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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 11:12 PM PDT

Meet a man who's bringing affordable, original artwork to the doorstep of local art enthusiasts and collectors.

IT is like a mirror held up to your soul. A good piece of art has to speak to you. It's like there's an umbilical cord between you and the painting, you know?"

Well, I might not, but he clearly does. After all, Michael Chin has been nurturing a love for art even before he could write.

"It was paintbrushes and watercolours for me, even before I ever held a pencil in my hand. It's a funny thing that I'm not an artist, because my soul is one," he says.

Chin, who is a senior art consultant and the founder of the Malaysian Art Centre, was all hearty laughter and affability during a chat last week at the new and very small – about 10sq m – Malaysian Art Centre outlet at KL CityWalk, the first pedestrian strip mall located in the heart of the city. Still, they managed to fit more than 30 artworks into that space.

Chin relates that the gallery's first exhibition in the early 1990s – which was really three exhibitions running concurrently at Atria Shopping Centre in Damansara Jaya, Selangor; Lot 10 Shopping Centre and Mid Point Shopping Complex in Cheras, both in Kuala Lumpur – was a dream come true.

"Though I must say that it's something that I can't imagine doing now. It wasn't easy pulling off a one-man show," says Chin, who hails from Bukit Mertajam, Penang.

He explains that he had to look for exhibition space, transport 50 paintings to and from the locations, and put them up each morning himself.

"I transported all the artwork in my car. I had to drive with my seat pushed almost right up to the front, it was that full. After putting the paintings up in the morning, I would then have to take them down each night. You know what I prayed for every day? That the big paintings would sell first not because they would sell for more, but just because they were so heavy to carry up and down each day!" he recalls with a chuckle.

He also helped with the framing of the art pieces, staying up into the wee hours of the night to cut wood. He recalls aching all over the next day.

The first artwork he sold at the exhibition was a small one, modestly priced at RM140.

"I still remember selling this first painting. Man, was I elated. Those were what the early days were like. But I never thought of it as a hardship back then. It was my passion and I followed my heart in doing this," the father of three says, adding that he has worked only about five years in his life.

Hang on a minute. This 49-year-old man has been running several art galleries and outlets since he was in his early 30s, yet he says he's worked only five years in his life?

Chin grins. "No, really. What I'm doing now doesn't feel like work to me even though I do it seven days a week. What I did after my studies, now that was work. I've always had an interest in art, but what parent would want their son to be an artist? No, I had to get a decent degree, so I went into business administration," says the eldest and only son of two children.

Chin graduated from a Canadian university and then got a job in the marketing department of a construction and materials company. Sometime during his five-year working stint, his path crossed with that of an artist from mainland China. The artist was running out of time – his visa was about to expire, he had to return home, and he still had many paintings to sell.

"I took pity on him and bought all his paintings. Then I stuffed the roll of paintings in the back of my cupboard," Chin relates.

The paintings sat there for a year before his calling came knocking on the door, and he decided to set up an art gallery.

"I knew in my heart that one day I would use these paintings. I wanted to set up a gallery because I felt there was a vacuum in the art industry; that there were many people like me – people who like original art, but cannot afford to buy it," he says.

His reason for setting up the gallery was three-fold. First of all, he wanted to bring affordable, original artwork to the doorstep of art enthusiasts and collectors. Secondly, to provide a platform for artists to exhibit and promote their works. And thirdly, to groom the artists.

And here's where the more serious, practical side of Chin emerges: "We give the artists input on how to make their works more marketable. Not to change their style, of course, but just to offer advice on how to sustain themselves as professional artists. You have to respect the market in order to sustain yourself – to be able to buy paint, buy canvas, pay your rent ... basically to be able to make a living through your art."

When he resigned from his day job to set up the gallery, everyone thought he was crazy.

"They said to me, 'you have a decent job and you are leaving it to go into art? Are you nuts?'"

At the end of the day, his mother was the one who gave him her full support. "She was the only one who believed in me and supported me. The rest of the world thought I was mad. She even travelled from Penang to come to my first exhibition," he says.

