Survival by Najib Ahmad Bamadhaj

S U R V I VA L

NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ

S U R V I VA L

NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ

The artist wishes to thank Allah S.W.T and the following individuals for their kind support and contributions.

Family, Taksu, Rachel Jenagaratnam, Cinta Ayuandrea, Yin, Dayat, Eman, Shahrul, Shaufie, Ara Damansara Artists (ADA), Artists, friends and collectors.

In Najib Bamadhaj’s latest body of work, it’s the theme of survival that triumphs and the world that he has created is one where animals brazenly roam manmade streets and find themselves in incongruous positions. In one work – and there are 12 of them in total – a line of penguins march silently by the shopfront of O. Ottomanelli & Sons. In another, title No Place Like Home, a mob of meerkats stand silently next to tall towers. What has the world come to? Najib’s immediate rationale is simple: animals, he observes, have lost their natural dwelling as a result of man’s intervention. “This exhibition is about the idea of survival where animals migrate from their natural habitats, from jungle to urban jungle because of human greed and development,” he explains.

S U R V I VA L —

This storyline follows in the vein of the artist’s preceding body of work, The Great Migration, where a similar cast of characters prevailed. In The Great Migration – a series that saw groups of animals crossing rough terrains – the power of Najib’s subjects lay in their mass. In Survival, however, the animals are spread across the canvases with their separation from each other denoting an element of vulnerability and ultimately, conveying the artist’s lament over the helplessness of animals and how their beings are at risk. “In reality, year by year, all these animals are decreasing.

One day, if all these protected animals are gone, it will only be memories of these animals that are left,” he says, adding that his subjects’ body language and postures have been a vehicle to depict “sadness and loneliness”.

Of animals and men

But Najib’s flat surfaces contain more than just a tale about animals. True, our natural world is crumbling at the hands of man, but the sub-themes in Survival – displacement, migration, and dissonance – ring true in many facets of our contemporary lives. How many of us have had to leave our birthplaces in search of a brighter future? How many individuals have been forced to abandon their homes because of a corporate deal to build yet another skyscraper? And, just how many of us feel alone in bustling societies?

Painterly ways on our state today

Using animals as a metaphor for these human conditions lends to another view of Najib’s art, and for the most part, Najib’s subjects can also be read as symbols for the plight of young artists today.

In Malaysia – and this is mirrored in many parts of the world – it’s commonplace for aspiring artists to flock to the capital with hopes of artistic success, leaving their families and homes to grapple within highly competitive arenas. It can be lonely. It can be displacing.

And with little spots at the top of the artistic pyramid, it can certainly boil down to a case of survival – both in terms of basic needs and career fulfillment.

This echoes somewhat in Najib’s own life. Born and raised in Muar, Johor, Najib left home to study at Universiti Teknologi MARA’s Malacca and Shah Alam campuses. Unlike the abject animals in his works, though, Najib carved out a more promising fate for himself and – in a veritable case of Darwinism – catapulted ahead of his peers by cultivating relationships with key Malaysian artists. Survival, as some might see it.

The techniques and teachings

The first artist that Najib forged a relationship with was his very idol, Yusof Ghani. A legendary player in the Malaysian art scene, Yusof’s oeuvre is defined by abstract expressionist gestures, and even before Najib set foot in Shah Alam for his studies, he had already decided that he would make an attempt to meet the senior artist.

In a bold move for a young’un, he did so by waiting at the foothill leading to the artist’s home, hoping to catch Yusof outside his door for a chat. This went on for two weeks until Najib finally plucked up the courage to walk up to the gate. As serendipity would have it, Yusof had just exited his front door when Najib turned up and the rest was history.

This encounter led to an unofficial apprenticeship with the senior artist and pivotal introductions to other artists and opportunities within the commercial art world. Inevitably, this also shaped Najib’s early style, with a strong influence naturally stemming from the palette and practice of his mentor. This background posits Najib as more of a painter’s painter than one would initially assume; glancing at the works in Survival, you’d be tempted with thoughts of silkscreen

techniques, but Najib’s works are actually deeply entrenched in the methods of painting. “I paint and paint until the surface is flat,” notes the artist, who adds that in the final stages of production, he deconstructs his paintings’ surfaces with oil paints to achieve the effect of decayed photographs. His grounding in printmaking has also contributed to today’s overall aesthetic.

Najib also attributes some influence to artists like MATAHATI’s Ahmad Shukri Mohamed and graffiti artist, Banksy, but the artist has ultimately branched away from these inspirations with today’s works being a testament to this point. In Survival, you’ll see this in Najib’s painting technique and in the narrative quality of his works, but more uniquely, you’ll observe this in the artist’s choice of mediums; in Survival’s twelve works, six paintings are on jute, whilst the other half-of-the-dozen are on salvaged wooden panels from an old Malay village house in Kuala Selangor.

These wooden panels lend perfectly to the general theme in Survival for like the animals, local heritage and ways also face the risk of extinction due to modernity. The actual elements in the paintings – the old structures in the compositions, in particular – only accentuate this subject. As Najib says, “For me, old shopfronts or buildings emit a lot of memories about the past. Nowadays, there are few buildings or shops are like that, so these elements in my paintings symbolize things that you didn’t even realize had disappeared because of modernization.”

