Liew Kwai Fei: The Rhythm of Doing

13 Aug 2008 - 30 Aug 2008

Valentine Willie Fine Art is pleased to present Liew Kwai Fei's solo exhibition in the Project Room this July. Kwai Fei's art highlights the study and development of a particular stream of modernist painting and drawing strategies that is often sidelined in the history of Malaysian abstraction, which has prioritised abstraction as an expressive and emotive language. Turning to modernist painters such as Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhart, Mark Rothko as well as Chinese 'Maximalist' painters, Kwai Fei develops upon an alternative model of painting that is often self-reflexive, delving into what it means to paint or draw, and what is painting and drawing.
His exhibition explores the reality of action and its meaning by setting into motion a procedure – an algorithm for making art. What is crucial about Liew’s algorithms is that, unlike most of what we do, they are not performed with an outcome or purpose in mind. This does not mean there is no outcome. On the contrary, a pattern is produced, a documentation – of time and of doing, which exists in the here and now; something we can see and touch. Likewise, a purpose also emerges. Imagine the beat of rhythm that exists behind every poem: the poem exists and has function (is purposeful), but the invisible rhythm is the energy that drives it into being – it’s the work that’s being done, and it is its own purpose. This is what Liew makes visible for us: the invisible rhythm of doing. In works that range from wall installations, paintings and drawings, the artist displays a rare artistic acumen and understanding for theories in modern art, delivering an uncompromising and highly intelligent body of work that is seldom seen in contemporary art these days.

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Artist's Profile