Wei Ling Contemporary presents Flesh: Blacks & Whites by one of Malaysia’s up-and-coming contemporary artists, Sean Lean. This exhibition shall mark the artist’s first solo showing. Portraits of albinistic animals have been a recurring theme within the artworks of Sean Lean. This series witnesses a continuation of this, but furthermore, an introduction to the artist’s depiction of melanistic animals. The rarity of both these types of creatures and the mythical aura which they resultantly possess, are the reasons behind the artist’s desire to implement their physical forms into his paintings.

The inspiration behind the artist’s artworks stems from his inherent obsession with flesh. Initially a compulsion, it consequently progressed into an investigation of his personal idiosyncrasies. Each painting serves as an introspective measure, whereby each animal depicted represents a particular facet of Lean’s ‘selves’. The harsh slashing of the peacock’s feathers (ultimately its crowning glory) for instance, in the piece entitled ‘White Peacock: A Fowl and Some Feathers’, executes a symbolic portrayal of the artist shedding and ridding himself of any existing traits of vanity. This however, is just simply one example amongst the herd present within Flesh: Blacks & Whites. Sean Lean has shown his works in various group exhibitions around Kuala Lumpur, and most recently at ION Art, Singapore for 18@8 KUL-SIN, which was presented by Wei-Ling Gallery.

Image: © Sean Lean, Wei Ling Contemporary