Events.

DISCLOSURE.

It is a solo art exhibition by a famous local comtemporary artist, Ahmad Zakii Anwar that was held from 10th July to 24th August in Galeri Petronas in KLCC on the 3rd floor, beside Ombak.


DISCLOSURE – Ahmad Zakii AnwarMain Gallery10 Jul 2008 - 24 Aug 2008
This solo exhibition features the works of Ahmad Zakii Anwar, one of Malaysia's leading figurative painters. A major influence on the development of figurative realism within painting in contemporary Malaysian art practice, this exhibition traces the development as well as future direction taken by Ahmad Zakii Anwar in his career as an artist.
Curated by Anurendra Jegadeva
For more information, kindly contact: Juhan Kamaruddin, Marketing & Communications: +6 03 2051 5930 / juhan_k@petronas.com.my Khairil Nizam Nadzari, Marketing & Communications: +6 03 2331 7920 / knizam_nadzari@petronas.com.my


I have been planning to visit a few art exhibitions during this holidays but I just couldn't find time. It's either family commitments & gathering with friends or the place of the exhibition is way too far for a useless dude like me who can't drive. So this exhibition at KLCC is my 1st after taking up arts, plus with nagging from Miss Marion saying that we are like katak di bawah tempurung, we are confined to our assignments plus our college environment only. Couldn't agree more than that as I need to view more artworks to improve myself considering I'm a zero compared to my friends.

One thing for sure, this exhibition I have to give it 2 thumbs up. To the artist, Ahmad Zakii Anwar especially. Awesome work. His charcoal drawings are so real, with precise execution of strokes & other techniques to create the human form on a piece of paper, plus he can capture that very moment with just charcoal. Amazing. Sadly, I couldn't take photos to share his artwork due to copyright reasons. Once entering the gallery, you can see 3 charcoal drawings of 3 Indian man with a with their upper body naked hanging almost near to the entrance. At the entrance you can see a simple painting of a red sofa on your left, titled "Presence in Red". One couldn't help but wonder why would he paint such a simple painting and hang it near the entrance. I stood & stared at the painting for at least 10 minutes, wondering why would he paint a red color sofa. My analysis : it could be that the sofa reminded him of his old furniture when he was young in his old house, or it might be something symbolic to him in his life, something important that he has to use the sofa to represent it. But still, I just couldn't help but wonder. Such simplicity yet it makes you think & ponder for so long.

Next was the 3 charcoal drawings of the 3 Indian men. It is obvious that the 3 Indian men are of 3 different stages in life : young adult, middle-age & old. 3 of the drawings portray them not wearing anything for their upper body, as the artist drew only their upper body, whilst the lower part has been left blank, but its obvious that you can see that they are wearing a sarong with a slight outline. These 3 drawings are of human height, framed up and hung near the entrance. I couldn't help but amazed by the realistic drawing done by using charcoal, especially for the old man where he had to draw all his white beard strand by strand. My guess he could have use some sharp ended eraser to create the strands of white beard & hair. I also questioned myself: why Indian men? why not Chinese or Malay? Is he trying to depict the life stages of the Indian men? About the life of the Indian community which is strongly connected to their religion? Or just purely portraying the human figure in different stages of life?

Apart from that, there are many other interesting paintings as well. There is one where 2 bananas are tied together & hung up, titled "120 days of Sodomy". :) Interesting content using simple objects. But why 120 days? Why not 200? 300? Lesser or more? Then there is another painting of a Buddha where in front of the Buddha there are at least 6 to beads floating, but as you observe closely the reflection on the beads is actually the reflection of a room interior. Most of his paintings are acrylic on canvas or linen, charcoal or another technique called etching & monoprint. Open my eyes to the local art industry that actually Malaysian painters aren't as lousy as my elders think. But one thing for sure I see in Zakii's work is that most of the time the colors he uses for his painting are very dark colors, only a few of his works depicts the usage of vibrant colors. Plus there are a few paintings & artworks depicting men smoking or there is a cigarette in the painting. My opinion is that he's trying to show us that the people that smoke, especially the elder & middle-age people in today's society as the people portrayed in his paintings are either elderly Malay or Chinese men holding the cigarette, puffing smoke from their mouth or its about a young man holding the cigarette butt in the usual way which smokers would hold it. Or it could be that he's a smoker as well that's why he takes interest in painting people who smokes. Either way. There could be many views on his artwork. But I'm seriously amazed by his skills, talent & his concepts.

Awesome is the word I would say. Visiting it a few more times if I may.

ANIMAX YOUTH FESTIVAL.

Seriously. Worst than I expected.
Such big space being used in High Street of One Utama yet it looks so empty.
No interesting activities or events. Just simple stalls selling simple stuff in connection to Japanese culture or food.
Cosplay is....enough said.

*shakes head*