Page 106 - The Guide To Sarawak

104 THE ARTS
“Sarawak Women”, “Happy Childhood”, and “Tree of Life”; she has exhibited in Sydney and Adelaide.
She returned to Australia to work with aboriginal artists, and many of her current works reflect a coming- together of Australia and Southeast Asia, fusing
dots, boomerangs and earth colours – symbols of Aboriginal culture – with Iban warp ikat, ferns and other Bornean influences.
Tan Wei Kheng is a self- taught artist who never studied art; instead, he would visit the library and study reproductions of classical paintings. In 1991 he entered some of his ‘amateur’ productions in an exhibition in Miri, where they were snapped up
Lucy Liew poses with Metamorphosis – Transformation in the Woods, a public art project at the Joyce Ellington Library in San Jose, California, which blends a Sarawak rainforest motif with classic European fairy-tales.
by admirers of his hyper- realistic style.
Wei Kheng’s preferred media are acrylic on canvas, charcoal and pencil. His influences range from Canaletto to the Dutch Masters and even Norman Rockwell, yet his subject matter is exclusively local
- Sarawak’s indigenous people. This remarkable
combination has created a minor sensation in the art world.
Lucy Liew (daughter of Dennis Lau, see below)
is Sarawak-born and
now based in San Jose, California. Her colourful
and multi-layered paintings continue to be influenced by the rich, multi-ethnic culture and lush tropical landscape of her original homeland, Sarawak.
Other names (amongst many) also worthy of a closer look are Chai Foh Vin, Chai Fook Vui, Hendrik Nicholas, Ismail Bin Taril, Lam Siong Onn, Michael Chong Voon Kong, Sim Chiap Hin, Musdi Hj Shanat, Bladae Lasem, Modiana Kolient, Awangko Hamdan and Melton Kais.
Magdalene Tai’s Tree of Life, a pow- erful work that merges Australian Aboriginal and Indigenous Sarawak motifs.
Tan Wei Kheng’s hyper-realistic view of the indigenous people of Sarawak invokes echoes of the great Dutch Masters.