This July, House of MATAHATI (HOM) celebrates women, as two young female artists capture the female subject in an exhibition titled ‘rouse’.
The two artists are Chong Ai Lei and Utin Rini and the exhibition runs from July 2 to July 16 2011.
Chong, a Johor native, has been painting the female subject since the start of her artistic career. A fine art graduate from Dasein Academy of Art, Chong’s oil paintings in ‘rouse’ are delicate explorations of a young girl caught in private and unconscious moments.
Never with their faces shown, Chong’s female subject is shown flopped over her bed or lazing across an intricate Persian rug, and her works are symbols of youth as well as the artist’s own identity.
Utin, on the other hand, hails from Indonesia and her works form a colourful contrast to Chong’s muted-coloured oil paintings.
Bright, kaleidoscopic colours burst forth in Utin’s canvases, where the female subject sometimes looks teasingly at you or with her eyes closed in a dreamy, sensuous moment, and Utin’s painting techniques clearly show that her background in graphic design and printmaking have left an indelible impression on her painting style.
By bringing these two budding artists together, HOM reaffirms its bid to strengthen ties between our region’s various artists and communities.
“One of our gallery’s main goals is to foster close ties within our region. Pairing Chong Ai Lei and Utin Rini demonstrates this, and our gallery’s other efforts in this area include our SAGE Residency programme and our ARTRIANGLE exhibition,” says gallery director, Bayu Utomo Radjikin.
Whilst relatively fresh in their respective careers, Chong and Utin have already shown great promise by garnering awards and honourable mentions for their artworks, and with ‘rouse’, their future only looks brighter.
Artwork
Utin Rini
Dancing Days
100 x 200 cm
Acrylic on canvas
2011
RM 10,000
Tangerine
160 x 180 cm
Acrylic on canvas
2011
RM 10,000
Kashmir
180 x 160 cm
Acrylic on canvas
2011
RM 10,000
Down by the Seaside
180 x 160
Acrylic on canvas
2011
RM 10,000
Over the Hills
180 x 160cm
Acrylic on canvas
2011
RM
10,000
Chong Ai Lei
Narcissism
168 x 124.5 cm
Oil on canvas
2011
RM 6,800
Distrait
168 x 124.5
Oil on canvas
2011
RM 6,800
Attachment
124.5 x 168 cm
Oil on canvas
2011
RM 6,800
Arbitrariness
120.5 x 120.5 cm
Oil on canvas
2011
RM 4,800
Temptation
168 x 124.5 cm
Oil on canvas
2011
RM 6,800