Today, Chin runs four Malaysian Art Centre galleries and outlets in the Klang Valley (KL CityWalk in Kuala Lumpur, The Strand and 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor), including a frame shop called The Framers at Jaya33 in Petaling Jaya. The galleries represent about 50 artists.

Chin divides his time between these four locations, and often heads to the main gallery at The Strand to rearrange the art pieces on display. It's almost a habit, one that he finds therapeutic.

"I feel miserable if I don't go to the gallery. Plus, moving the paintings around never fails in cheering me up when I'm upset over something!" he says, laughing.

The gallery started with Chinese artists, but those days are long gone. Now almost all the artists represented are Malaysian.

"In the 1990s, Chinese paintings were very popular. But now they come by the truckload and it's hard to sell original art this way. The Chinese artists produce multiple copies of the same original artwork. The Malaysian market is much too small for this. Collectors don't like to see the same paintings on the walls of another collector," he says.

Eighteen years ago, Chin took a chance, a leap of faith, and it paid off. He considers himself lucky that he is making a living out of his passion. And he would like to encourage others to do the same.

"Follow your dream. You have got to live your life once, at the very least. You have been living so many other people's lives, what about living yours for once," he urges.

Heed these words, they come from hard-won experience, indeed.

For more information on the Malaysian Art Centre, call 03-6142 9633 or 012-393 7893.

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Turner Prize moves house

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 11:08 PM PDT

IN the absence of any big shocks at this year's Turner Prize exhibition, organisers hope the quality of the works on display will be enough to generate headlines and positive buzz for the show.

The annual British award is one of the contemporary art world's most recognisable and controversial, and on occasion sparks heated public debate about what constitutes art.

It has been dismissed as "The Prize for the Emperor's New Clothes", and previous winners include Martin Creed, whose exhibit in 2001 was an empty room with lights going on and off. Three years earlier, Chris Ofili triumphed with paintings propped up on elephant dung.

But the Turner has also helped cement the careers of some of Britain's leading contemporary artists, including Damien Hirst, who won in 1995, Steve McQueen (1999) and Antony Gormley (1994).

This year, the nominated artists are Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw, and their works are on display at the Baltic gallery in Gateshead, northern England, until Jan 8.

It is only the second time in its 27-year history that the Turner Prize exhibition has been held outside London, and the first time at a gallery not belonging to the Tate stable of galleries (which includes the world-renowned Tate Modern).

Scottish-born Black's exhibit is entered via see-through cellophane "curtains" hanging from the ceiling by tape and daubed in paint. Two large mounds of paper coloured in powdered paint fill the room inside, with the powder spread over the floor reminding visitors of the fragility and transience of the art. One of the paper structures allows the public to pass behind it and walk "into" a work of art.

Shaw, the only painter among the nominees, has produced a series of identically-sized landscapes that draw on his memories of the drab housing estate in the West Midlands where he grew up. His "deadpan realism" is designed to communicate how time changes our perceptions of a place that was once our home.

Boyce's installations recall stage sets or stills from a movie, and his Turner Prize exhibit features paper leaves on the floor, leaf-like metal shapes hanging from the ceiling and a garbage can like those used in Britain's public parks.

And Lloyd's room of video works deliberately draws the viewer's gaze to the technology she uses as well as the images they project. Floor 2011, for instance, is made up of close-up images of a section of wooden floor from three projectors hanging at waist height, so to get too close would mean to destroy the image.

Organisers hope the move to Gateshead will draw new crowds to the Turner Prize show, which attracted just 51,000 people in 2010 compared with a record 133,000 in 1999.

The award winner, announced on Dec 5, receives a cheque for £25,000 (RM126,500) as well as the priceless publicity that goes with it. The other nominees each receive £5,000 (RM25,300). – Reuters

The Turner Prize preview exhibition will continue until Jan 8 at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead Quays, South Shore Road, Gateshead, Britain). The centre is open daily from 10am to 6pm except on Tuesdays, when it is open from 10.30am to 6pm; admission is free. For details, visit balticmill.com. For more information on the Turner Prize: tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 30 Oktober 2011