Date: January 11 – 20, 2018
Venue: The Edge Galerie, G5-G6, Mont’ Kiara Meridin, 19 Jalan Duta Kiara, Mont’ Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur (permanently closed)
Rising contemporary artist Chong Ai Lei presented her fourth solo exhibition and the first in her home country entitled When I See You Again, which featured eight contemplative paintings recalling her childhood memories.
SENTIMENTAL AND NOSTALGIC
Unabashedly sentimental and nostalgic, the latest works of contemporary artist Chong Ai Lei, 33, mark her first solo show in Malaysia.
Despite having participated in many group shows locally and three solo shows overseas, this is the first time the fine art graduate is staging a solo exhibition in her home country.
Entitled When I See You Again by Chong Ai Lei, the show will be held at The Edge Galerie and will feature eight large oil paintings. The format of the self-portraits is either 230cm by 170cm or 170cm by 230cm. The paintings convey a nostalgic yet melancholic mood as Chong revisits her childhood home in Segamat, Johor, where she was raised. The various rooms of the house serve as the backdrop for her paintings.
Chong depicts herself wearing clothes that were owned or passed down by her mother, alongside a myriad of personal belongings and furniture. All the spaces and items tend to relate to a specific
memory.
In a work entitled Jackfruit, the artist is in a green dress, one that her mother had worn in her younger days. Chong grips a nangka by the stem as she walks past the front door of the house. The artist recalls how the jackfruit seemed always to be in season and how its smell reminded her of her childhood.
A dressing table at which Chong and her sisters readied themselves for school and a money box, the first-ever present given by the artist’s father, are both seen in Rabbit Money Box.
Indeed, Chong’s compositions are filled with a sentimentality that documents her growing years in an ordinary Chinese household.
When I See You Again by Chong Ai Lei is The Edge Galerie’s first exhibition for 2018 and it is being held with the support of leading property development company, Matrix Concepts.
ARTWORKS
