The 7th edition of this yearly art fair will take place from September 19-22nd (well fit into the Malaysia Contemporary Art Tourism Festival), at Matrade Exhibition and Convention Centre (MECC), Kuala Lumpur, featuring 60 established and reputable art galleries from 26 countries, exhibiting 2,000 pieces of artworks (including paintings, sculptures, installation, digital art, photography) under one roof.
Currently the longest-running art fair in South-east Asia, Art Expo Malaysia is perhaps the most publicfriendly art fair in the world, as it does not charge any entrance fee, Free Admission since its inception in 2007, with the aim of nurturing the interest towards arts in a wider community!
The Malaysia bandwagon will have a good number of reputable exhibitors as well as new players in the local art scene. These galleries will represent a great mix of established pioneer artists, superstars and emerging young artists. Exhibitors’ lineup includes the National Visual Arts Gallery Malaysia, Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers, Masterpiece Auction, KL Lifestyle Art Space, R A Fine Arts – The Gallery, Segaris Art Center, Yahong Art Gallery, Pelita Hati Gallery of Art, G13 Gallery, Core Design Gallery, Artemis Art, NN Gallery, City Art Gallery, Blue Dots Art, Art In Action Collections, etc.
The largest delegation is from our home country Malaysia, while galleries from Singapore form the second largest exhibitor group, which include the esteemed MAD Museum of Art and Design, Redsea Gallery, Cape of Good Hope Art Gallery, Art Xchange Gallery, Y2ARTS, ArtBlue Studio, The Gallery of Gnani Arts, Art Front Gallery, Ovas Art Gallery, etc.
Art lovers will also have the opportunity to admire artworks of various medium, style and expression from Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, Iran, Switzerland, Hungary, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador and Columbia.
The Malaysian artists on show consist of a good mix of young, old, and pioneer artists. Artworks by the late Datuk Chuah Thean Teng, Mansor Ghazalli, Tew Nai Tong, Dato’ Tay Mo Leong, Dato’ Sharifah Fatimah Syed Zubir, Cheah Yew Saik, Tajuddin Ismail, Jalaini Abu Hassan, Ramlan Abdullah, Fauzin Mustafa, Suhaimi Fadzir, Chan Kok Hooi, Suhaidi Razi, Haslin Ismail etc, will be exhibited.
At the main entrance booth, Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers (HBArt), the country's leading art auction house, will present highlight pieces from two auctions scheduled for September and November this year. Titled The Modernist, the September sale will see for the very first time in Malaysia a single-owner collection of Malaysian Art goes under the hammer. Collected since the 1980s, these historical gems were gathered to form a golden collection that reflects the foresight of the modernist collector, and speaks of and for our developing nation. This exclusive special auction will provide art collectors an opportunity to be in possession of the nation's art trove, including significant works by some of the best Malaysian artists such as Datuk Ibrahim Hussein, Datuk Syed Ahmad Jamal, Abdul Latiff Mohidin, Ismail Zain, Ahmad Khalid Yusof, Khalil Ibrahim, Yusof Ghani, Awang Damit Ahmad and Chang Fee Ming. The November auction, HBArt's second main sale of the year, will feature important modern and contemporary works not just from Malaysia, but the surrounding Southeast Asian countries too.
An important curated exhibition called Great Malaysia Contemporary Art (GMCA), presented by Core Design Gallery, will feature numerous large-size artworks (about 3 – 4 meter) by top Malaysian contemporary artists such as Zulkifli Yusoff, Hamir Soib, Ahmad Fuad, Muthalib, Eng Hwee Chu, Anuar Rashid, Husin Hourmain etc, whose seminal works are very well sought after in the art market.
All the way from Spain, besides sculptures by all-time-Malaysian-favourite sculptor Jesus Curia, ATR Gallery is exhibiting 10 special, interesting works by Grandmasters Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. Among them, three maquettes from the La Traca series by Joan Miró are really outstanding as it will be the first time ever an art fair is presenting these maquettes, the original model for a subsequent engraving. These maquettes were done at Son Boter (Mallorca, Spain), a magnificent country estate house where Miró lived in and worked on prints, engravings, lithographs, monumental canvases and sculptures for a period of time. La Traca (1979) was inspired by Valencian fireworks. Miró played with black backgrounds, leaving certain portions white with touches of primary colours. The maquettes to be exhibited are made by gouche ink, and pencil on paper. The black colour background is engraved, while the rest of the composition with the primary colours is made with gouche and crayon, thus each is unique and single. Most of the maquettes, nowadays, are retained by the Joan Miró Foundation, with very few remain in private collections.
For those who like Chinese ink paintings, look out for masterpieces by famous masters such as Chen Wen Hsi (at MAD Museum of Art and Design booth), Pan Gong Kai & Jia You Fu (at Chit Fung Art booth), Wang Xijing (China Pavilion booth), 88-year-old ‘National Treasure’ of Taiwan Prof. Li Chi Mao (Li Chi Mao Art Museum booth), and Liu Meng Kuan of Lingnan style, etc.
Apart from the galleries, there is an Embassy Zone, which sees participation from 10 Embassies, namely Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Ecuador, Brazil, Cuba, Columbia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, and Iran, each featuring 1 or 2 prominent artists from their respective countries, except for first-time participants Embassy of Philippines and Iran which will be featuring 8 artists and 13 artists, respectively. Visitors will be exposed to exciting works with diverse cultural and artistic style in this Embassy Zone, particularly to be impressed by digital artist Nicolas Imhof (Switzerland), Jorge Porras (Ecuador), Enrique Wong (Cuba), Andre Mendes (Brazil), Yolanda Velasquez (Columbia), Luca Idili (Italy), etc.
