New studio

1. Wife is pregnant with our 2nd baby.

2. So, we have to let go of our rented terrace house. Moving back the inlaws.

3. Found a rentable space for my studio.

4. Cool space in a commercial area.

5. Now it feels...legit...hehe

The Singapore Biennale 2013

The singapore biennale was cool.

A lot of culture. A lot of new and brave ideas.

At first it got me worried as an artist. Worried because we needed to push ourselves much further in the future to create this healthy competitive atmosphere. I was, at a point, creating images in my head, creating a culture as reference for me. My own culture, a new one.

Then I stopped, and looked back to a reference point in sabah art. The existing culture that we already have for hundreds of years perhaps thousands.  And I realized that perhaps in a place where culture is not remembered as references anymore: you tend to recreate a new one, out of every day imagery, and probably it might be influenced by Western civilization...mtv..Hollywood...these entities are pumping their culture into our minds every single day non stop.

And we believe that is the new culture.

It is not the fault of outsiders if your stand is brittle.

All these while, I might have been looking at the wrong direction.

Medium, execution, presentation yes: use all influences from outside no matter how pop culture or how bizarre there are....but subject matter, let it alway, always, always , always be from the inside of you: your country,  your community, your body,  let it always come from your heart.

Subject matter will always sound cliché in a sence that it might be repeated over and over again, but thats the idea of promoting your culture and beliefs to the world, hollywood has been making remakes after remakes of movies, novels,  comics over and over again and it always seems fresh! I know We can do it too  ...

I dont know if my rambling is making any sense , but I hope u get something good from reading this post. Thank you for reading.

Malaysian Contemporary Art: TV series 2nd edition

Malaysian Contemporary Art: Interview with Bandwidth Magazine.

Malaysian Contemporary Art: Happyland in I.M magazine

Malaysian Contemporary Art: Los Crackos en El Centro

Event: Los Crackos en El Centro (an art exhibition)

venue: El Centro, Kota Kinabalu

Date: 26th of May 2012

artists:

Cracko

Anddy Romeo Dulait

Nofie

Irwan Awang

Aks Kwan

Phey 

Lybby Iliyas

EGN

Ashly Nandong

Organizers:

Sue Chong Hartley of LEAP

Katie King (El Centro)

Thank you to all who came, and also thanks to those that I've pinch these photos from. hehe...

one more shout out to breeze mag and Borneo Post for the spreads. appreciate it very much.

Malaysian Contemporary Art: R.I.P exhibiton by EGN

The exhibition that I have been preparing these few months has end successfully..

I wanna thank the following individuals for their help and support throughout the whole entire process:

June Rubis

Chris Chong Chan Fui

Mark Ryan Baltazar

Camilla Christine Eswar

These are the guys who helped me transport the paintings all the way from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur.

Cracko

Anddy Romeo Dulait

my two friends who has endless supplies of good ideas for the event...not to mention the whole gang of CrackoArtGroup

Yee I Lann

Joe Kidd

The two angels that hosted me, my wife and Mark while we were in KL.Not only that, I Lann was there the whole time: before, during and after the event, they provided us with everything that we needed. everything...

Marinette Baltazar

Chris Ojoe

Maritess Totu

Dalbert Lee

Tom Thomas

my gang back home that  supported me from a distance, without stop...

Fuad Shah

Abang Adeputra

Donald Abraham

Satria

Ajeem

Said Jamal of Artemis Gallery

my connection in  Kuala Lumpur who accepted me to their "fort"...thanks guys..

Mary Anne K Baltazar, my wife, how could  I made it without her, she was there even before the idea was produced...sayang, I love you..

Big thanks to my beautiful guests

Valentine Willie

Karim Raslan

Eva Mcgovern

Adeline Ooi

Beverly Yong

Rafizah Abdul Rahman

and to all who came, thank you.

75% of all the exhibition were sold to collectors and art lovers and friends alike...we indeed are blessed.

I will leave you now with some pictures of the event, I hope you will enjoy them...thank you.

p/s: Thanks for the Tuak Mark! It really brought a difference to the event....hehe...