With all this in mind, it’s clear that Najib’s paintings hold a far more universal message than the mere plight of animals today. It is we, the artist seems to argue, that are our own worst enemies. In the quest for modernity and in the throes of constant development, nature and old ways are in upheaval and change has come at the compromise of the things that once were. To stay afloat, we need to adapt. And, Survival – a body of work that boasts Najib’s distinctive painterly charm and which uses animals as a metaphor for our own condition today – bears a pertinent lesson that we all could do with a reminder of.

essay— rachel jenagaratnam

survival 1 o i l a n d ac ry l i c o n j u t e 122 x 244 cm 2015

survival 2 o i l a n d ac ry l i c o n j u t e 183 x 213 cm 2015

survival 3 o i l a n d ac ry l i c o n j u t e 200 x 200 cm 2015

survival 4 o i l a n d ac ry l i c o n j u t e 183 x 213 cm 2015

survival 5 o i l a n d ac ry l i c o n j u t e 122 x 244 cm 2015

survival 6 o i l a n d ac ry l i c o n j u t e 122 x 183 cm 2015

survival 7 ac ry l i c o n wo o d pa n e l s 153 x 185 cm 2015

survival 8 ac ry l i c o n wo o d pa n e l s 121 x 152 cm 2015

survival 9 ac ry l i c o n wo o d pa n e l s 92 x 183.5 cm 2015

survival 10 ac ry l i c o n wo o d pa n e l s 152 x 213 cm 2015

survival 11 ac ry l i c o n wo o d pa n e l s 198 x 147 cm 2015

survival 12 ac ry l i c o n wo o d pa n e l s 153 x 185 cm 2015

NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ 1987 E D U C AT I O N

SOLO EXHIBITION

2010

2008

2015 Survival taksu, singapore 2012 Great Migration taksu kuala lumpur

Bachelor (Hons.) Fine Art Majoring in Painting UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Diploma in Fine Art UiTM Lendu Alor Gajah, Melaka

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015 ADA Show! Segaris Art Centre,

Solaris @ Publika, kl

Extreme Portrait Galeri Chandan

Solaris @ Publika, kl

Locals Only taksu kuala lumpur

Nasi Campur taksu singapore 2014 s.u.a.r.a.s.a. 3 Segaris Art Centre

Solaris @ Publika, kl

8th Art Expo Malaysia 2014 taksu,

Matrade Exhibition & Convention Centre, kl

Merdeka Show taksu kuala lumpur

99 Galeri Chandan, Solaris @ Publika, kl

Note To Self taksu singapore

Young Guns Chan Hampe Gallery, Singapore

Locals Only taksu kuala lumpur

Nasi Campur taksu singapore 2013 Young Guns White Box, Solaris @ Publika, kl

7th Art Expo Malaysia 2013 g13 Gallery,

Matrade Exhibition & Convention Centre, kl s.u.a.r.a.s.a. 2 Segaris Art Centre,

Solaris @ Publika, Kuala Lumpur buka Artelier Gallery, Solaris @ Publika, kl

Up! taksu kuala lumpur

Destiny (Young Group Show)

National Visual Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur

Translocality (3 Man Show)

ocbc Centre, Singapore

Locals Only taksu kuala lumpur Spice Pace Gallery, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Sekaki Segaris Art Centre, Solaris@Publika, kl 2012 Peninsula & Island taksu singapore

Transit A4 House of Matahati (HOM),

Ampang, Kuala Lumpur

LOADED Pace Gallery, Petaling Jaya

POPUP House of Matahati (HOM), Ampang

Songsang Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara

Earth Puncak Art Gallery, Bukit Jelutong

Spice Pace Gallery, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Locals Only taksu kuala lumpur

Nasi Campur taksu singapore

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

New, Young & Contemporary Pace Gallery, pj Endangered (2 Man Show) taksu kl Visual Art Award (VAA) 2011 Starhill Gallery Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur Open House 2011 Galeri Chandan, kl Kalam Galeri Chandan, Kuala Lumpur Anniversary Show Pace Gallery, Petaling Jaya Signs, Symbols & Icons (3 Man Show) Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara, kl Pulp Friction Galeri Chandan, kl Private Affairs Galeri Chandan, kl LiFest MAP @ Publika, Dutamas, kl Dis-Chromatic Small Talk With The Moon Petaling Jaya, Selangor Expressions of the Malayan Tiger Maybank Art Gallery, Maybank Tower, kl Tanjong Heritage Sri Melayu Restaurant Ampang, Kuala Lumpur HIMPUN Peti Seni @ National Art Gallery, kl RIYAD Al-Ilm ‘Garden of Knowledge’ Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur Conform Three Sixty Art Development Studio Desa Park City, Kuala Lumpur Degree Show: LOAD FSSR UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Nando’s, Kicking-Off With Art & Soul One Utama Shopping Centre, Damansara Utama Young Art R A Fine Arts, Kuala Lumpur Belief Three Sixty Art Development Studio Desa Park City, Kuala Lumpur Open Johor Art Competition Johor Art Gallery, Johor The Art of Recycling The Nando’s Way NN Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Open Show Shah Alam Gallery Shah Alam, Selangor Pallete The Gallery @ Starhill, Star Hill Gallery, kl Diploma Show Tengku Nur Zahirah Gallery UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Diploma Show Art Gallery UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka Nando’s, Peri-fy Your Art NN Gallery, kl Antara Merdeka National Art Gallery, kl Melaka TYT Action Portrait UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka

