Author: Maren Whitlock

Sandy Lau began her creative journey at a young age, developing an early passion for the arts that eventually led her to pursue a diploma in Graphic Design from the Malaysia Institute of Art (MIA). Her professional career initially took shape in graphic design, but over time, her creative interests led her toward fine art and painting. Today, Sandy has established a distinctive artistic practice centered on vibrant and textured paintings. Working primarily with acrylic, oil, and gouache on canvas, she draws inspiration from the natural and cultural environments that surround her. Her compositions often portray rural life, tropical flora,…

New London show has received glowing reviews but there is one conspicuous absentee The once in many lifetimes show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London of the art collected by King Charles I has reunited, for the first time in over three and a half centuries, 140 works of the greatest fame and beauty, dispersed after his decapitation in 1649. Among the paintings in Charles I: King and Collector (until 15 April) by Titian, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Holbein and Dürer, one great name is missing, however: Leonardo da Vinci. This is not for want of trying. Leonardo’s Salvator…

There is a tremendous patience in Henri Rousseau (b. 1844), on view as part of a major exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. His Rendezvous in the Forest (1889) meticulously reproduces dense woodland foliage, a constellation of leaves blanketing the surface of the canvas and nearly concealing the illicit couple at its center. This is the work of an artist who knew how to bide his time, an artist whose primary profession was waiting, Rousseau served as a customs agent at a toll gate in Paris for over two decades, the source of his nickname, Le Douanier Rousseau. Yet Rousseau’s work is hardly…

Explore over 200 works from the renowned Takahashi Ryutaro Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, showcasing the evolution of Japanese contemporary art from postwar to present. The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) is hosting a significant exhibition, A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, running from August 3 to November 10, 2024. This extensive showcase offers a deep dive into the world of Japanese contemporary art, featuring over 200 works from the renowned Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, one of the most important private collections of postwar Japanese art. Takahashi Ryutaro, a psychiatrist born in 1946, began his…

Christie’s announces addition of seven paintings from Paul Allen collection to upcoming auction in May. A last batch of paintings from late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s collection will be auctioned in May at Christie’s New York, six months after the first Allen two auctions in November netted $1.6 billion (including fees), making it the most costly art collection ever sold at auction. The seven artworks will be auctioned off as part of Christie’s spring marquee week in New York, and are projected to bring more than $30 million. Three works by David Hockney, three by Georgia O’Keeffe, and one by Edward…

Sanna Nair is a self-taught contemporary painter from Malaysia whose artistic practice is defined by vibrant color, expressive textures, and a deeply personal approach to visual storytelling. Working primarily with acrylics, she creates paintings that move between surrealism and abstraction, producing compositions filled with energy, emotion, and visual complexity. Her creative journey began in her early teenage years, when she discovered the pleasure of painting and drawing. What started as an early interest gradually developed into a meaningful form of self-expression. For Sanna, art provides an opportunity to capture paused moments, explore her inner world, and communicate ideas that may…

Wei Kiang Khor is an artist whose practice centers on painting, with a distinctive approach that brings together vibrant color, rich textures, mixed media, and symbolic imagery. His works explore the possibilities of painting as both a visual and tactile experience, creating compositions that encourage viewers to look beyond the surface and discover the layered narratives contained within. Working with materials such as oil on gunny and mixed media on canvas, Khor demonstrates a willingness to experiment with different surfaces and techniques. His use of embossed elements further enhances the physical quality of his paintings, giving them a sense of…

Gordon T. is a Canadian artist who has maintained a professional artistic practice since 1980. A self-taught painter raised in a family of amateur artists, Gordon developed his creative interests from an early age, exploring different forms of visual expression before eventually dedicating himself to painting. Over the course of his artistic career, Gordon’s work has undergone a significant evolution. His early approach was more illustrative, while his later practice gradually moved toward bold expressionism and abstraction. Throughout this transformation, however, several ideas have remained central to his creative process: movement, expressive brushwork, color, and the search for a composition…

Exhibition from the Sigg Collection of Chinese contemporary art coincides with show in Switzerland. The first large scale exhibition in Hong Kong of works from the Sigg Collection of Chinese contemporary art, since its was acquired by the M+ museum in West Kowloon, will open early next year (23 February-5 April 2016). The show is organised by Pi Li, M+’s senior curator of Chinese art, who joined the museum in 2012, the same year the part donation/part purchase of the founding collection was secured by the outgoing director, Lars Nittve.   The exhibition opens a month after Nittve steps down,…

Isla Ferrer is an artist whose evolving practice explores identity, transformation, and the fragile nature of the human experience through abstract shapes, expressive colors, and layered textures. Her artistic journey has moved from photography to pastel and oil painting, with each new medium offering her a different way to investigate the relationship between what is visible on the surface and what exists beneath it. Throughout her creative development, Ferrer has remained interested in the changing nature of identity. Her work considers how people are shaped by experiences, emotions, places, and personal history, and how these influences can gradually transform the…