Foundry is currently hosting Malaysian painter Sylvia Ong‘s solo show titled Around The Sun All Year Long. Expressive and colourful, the exhibited oil paintings reflect not only how the artist perceives the “outer” reality, but also depict her inner world. The exhibition will end on May 5, 2023.
What inspires Sylvia is her experience in different professional fields: apart from being an artist, she is also a film-maker and actress. Another source of her inspiration is travelling and living in different places, which include Singapore, Bangkok, and Dubai, where she resides currently. “It’s about the feeling, the general atmosphere, and sometimes the memories associated with a place,” Sylvia says.
The artist went from layered strokes in her first exhibition, La Fete, to energetic interpretations of emotions in her second show, La Maison. Her third series of artworks, How Happy are the Flowers, incorporates new ideas. Conducting some research and experimenting with sounds and colour frequencies, Sylvia has managed to transfer the shades, tones, and textures from plants to her canvas. The works from this series are supposed to spark a connection between viewers and their natural surroundings.
In Around The Sun All Year Long, Sylvia depicts emotions, a particular global state of mind, in an expressive way, as in her first and second series of paintings. She uses bright colours and thin yet powerful brushstrokes which seem random, but they actually form kind of a structure resembling a swirl.
Sylvia’s fluid story-telling form produces a meaningful conversation between viewers and canvas as effectively as a more structural approach. She has continuously invited one to clear their minds and encourages them to reflect on their own experiences and emotions.
About the artist
Sylvia Ong (born in 1980, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is a contemporary artist living and working in Dubai. As a performing arts graduate with a major in cinematography, she has directed TV programs and corporate videos and produced a host of TV and radio commercials and photography and fashion shoots.
She has also made several short films, some of which were nominated at the 16th Malaysia Film Festival and picked up a Best Jury Award at the Freedom Film Festival. Her work also has been selected for the longest running piece at the American Asian Film Festival. Besides, she won Best Female Actress with Theatre Selangor, Malaysia, and received the Best Supporting Actress award at Festival Theatre Malaysia.
To learn more about Around The Sun All Year Long, please visit the show’s official web page.
You might be also interested in visiting Signal by Ian Davenport.
