Artist of the Month June 2022: Koh Kai Ting
Award-winning NAFA graduate Koh Kai Ting creates poetic watercolour and mesh paintings with hidden depths.
By Asih Jenie -
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Born in 1996 in Batu Pahat, Malaysia, NAFA-graduate Koh Kai Ting is an award-winning printmaker and painter.
Her work focuses on creating visual narratives that explore the conflict between individual happiness and society’s expectations.
Kai Ting's artwork often features various animals softly rendered in watercolour on polyester mesh mounted on frames, lending an ethereal touch to the space.
Untitled (2021)
The Sacred Violence (2020) watercolour on polyester mesh mounted on wood
Cosmic Dance – Metamorphosis 01 (2021) Acrylic and Watercolour on Polyester Mesh
Amongst her sources of inspirations are theories of Spinoza and Freud.
"Juxtaposing the gratified emotions with bondage and animal as metaphors for human desire, her recent paintings highlight the destructive instinct as part of the unconscious structures of pleasure, hence gaining pleasure through pain," says her artist's profile at Gajah Gallery, on her Sacred Violence series.
Rhythm, Resin and Acrylic on Polyester Mesh
Her recent work, Rhythm, was also included in A Decade, the recently concluded exhibition at the White Jacket Gallery.
Kai Ting's numerous accolades include the first prize in UOB Painting of the Year in 2018 and Malaysian Emerging Artist Awards (MEA) 2019 and Mellow Art Award 2020.