A visitor stands in front of new media artist Tristan Lo's installation at the Immersio Mengukir 2022 festival at Muzium Telekom in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Eugene Kong
ARTS FESTIVAL: IMMERSIO MENGUKIR 2022
Venue: Muzium Telekom, KL
Date: Nov 5-27, closed on Mondays
If it is dazzling digital art, installations and lights you want, then this festival at the Muzium Telekom in downtown KL fits the bill.
Immersio Mengukir, which opens tomorrow, is a new media arts festival organised by Filamen, a new media art collective based in Malaysia, and it is back after a pandemic pause of two years.
This year, it is co-organised with Yayasan TM.
The festival features more than 60 digital and new media artists showcasing their works such as projection mapping, interactive installations, and digital art content.
The museum's galleries will be hosting the bulk of the exhibits, workshops and performances. Not to forget the courtyard projection mapping programme, which will offer plenty of Insta-opportunities.
The Immersio line-up includes Jun Ong, a light artist, who has an architecture background. He constantly looks at how the manipulation of artificial light could affect the way we experience the built form.
Pamela Tan, through her explorations of art, architecture and design, is another highlight as she aims to blur the boundaries between creative disciplines. Art collective Pangrok Sulap is also a surprise addition to the Immersio festival as it contributes a new multidisciplinary work utilising its woodcut designs, while Tanoti, a weaver collective from Sarawak, Joshua Teo, installation artist, Tristan Lo, a new media artist, and White Bones, a mixed media duo, are some of the names for visitors to investigate at Muzium Telekom.
Free admission to the festival.
More info here.
CALVIN CHUA: DANCING HUES OF AN UNTOLD TALE
Venue: G13 Gallery, Petaling Jaya
Date: Nov 5-19
G13 Gallery is ending the year with a painterly line-up, including this solo art exhibit from KL-based artist Calvin Chua.
In Dancing Hues Of An Untold Tale, he has returned with an inspired and soulful interpretation of the art of dance.
His choice of subject matter – dancers – sets the mood for the show’s rhythmic feel, where traditional performers and their movements are captured in vivid motion. There are also two abstract works accompanying this new collection.
In total, Chua is showing 16 works, including an array of drawing studies in ink and watercolours produced over the pandemic years.
More info here.
CHENG YEN PHENG: FRUGAL LIVING - IT'S MULBERRY SEASON
Venue: Wei-Ling Gallery, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, KL
Date: ends Nov 25
Cheng Yen Pheng is a provocative artist who makes work on her own terms, from naturally procured materials. In her third solo exhibition at this KL gallery, she explores themes encompassing nurture, nature, creation, salvation, empathy, wisdom, and that extraordinary range of human experiences which has brought her to where she is now.
Comprising one large scale work and a series of seven works of varying sizes, Cheng uses mostly organic materials. Her canvas is made out of mulberry trees which she planted across her property in Batu Arang, Selangor. Through an elaborate process from selecting the right barks, she then extracts pulp and allows it to naturally dry.
It is then “cooked” and stretched across a silk screen-like frame. The colours she utilises, extracted from Indigo plants, onion peels, turmeric, pandan leaves, mangosteens, balsam and bark from mango trees become pastel hues, which she uses to colour her mulberry paper.
Cheng was the recipient of the 2018 UOB Painting of the Year (Malaysia) competition.
More info here.
TELUR PECAH 2.022 – A CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION
Venue: GMBB, Jalan Robertson, KL
Date: ends Nov 13
In this exhibition of contemporary art, the brief was to open the gallery space to a diverse array of Malaysian artists.
Street art is also well-represented at this show. Last month, graffiti artists Bop Sopan, Sliz, SnakeTwo and Taz spray painted eight steel barrels live in front the GMBB mall's main entrance. Art lovers can now check out these steel barrels at Telur Pecah 2.022's graffiti street section along with more works by all four artists.
The exhibition features a line-up of 128 participants, spanning newcomers and special needs artists to senior painters and mixed media/digital artists. The list doesn't stop there since this second edition of the Telur Pecah series has doubled in size.
With more than 300 artworks across 10 categories, you can be assured of a busy browsing experience for the artful weekend.
More info here.
ART EXHIBITION: LA NATURALIS
Venue: The Ledge Art Gallery, 1 Utama, Petaling Jaya
Date: ends Nov 6
This independent exhibit, curated by artist Emily Wee, features 11 artists and more than 120 artworks spanning contemporary art, illustrations, doodles and tattoo art. There is enough variety to keep you busy in the gallery walkabout.
Faez Fahmi's abstract-looking paintings that lead you into a "hidden jungle" are some of the show's highlights. Arif Rafhan, a comic book artist, is not a name you would usually find in an exhibition that explores the wonders of the natural world.
In the La Naturalis group exhibition, he celebrates the green world through a series of portrait works, while doodle artist Sarah Salim is exhibiting her colourful owl series. For botanical art lovers, Renee Moi’s paintings are also not to be missed.
Wee’s new collection Batik Choraq is also a striking one as it gathers flora and fauna motifs set against a contemporary batik backdrop.
More info here.