A new art fair, an old printing factory
Art fairs can be a lot. From crowded booths to countless artists, colors, textures, and spontaneous chats in between, there’s only so much a person can take in during one afternoon. For its inaugural edition, Art KL is trying something different. Imagine stepping into a former heritage printing factory in Kuala Lumpur’s bustling Bangsar district, only to find it filled with work by some of Southeast Asia’s young emerging artists.
To your surprise, each booth has only one or two artists exhibited. And as you walk, each work conjures the unique visual voices of the younger generation, perhaps with a fresh sense of risk-taking.
A place where creativity thrives
This is precisely the setting for the first-ever Art KL, Malaysia’s newest contemporary platform for emerging artists at A Place Where (APW), a repurposed printing factory turned creative campus.
From Oct. 15 to 18, the fair, organized by APW and Art Anonymous, alongside Richard Koh Art Advisory, will present just 10 galleries, each presenting either a solo or two-artist showcase—a refreshing curatorial choice for a fair, instead of the sprawling survey typical of an art fair.
Meanwhile, the participating galleries are solely from Southeast Asia. These include Finale Art File from the Philippines; Galeri Sasha and Zhan Art
Space from Malaysia; Intersections and Wetterling Teo Gallery from Singapore; ISA Art Gallery and V&V Gallery from Indonesia; Supples and Warin Lab Contemporary from Thailand; and Vin Gallery from Vietnam and China.
There will be more beyond the gallery booths, too, with site-specific installations by Malaysian artists including Farhan Rizuwan, Lee Mok Yee, Najib Bamadhaj, Neoh Shin Yen, Phillip Wong, Samantha Lee, Wong Perng Fey, and Alexdrina Chong You Qiu. Talks, panel discussions, and a fundraising auction supporting The Lighthouse Children’s Welfare Home—a Malaysian non-profit dedicated to orphaned children—will also take place then.
Davao’s voices arrive in Kuala Lumpur
For Finale Art File’s presentation, the gallery will present works by two artists from Davao: Ann Maricar Balase and Hans Zendrick Go.
On paper, Balase and Go may seem like an unlikely pairing. Balase turns inward, exploring solitude and emotional uncertainty through psychologically charged images. Meanwhile, Go looks outward, in atmospheric renderings of the people and places around him.
“For this edition of Art KL, the fair specifically encouraged galleries to present fresh and emerging artists, with a presentation focused on two artists,” Sarenas states. “We chose Balase and Go, both from Davao, because their practices represent different approaches, materials, and perspectives. Rather than looking for similarities between the two, we were interested in the contrast between their works and how they could create a dynamic visual dialogue when presented together.”
While Balase turns to the interior world, filled with light and shadow, her rubber-cut works add a tactile dimension that pulls you into the scenes. “The technique and texture make the viewer want to look closer and discover how the images are created,” explains Sarenas.
In “Never At Ease,” dense lines heighten the tension around a seated figure turning away, while “Scars You Can’t See” depicts a woman with her head buried in her knees, surrounded by intimate details, from a calendar to a teddy bear. These show the artist’s interest in portraying private, intimate studies of emotion not always immediately visible from the outside.
Go, meanwhile, turns his attention outward. Born and raised in Davao City, the Mindanaoan artist works through an impressionistic approach that makes oil paint almost appear at first like oil pastel.
In “Faith Without Certainty,” a crowded church interior becomes hazy, almost dreamlike, while “Prutasan” moves outdoors, following market-going folk through umbrellas and stalls, a patch of sky above them. Through these richly colored blurs, ordinary scenes take on more contemplative qualities, with expressive brushwork that constructs a luminescent aura around each painting.
Art KL is an opportunity for these artists from Davao to exhibit in an international art fair that will “highlight the diversity of contemporary Philippine art,” as Sarenas states, allowing “us to discover connections, differences, and new conversations between our practices.”
Southeast Asia in the same space
The inaugural edition of Art KL seems poised to be an incubator for various galleries and artists from Southeast Asia to share the same space. Through its installations and varied programs, all within the unusual setting of a former printing factory, it does so through a very unique lens.
Its format, with just one or two artists per gallery, seems a far cry from what Sarah Thornton describes in “Seven Days in the Art World” as the classic art fair: “A swanky trade show where the crowds and the congested display of works make it difficult to concentrate on any particular work.”
Might it be closer to what Thornton describes as a studio? “Whereas the studio is an optimal place for understanding the work of a single artist.” With all the breathing room for different practices and perspectives, it might just be the case.
Art KL runs from Oct. 15 to 18 at A Place Where (APW), 29 Jalan Riong, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, with a VIP preview on Oct. 15 and public days from Oct. 16 to 18
