilhamgallerygiftshop.storehub.me Kok Yew Puah: Portrait of a Malaysian Artist
12 OCTOBER 2021 – 3 APRIL 2022 This exhibition reflects on the work of a Malaysian who chose to become an artist twice. Kok Yew Puah (1947-1999) first impressed the local scene when he returned from his studies in Melbourne as a bold hard-edge abstract printmaker in the early 1970s, one among many artists trying to find a direction in the fray of competing isms, ideologies, and social politics of the time. After leaving art for several years to run a family business, he forged a new practice as a figurative painter, producing some of the most honest, human, and subjective representations of the country’s visual landscape of the late 1980s and 90s. He passed away at the age of 51. Kok Yew Puah passionately believed in the potential and importance of art-making and artistic exchange. He was acutely aware of developments in global, regional and local ideas about art and culture, throughout his life actively seeking community and conversations with other artists, through running his own space, local art associations, and lecturing and mentoring students. He was also an artist deeply immersed in and concerned about his local environment and the social and cultural development of his country.