Chew standing beside his painting ‘My Beloved Hometown, Kuching City’. The painting is among the highlights of Chew’s recent exhibition at Hoan Gallery and one of his personal favourites. — Photos by ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star
In homecoming show, an artist blends nostalgia and progress in every brushstroke.
THE quaint shophouses of downtown Kuching, overlooked by the gleaming Sarawak Legislative Assembly complex across the river, fill a large canvas in a painting that illustrates the city’s heritage and modernity.
For Sarawakian artist Marvin Chew, it also portrays his love for his hometown, which he left over 20 years ago to pursue a career in Singapore.
Titled My Beloved Hometown, Kuching City, the painting is among the highlights of Chew’s recent exhibition at Hoan Gallery and one of his personal favourites.
Chew says he enjoys painting villages and rural scenes.
“I think I spent the most time on that painting because there’s so much detail,” he said, explaining that it depicted the view from the top of the Medan Pelita multi-storey car park.
“I would say this is the most iconic view of Kuching. You have the new state assembly building and the new Darul Hana bridge.
“Then you have the old shophouses along Main Bazaar and some of the temples.
“This is essentially the heart of Kuching, the blend of the old and new. So, I especially painted this piece to be the highlight painting of this show,” he said.
The piece is featured in Chew’s first solo exhibition in Kuching – aptly called Memories of Home – since becoming a full-time artist in 2012.
As he turned 50 earlier this year, he felt it was the right time to give back to his birthplace.
“I’ve been developing my art career in Singapore; I’ve had five solo exhibitions there and taken part in various international shows. But when I think back, I hadn’t done anything in my own hometown.
“Last year, when I was back, I told the gallery owner that I really wished to hold my first solo exhibition here. I also thought it would be interesting to have it in my 50th year.
Chew showing a painting of the Kuching Waterfront and other artworks (below) at his solo exhibition.
“It’s like a homecoming, to have my artwork showcased in my own hometown as my personal contribution to the art community in Kuching,” he said.
Chew returned to Kuching several times this year to paint pieces for the exhibition.
He also went on a painting road trip to Sibu, Kapit and Sarikei to paint the scenes there.
Some earlier pieces were displayed as well, as Chew liked to paint various scenes that caught his eye whenever he came back to Kuching for holidays.
As such, the exhibition also portrays Kuching’s changing cityscape over the years.
Two paintings in particular highlight the development in the city centre, where a row of shophouses was recently demolished to make way for the construction of an automated rapid transit (ART) station.
A visitor taking a closer look at one of the paintings in the Memories of Home exhibition.
One of the pieces shows the shophouses still intact, while the other, completed in September, depicts a construction site.
“Painting isn’t just about capturing beautiful landscapes and scenes. Sometimes it’s about documenting our progress,” Chew said.
Although Chew is known for his cityscapes and street scenes, he also enjoys painting villages and rural scenes.
Chew is known for his cityscape and street-scene works.
Some of his memorable experiences included painting a centuries-old longhouse in Kapit and a shipyard in Sibu during the road trip in June.
Gallery director Hoan Kee Huang said Chew had poured his heart and soul into the exhibition.
“Memories of Home is one of the most important art shows staged in recent times. Chew shows us the beauty of what we miss every day.
His painting of Kuching’s Padang Merdeka.
“He paints things that may soon be gone, like old buildings about to be torn down due to infrastructure projects,” he said.
Art lover Yvonne Sharon observed that Chew makes no distinction between everyday scenes and grand iconic buildings like the Sarawak Legislative Assembly complex.
“The paintings in Memories of Home are romantic and honest. They are deeply moving and make me see Kuching from a totally new perspective,” she added.
