Selamat Datang ke Malaysia

30 June – 21 July 2007

Artists: Wong Hoy Cheong, Jalaini Abu Hassan, Emil Goh, Anurendra Jegadeva, Nadiah Bamadhajm, Yee I-Lann, Sharmiza Abu Hassan, Roslisham Ismail aka ISE, Vincent Leong and Sharon Chin.

Selamat Datang ke Malaysia is the first Malaysian contemporary art exhibition to have travelled to Australia.

Drawing together this group of prominent Malaysian artists, all born after Malaysia’s Independence, Selamat Datang ke Malaysia offers their insight into the nation – its success and failures, its contradictions and eccentricities, its growing pains. From photography and video, to charcoal drawing and sculptural installations, this exhibition presents the exciting range of approaches being used by Malaysian artists today.

The artists selected come from diverse backgrounds, many have studied abroad and returned to Malaysia to practice. A number have studied in Australia, like generations of fellow Malaysians. Each has been both a participant and keen observer of the unfolding drama of our developing nation.

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Internationally-recognised artist Wong Hoy Cheong, first made his mark charting the migrant history of Malaysia, in this exhibition, he takes us on a tour of our suburban dreams.

Yee I-Lann, who represented Malaysia in Contemporary Commonwealth exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2006, gives us a history in studio photographs of a generation of Malaysians growing up.

Anurendra Jegadeva‘s Family Album Thesaurus offers a potted guide to our different communities and their social and culinary customs.

Leading painter, Jalaini Abu Hassan explores the mysteries of the Malay world and its resonance in the cultural imagination.

Itinerant urban artist, Emil Goh celebrates the cultural binding power of “Mangllish” (Malaysian English).

Nadiah Bamadhaj looks at our architecture and what it symbolizes in terms of national development.

Sculptor Sharmiza Abu Hassan explores the resonance of the notion of our homeland.

Younger artists Ise, Vincent Leong and Sharon Chin draw from their personal experience of negotiating their way in today’s Malaysia, its popular culture, its changing social fabric.

Selamat Datang ke Malaysia opens to the public in Kuala Lumpur for three weeks from August 23, at Valentine Willie Fine Art in Bangsar.