For our first show of 2025, The Back Room is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new paintings by Chok Yue Zan, titled Between Us. The show will be Zan’s third solo exhibition and his first solo exhibition in Malaysia. It will feature five new paintings from his ongoing series, De Upside Down, of realistic upside-down landscapes.
De Upside Down is a series that Zan has been preoccupied with over the past two years. The process consists of him sourcing landscape photography from open-source image websites and collaging various different genres of landscapes together in a single painting, with some being upside down, creating a picture of an uncannily perfect, serene world that is also wrong and alienating.
Zan’s paintings tend to have a nostalgic quality to them, with memory and uncertainty being prominent themes and nature a recurrent motif. Previous series like Mind Paradiso (2019–2023) explored the lost natural landscapes of his childhood in Tawau, Sabah; the paintings in that series were often filled with unpeopled natural landscapes painted in dreamy pastel colours, sometimes combining paint with image transfer to achieve a blurry, nostalgic effect. The Family Series (2017–2021) explored his relationship with his family members and featured their faceless silhouettes against idyllic, serene backdrops.
In the present series of paintings, Zan continues to reflect upon the lost past and the uncertain present. His idyllic, upside-down landscapes celebrate nature’s beauty but also meditate upon the strained relationships between individuals, society, and nature in the world today.
Opening reception: Saturday, 4 January 2025 from 3pm – 6pm
Exhibition dates: 4 – 26 January 2025
About the Artist
Chok Yue Zan (b. 1994, Tawau, Sabah; based in Kuala Lumpur) is a young contemporary painter working across various mediums using a contemplative, conceptual approach. Born in Tawau, Sabah, Zan grew up with his grandparents in a forested environment surrounded by lush greenery and breathtaking landscapes. It was his sanctuary, a space of unbridled happiness that he considers his lost paradise, by which his art continues to be inspired.
Zan graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Dasein Academy of Art, Kuala Lumpur (MY) in 2015. In 2017, he was awarded the UOB Painting of the Year (Malaysia). Since then, he has undertaken residencies in Shanghai (UOB Art Gallery, 2018) and Japan (Fukuoka Art Museum, 2018), on top of participating in numerous group shows and art fairs across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, China, and beyond. His debut solo exhibition was Retrospect of Paradiso in 2018, followed by Throughout in 2022, both at Art Porters Gallery in Singapore. Between Us is his third solo exhibition.
Installation shots
Coming soon.