Nomad presents 11 new paintings by Wong Xiang Yi (b. 1987, Kuala Lumpur), in her seventh solo exhibition and her first presentation with The Back Room. These new works see the artist, who specialised in ink painting, continuing in her explorations of the beautiful boy archetype with new developments in style, composition, and figuration from over the past four years. Already established within the Malaysian art scene for her paintings of beautiful, young male models in languid poses, these new paintings present a style of figuration that is more “chibi”-like, allowing the artist to place greater emphasis on nuances in her subjects’ expressions and gestures, instead of on their beauty.
In the paintings of Nomad, the figures are all ageless wanderers who move in clouds of smoke, connected to each other through a secret truce, a mysterious thread of fate with terms that viewers can only guess at. Xiang Yi combines the fine elegance and elaborate patience of Chinese and Japanese ink painting traditions with the androgynous grace of the “beautiful boy”, the immortal muse of artists and poets since the ancient Greeks. Each painting is a secret, smoke-filled chamber that opens upon a new scene celebrating youth, beauty, and its expressions.
Using subject matter that is “beautiful, immobile, and cheap” (echoing Georgia O’Keeffe’s rationale for making her flower paintings), the groups of boys are simplified into clones, with each boy being an “avatar” for a different facet of personality. Each tableaux thus becomes a way for the artist to have a private conversation with herself. The boys appear as innocent, blank vessels upon which the viewer can cast their gaze and project without fear, yet their detachment — conveyed through ambiguous and enigmatic expressions — maintains a cold front across all the paintings. Through shifts of expression, gesture, and composition, the pictures keep various subtle tensions and moods in a delicate balance.
Opening reception: Sunday, 22 Sept from 3pm – 7pm
Exhibition dates: 22 September – 13 October 2024
About the Artist
Wong Xiang Yi (b. 1987, Kuala Lumpur) received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2010 and her Master’s of Fine Arts from the Taipei University of the Arts in 2016.
Wong majored in ink painting, having been trained in traditional Ling Nan Chinese ink painting. Aside from that, notable influences in her work also include the new ink painting movement in China, Japanese style of ink painting (Nihonga), and the discourse surrounding ink painting in Taiwan that she encountered during her Master’s studies. Since returning to Malaysia, she has experimented with combining her learning in ink painting with local visual arts styles, traditional and contemporary (including batik and Islamic painting), in order to develop her own particular style.
Wong is passionate in matters related to gender studies and her work frequently features the motif of groups of male models, captured through a female gaze. By combining her meticulous and airy style of ink painting with this perspective on male subjects, she attempts to create a unique visualisation of modern intimacy and sensuality.
Recent exhibitions include Kaleidoscope Japan, an online group exhibition (2022), NAFAS - Emerging Women Artists (2021) at Maybank Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Survival of the Exceptional (2020) at the Tainan Art Museum in Taiwan, amongst others. Her last solo exhibition was Casually Peeking at Suma Orientalis, Kuala Lumpur, in 2019. Besides that, Wong was selected as the Artist in Residence at Rimbun Dahan in 2019 and she has been featured in the book 100 Painters of Tomorrow by Thames & Hudson, published in 2014. Nomad is her seventh solo exhibition.
Installation shots
Coming soon.
Artworks
Coming soon.