AWA R D S A N D A C H I E V E M E N T S

2011 Finalist, Visual Art Award 2011

Starhill Gallery, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur 2010 Consolation Prize Winner

“Expressions of the Malayan Tiger”

Art Competition, Maybank Art Gallery, kl

Vice Chancellor’s Awards

Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art, UiTM Shah Alam

1st Class Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art UiTM

1st Prize (Mix Media) Tanjong Heritage

Art Competition, Kuala Lumpur

1st Prize Winner Nando’s, Kicking-Off

with Art & Soul, Damansara Utama

Dean’s List Awards Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art

Semester 06, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor 2009 2nd Place Open Johor Art Competition

Johor Art Gallery, Johor

Consolation Prize Winner (2D Hanging Display)

The Art of Recycling The Nando’s Way

NN Gallery, KL

Dean’s List Awards Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art Semester 05 & 04, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor 2008 Dean’s List Awards Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art Semester 03, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor

Finalist (Open Category), MRCB Art Awards

National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur

Best Graduate of UiTM Melaka

Pra Graduate Award, Equatorial Hotel, Melaka

Best Graduate of Faculty Art & Design

UiTM Melaka, Pra Graduate Award, Melaka

Best Graduate of Programmed in

Fine Art Department, UiTM Lendu, Melaka

Dean’s List Awards Diploma in Fine Art Semester 06, UiTM Lendu, Melaka 2007 2nd Prize Art Competition, Melaka TYT Action

Portrait, UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka

Dean’s List Awards Diploma in Fine Art Semester 04 & 05 UiTM Lendu, Melaka 2006 Dean’s List Awards Diploma in Fine Art, Semester 02, UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka 2003 Best Student in Art Subject

Maktab Rendah Sains Mara, Muar, Johor

COLLECTIONS

Bank Negara Malaysia Kuala Lumpur CIMB Bank Kuala Lumpur Maybank Kuala Lumpur OCBC Bank Singapore Galeri Tengku Nur Zahirah UiTM Shah Alam Galeri Seni UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka Galeri Seni Rakyat Bandar Hilir, Melaka Galeri Seni Johor Yayasan Warisan Johor, Johor Pati Satu Studio Puncak Alam, Selangor TANJONG Public Limited Company, kl TAPAK Shah Alam, Selangor Nando’s Restaurant Kuala Lumpur Private Collectors

By adapting stenciling and marking techniques normally used by street artists, I express my ideas and visualize my feelings onto canvas. In my paintings, I devote my attention towards endangered animals and animal rights, using the body language of the animals to evoke sadness. From there, I created the migration series to expose the destruction of animal habitats as a result of human greed and the obsession with money and development. My current series explores the idea of survival, as animals migrate from their natural habitats to the urban jungle.

NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ

SURVIVAL NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ

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ISBN 978 - 981- 09- 5531- 1 Survival 1 oil and acrylic on jute 122 x 244 cm / 2015

Survival 2 oil and acrylic on jute 183 x 213 cm / 2015

Survival 3 oil and acrylic on jute 200 x 200 cm / 2015

E-BOOK

All rights reserved. No part of this brochure may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior consent from the artists and gallery.

Survival 4 oil and acrylic on jute 183 x 213 cm / 2015

Survival 7 acrylic on wood panels 153 x 185 cm / 2015

Survival 5 oil and acrylic on jute 122 x 244 cm / 2015

Survival 8 acrylic on wood panels 121 x 152 cm / 2015

Survival 6 oil and acrylic on jute 122 x 183 cm / 2015

Survival 9 acrylic on wood panels 92 x 183.5 cm / 2015

TAKSU is a leading contemporary art gallery and specialist in Southeast Asia.

Representing selection of fine art with distinctive urban edge, we are at the forefront of contemporary art in this region. TAKSU works to forge a platform for established and emerging artists to share their pool of creativity and knowledge through its residency programs and exhibitions. Encapsulating the true meaning of the word TAKSU; divine inspiration, energy, and spirit.

Suherwan Abu Director, TAKSU Galleries Artworks & Images Š 2015 Najib Ahmad Bamadhaj

Survival 10 acrylic on wood panels 152 x 213 cm / 2015

Survival 11 acrylic on wood panels 198 x 147 cm / 2015

Survival 12 acrylic on wood panels 153 x 185 cm / 2015

Essay Rachel Jenagaratnam Photography Din Dirann Graphic Design Jeffrey Lim / Studio 25 Printer Unico Services

_ ISBN 978 - 981- 09- 5531- 1 E-BOOK