Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) presents Natee Utarit, Nadiah Bamadhaj and Chang Yoong Chia at the inaugural art fair START, at Saatchi gallery, London, UK.

Nadiah Bamadhaj’s Cina Wurung, Londa Durung, Jawa Tanggung(No longer Chinese, not yet a Dutchman, a half-baked Javanese) is a large paperwork created through the acts of collaging and drawing and is one of the 2 works she will be exhibiting at START. The title for this drawing is documented from a 19thcentury Javanese colloquialism to describe Tan Jin Sing, aKapitan Cina of Yogyakarta, (Indonesia) from 1803 – 1813. The building in the image is a traditional shop house, which reflects the existence of hybridity within the Chinese community in Yogyakarta.

Chang Yoong Chia will be presenting 3 works at the fair, one of which is The Dollar Sign, a massive and intricate collage constructed fully out of stamps without a material backing and depicts the Petronas Twin Towers guarded by two gigantic serpents, a large snake and the mythical Chinese dragon. The work is a commentary on Malaysia’s dependency on both the petroleum oil and the palm oil, along with its obsessive consumption of both precious resources; which led to the modification of the physical and cultural landscapes in the country.

Natee Utarit’s When Adam delved and Eve Span, who was then the gentleman? is a large multi-panelled painting which appropriates the format of a Christian altarpiece. The title of the work derives from the famous opening lines of a sermon delivered by the renegade priest John Ball who instigated the peasant revolt of 1381 in England. His sermon captured the feelings of the disenfranchised lower classes of England at that time chafing against their subjugation and unpaid exploitation by the ruling orders of society. The work explores the power structure within the international art system along with establishing a specific stance in relation to it.

-Richard Koh Fine Art

Image: © Nadiah Bamadhaj
Courtesy of the artist and Richard Koh Fine Art