Malaysian Artist Infuses Spirituality In His Paintings For Solo Art Exhibition In Jogjakarta

KAJANG (Selangor, Malaysia), Aug 28 (Bernama) -- Mazlan Noor, a Malaysian artist and a poet who infused the concept of spirituality in his work, is holding his first overseas solo exhibition in Jogjakarta, Indonesia, next month. Mazlan, 62, or better known as Along, said he was invited by Galeri Tahunmas Art Space to showcase his work from Sept 20 to 30. “I’m very happy to be given the opportunity and am very excited to go because it’s not easy for artists to hold an exhibition there, what more if you are a foreigner. “To host an exhibition in Jogjakarta, you got to have your name to be selected first, because if you have the money, but your name is not in the list, you will not get to hold an exhibition in Jogjakarta,” he told Bernama in an exclusive interview at his home here recently. He has prepared 40 of his best works from the series of ‘Gema Jalur’ and ‘Nano’ for the exhibition. The former head of the design unit of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP, a government body that acts as guardian of the Malaysian national language) and co-founder of Kumpulan Anak Alam (a poets’ club), started painting on canvas seriously after his retirement in 2002. His first ever solo exhibition, entitled ‘Zikir Kembaraku”, was in 2015 during which he showcased 22 paintings inspired from his experiences when performing the umrah in the Holy Land in 2013. Those paintings that dive deep into the philosophy of the Kaabah received an encouraging response with almost all the paintings sold, he added. Mazlan said his paintings emphasised shape, such as circles, dots, while the background had colourful shades to portray the various meaning of the world. While the Zikir Kembaraku series emphasised the philosophy of the ‘rectangular black box’, he said the ‘Gema Jalur’ series touched on the light and darkness as stated in the Surah Al Baqarah (a verse in the Holy Quran). Mazlan is currently completing his work on the “Nano” series which is about cells and tissues. -- BERNAMA