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Christ in my lifeacrylic on jute223 x 152 cm, 1997

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Christ in my lifeacrylic on jute223 x 152 cm, 1997

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- Eng Hwee Chu who found her faith in Christianity brought her sense of profound clarity and peace to her life.

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Tragic People Image on Rocking Horseacrylic on canvas102x102cm, 1989

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Tragic People Image on Rocking Horseacrylic on canvas102x102cm, 1989

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The term “Magical Realism” can be applied to Hwee Chu’s large-scale paintings. Art critic Franz Roh describes “Magical Realism” as faithfully portraying the exterior of an object through the realist style of painting, and in doing so revealing the spirit, or rather inner magic, of the object to the audience. One sees key icons repeatedly employed by Hwee Chu to intensely explore reality in this style, perhaps the most prominent of which for her is the rocking horse. Tragic: People Image on Rocking Horse is one of Hwee Chu’s major early works that employs and introduces both the rocking horse icon as well as the black shadow figure that features prominently in several of her later works.

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Prospect, acrylic on canvas 223x152cm,1995

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Prospect, acrylic on canvas 223x152cm,1995

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Another sign of Hwee Chu’s growing confidence in the 1990’s is the development of her painting style into an even finer form of realism. Paintings from 1995 such as “Treasure” or “Prospect” exemplify her increasing self assuredness, which is demonstrated in her realistic colour palatte, highly defined figures and the new inclusion of truly representational self portraits. It is definitely the critical successes that Hwee Chu was piling up by this point, exemplified by her major awards, that contributed to her creative buoyancy, but 1995’s The Holy State of Matrimony offers an insight into one of the most significant milestones in Hwee Chu’s life, her marriage to Tan Chin Kuan.

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Black Moon 3acrylic on canvas157x147cm, 1989

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Black Moon 3acrylic on canvas157x147cm, 1989

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The Black Moon series which was produced DATES continues Hwee Chu’s search for her identity and inner self. Throughout this series Hwee Chu is exploring what she terms “the outer world”, which is society at large versus her “inner self”, that is, her personal feelings and thought process. Hwee Chu is expressing the view of a hostile outer world where the philosophies and principles are at odds with her own, and uses her painting as a means to try and decipher a reconcillation between the two contrasting worlds.

1989 brought about the painting Black Moon 4, which sees the creation of another key icon that Hwee Chu implements until today, the Red Figure. In this early painting, the Red Figure does not have a clear identity, present solely as a symbol of pure emotion. However as Hwee Chu developed her identity as both an artist and a woman she gained confidence, and slowly the Red Figure comes to represent her, the artist, in the paintings, but a more mysterious or confident version of herself.

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Black Moon 4acrylic on canvas148x214cm,1989

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Black Moon 4acrylic on canvas148x214cm,1989

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The Black Moon series which was produced DATES continues Hwee Chu’s search for her identity and inner self. Throughout this series Hwee Chu is exploring what she terms “the outer world”, which is society at large versus her “inner self”, that is, her personal feelings and thought process. Hwee Chu is expressing the view of a hostile outer world where the philosophies and principles are at odds with her own, and uses her painting as a means to try and decipher a reconcillation between the two contrasting worlds.

1989 brought about the painting Black Moon 4, which sees the creation of another key icon that Hwee Chu implements until today, the Red Figure. In this early painting, the Red Figure does not have a clear identity, present solely as a symbol of pure emotion. However as Hwee Chu developed her identity as both an artist and a woman she gained confidence, and slowly the Red Figure comes to represent her, the artist, in the paintings, but a more mysterious or confident version of herself.

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- Born in Johor in 1967, Eng Hwee Chu graduated from the Malaysian Institute of Art in 1989, where she now teaches. Hwee Chu is the recipient of many major awards including first prize in the Philip Morris Asean Art Awards in 1994 and the Painting Award, Salon Malaysia 3 at the National Art Gallery in 1991.

- Eng Hwee Chu- participating artist in the GMCA (Great Malaysia Contemporary Art)

- Hwee Chu has also exhibited locally and internationally most notably at the Osaka Triennale in Osaka, Japan in 2001 and the second Asia Pacific Triennale in Brisbane, Australia in 1996, as well as in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia. In early 2013 Hwee Chu participated in “Women In Betweeen: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012” in Fukoka, Japan with her work “The Role of the Female”.

-  Eng Hwee Chu, one of the most prominent contemporary female artists in Malaysia. Her works are a visual narrative of her “inner struggle, culture, tradition and change, a celebration of her love and marriage to Tan Chin Kuan and an outlet to rebel and break free. They are also vehicles in her quest for the truth.” Not only does Hwee Chu explore her own personal issues through her work but also the wider issues of a woman’s experiences and role in society.