Multidisciplinary artist, Tomi Heri, explores socio-cultural contexts by documenting events, objects, spaces, people and circumstances - the encounters in his daily life environment - translating his thoughts into a journal and rendering his ideas into digital media, sculpture and installation works.
Geometric symbolic patterns carved out of acetate sheets or stenciled onto wooden panels are some of his techniques to illustrate episodes of his life in a representational manner. Traditional motifs are then manipulated into digital media coalescing heritage with technology creating a contemporary language.
Presented at The Back Room in The Zhongshan Building, Kuala Lumpur from 12 December 2020 until 10 January 2021, SG. features six new works by Tomi Heri. Developed during his stint as a beneficiary of the third cohort for the Khazanah Nasional Associate Artist Residency Programme at Acme Studio in London in 2019, SG. is a culmination of Tomi Heri’s five-year milestone as a professional artist and a moment of introspection. The concept of SG., the title of Tomi Heri’s inaugural solo exhibition is a celebration of homecoming. An abbreviation for Sungai, or river, SG. - holds a significance to the return to roots - metaphorically represents life. All rivers have a starting point where water begins its flow and aptly for Tomi Heri, the ribbon-like journey begins here and now.
About the Artist
Tomi Heri (b.1991) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The visual and conceptual aspects in Tomi’s pieces, ranges from digital to installation works. Tomi graduated with Bachelor of Creative Technology from University Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) and has participated in various group exhibitions across Malaysia, including the National Visual Art Gallery and the Terrenganu State Museum. He has also participated in group exhibition around the region, Indonesia and South Korea. He has also awarded the Sembilan Art Residency (2018) in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia as well as the Khazanah Nasional Berhad Artist Fellowship (2019) at Acme Studios in London, UK.