Khoo Sui Hoe, an artist whose practice helped shape the development of modern art in Malaysia while forging enduring links between George Town, Penang and the United States, has died at the age of 86. He passed away in Jacksonville, Arkansas on May 31, where he had made his home since the early 1982.
News of his death was announced by the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and the Penang State Art Gallery.
Born in Baling, Kedah in July 1939, Khoo left home at an early age to study at Han Chiang High School in George Town, Penang, before moving to Singapore in the late 1950s in search of work, including periods as a labourer, before ultimately turning to art as a career.
He continued his training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, where he studied for three years under mentors including Cheong Soo Pieng, Georgette Chen and Cheng Chong Swee. He later furthered his studies in post-war art and printmaking at the Pratt Graphic Centre in New York on a John D. Rockefeller III Fund Grant in 1974.
As a young artist, he established himself as a full-time practitioner, gaining recognition in both Malaysia and Singapore. His works are held in the collections of several major institutions, and his early accolades include a First Prize in Oil at the Malaysian Art & Craft Competition in Kuala Lumpur in 1965, as well as an Honourable Mention at the Salon Malaysia Art Competition in 1969.
In 1965, Khoo was drawn back to Singapore to undertake Children Of The Sun, a large-scale 230cm by 230cm canvas commissioned for the Singapore Conference Hall. Now part of the National Gallery Singapore collection, the work stands as an important South-East Asian commission that underscores his interest in the dialogue between painting and architectural space.
By 1971, he had turned to collective practice, co-founding Alpha Gallery in Singapore – an artist-run initiative that became an important platform for critical exchange and for presenting both regional and international practices.
In 1976, Khoo established the Utara group in Penang. It brought together artists from northern Peninsular Malaysia, forming a shared platform for exchange anchored in regional identity and collaborative practice.
As he travelled and built a life and career beyond Malaysia, his practice remained deeply anchored in the visual memory of his hometown, Baling – its limestone karst terrain, dense tropical vegetation and riverine paddy landscapes along the Sungai Ketil, lingering as a lasting point of return in his work.
“I paint human figures with backdrops of nature. I invite sun, moon, star, cloud and horizon to enter my painted world. Such backdrops also evolve to become specific landscape pieces. I am aware of where I was born, how I was brought up and the land of this region,” said Khoo, who never lost his grounding in – and love for – his homeland despite living abroad, in an interview with The Star in August 2019.
Since making George Town his base in 2004, Khoo travelled back frequently to exhibit his work. In July 2019, he marked his 80th birthday with a solo presentation of small works titled Faces at Daiichi Art Space in George Town. In Petaling Jaya, he maintained a close working relationship with G13 Gallery, which staged three shows for him, including the career survey, Selected Works 1965–2020, in December 2025.
Khoo, who predominantly worked in oil on canvas and remained active in both studio practice and exhibitions in the later years of his life – often described as a disciplined painter who worked from the crack of dawn – was known for his surrealistic stylisation of masks, figures and landscapes.
His works - through the decades - are populated by dreamlike figures and nostalgic settings, often evoking a sense of childhood innocence, with recurring imagery of rivers, fluid forms, evocative figures and luminous sunrises and sunsets.
In his essay on Khoo in Modern Artists Of Malaysia (1983), artist-critic Redza Piyadasa aptly observed: "Innocence and fantasy unite to take the viewer, ever so often, to a faraway land where there are no troubles but only innocent joys. Art offers, in this instance, an escape from everyday reality rather than a confrontation."
Khoo was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at the Penang State Art Gallery in 2007, followed by another at Wisma Kebudayaan Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) in Kuala Lumpur in 2017.
