NN Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition by watercolourist Kho Choon Lee entitled “Inner Eye” from 20th November until 7th December 2011. This will be his first solo exhibition which will showcase a collection of watercolours and sketches .The works are a personal reflection of life and mirror an evocative landscape from his memory and experience.
Born in Muar, Johor in 1970, Kho Choon Lee graduated from the Kuala Lumpur College of Art in 1992 and is currently based in Malacca as an art instructor. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, as well as art competitions. He is a regular feature in the annual Malaysian Watercolour Society exhibition.
The recent works express a fondness for his childhood and of memories growing up in a small village. He says that such scenes bring back fond memories for him. At first glance, the works appear to celebrate the idyllic and carefree nature of the simple life, yet there is an underpinning of sadness in his works. His paintings act as metaphors for his life and the challenges he has faced in becoming an artist.
In a collection of works entitled Refresh, he presents the imagery of birds migrating and in search of food. This idea bears similarities to him , where in his search for opportunities to exhibit his works, to find his place in the art world and also to make a living being an artist, he relates this idea of the nomad to that of his own. Similarly in another body of works in this exhibition entitled Melayang he punctuates further his struggles as an artist. Scenes of children playing kites are painted without the string which connects the children to the kite. The omission of the string for him represents, a cathartic expulsion of the cautions made to him in regards to his works. These works makes a statement to allude to a sense of freedom to embark, to express and embrace his innermost feelings.
His works are the result of many years of studying the various styles and techniques afforded by the medium. We see in this exhibition his proficiency in creating atmospheric compositions with the treatment of fluid washes set against fine brushstrokes .The use detailed embellishments such as minute speckled dots of colours and careful incisions of the paint itself, not only make for a delightful contrasts of forms and textures but equally make for a celebratory assimilation of the extraordinary nature of watercolours.
