Bangkok--10 Apr--TQPR
Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is pleased to announce HONEY TRAP ARCADIA, a solo exhibition by Justin Lim at Richard Koh Fine Art, 229, Jalan Maarof, Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar 59100, Kuala Lumpur scheduled to run from 6 – 27 April 2017. The exhibition will feature 16 mixed media on canvas works executed during his residencies in Australia last year. The Opening Reception will take place on Thursday 6 April 2017, from 5 – 8 pm.
HONEY TRAP ARCADIA is the result of Lim's time away for 2 Australian residency programs in 2016. He was invited to participate as the Visiting Artist for July – August 2016 in Artspace, Sydney, Woolloomooloo, an artist-run centre advocating experimentation, innovation and collaboration in contemporary arts, and subsequently resided at the University of Tasmania / Tasmanian College of the Arts from September - November 2016 as the International Artist in Residence, where he began to put paint onto canvas. These 16 works were later completed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where the artist lives and works.
This 9th solo exhibition by Lim sees a continuous exploration of the artist's practice set against his exposure to the arts community in Australia. Having produced a body of monochromatic textured paintings for his previous solo exhibition titled Modern Absurdity and the Superficial Abyss (2015), the stir of exchanges in Australia sees the 34-year-old return to a familiar approach of color usage fused with pop-culture symbols and iconography as a visual language. These visual allegories are constructed to document, question and critique our social, political and aesthetic values at a time where lines and boundaries are constantly being blurred. Heavily imbued with personal experiences, Lim's artworks thrive in ambiguity. They serve as catalogue snapshots of cultural movements, an entry point to a larger discourse.
Justin Lim (b. 1983 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) completed his postgraduate studies in 2006 with the Master of Art (Fine Art) programme by The Open University UK conducted at Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, Singapore after obtaining a BA(Hons) Fine Art majoring in painting. He was awarded the 2008 Malaysia-Australia Visual Artist Residency at Rimbun Dahan, Malaysia and represented Malaysia at the 2009 Asian Art Biennial held at the Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. He was also the recipient of the 2011 Asian artist fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, USA and the 2013 Khazanah Nasional Artist Residency hosted at the Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China. In 2016, he exhibited in Asia Young 36, a survey of young contemporary art practices in Asia at the Jeonbuk Museum of Art in South Korea and
was also the International artist in residence at The Tasmanian College of the Arts, University of Tasmania, Australia. He currently lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Justin's paintings, installations and mixed media works are assemblages of appropriated imageries and borrowed signs from a variety of Pop culture sources such as cult or popular films, cartoons, comic books and graphic posters. His works examine the contemporary social context, touching on issues such as politics, culture and religion by using potent metaphors usually associated with urban subcultures and applying a cut and paste painting method in which eclectic images are juxtaposed to create startling interpretations.
Richard Koh Fine Art has been in operation since 2005 and is regarded as a pioneer for introducing Asian contemporary art to Malaysia and the region. Promoting an adventurous roster of emerging and established artists, the gallery regularly mounts exhibitions locally and abroad with a commitment to emerging practices and challenging media.