NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ
G R E AT M I G R AT I O N
My gratitude is always to Allah (SWT), to my family, Suherwan Abu, Syukur Ali, Amelia, Abang Mat, Yusof Ghani, Meru Studio, artists, friends and all my collectors.
KUALA LUMPUR
SINGAPORE
BALI
17 Jalan Pawang 54000 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia T +603 4251 4396 F +603 4251 4331 kl@taksu.com
43 Jalan Merah Saga #01-72 Workloft @ Chip Bee Singapore 278115 T +65 6476 4788 F +65 6476 4787 sing@taksu.com
W Retreat & Spa Bali Jalan Petitenget Seminyak Bali, Indonesia T +62 361 4738106 F +62 361 4738104 bali@taksu.com
NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ
_ ISBN 978 - 981- 07-3798 - 6 PAPERBACK
978 - 981- 07-3797- 9 E-BOOK
G R E AT M I G R AT I O N
G R E AT M I G R AT I O N – NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ
LING LOW
Although Great Migration marks Najib Bamadhaj’s first solo exhibition, many will already recognise the young artist’s distinctive style among the paintings here. Since graduating from UiTM two years ago, Najib has been a prolific member of Kuala Lumpur’s art scene, participating in a number of group shows and competitions. Last year, Najib exhibited his Endangered series as part of a two-man show with Hirzaq Harris at taksu kl. With Great Migration, Najib returns to taksu with a series that continues the themes and motifs from Endangered. However, these new paintings also speak of an artist with a maturing style, eye for experimentation and growing selfawareness. Once again, wild animal motifs prevail, but now the focus has shifted from static depictions of mother and child to paintings of larger groups in movement. Previously muted palettes have also been enlivened with vivid blocks of colour: a red zebra leaps from splashes of blue water; a purple elephant calf huddles by his mother’s luminous side. With this injection of colour, Najib has created a striking series that plays with pop art elements, while retaining his ethical drive to champion animal welfare. From afar, the sharply rendered animal images appear to be screen prints, but they are in fact all painted by hand from projections of high contrast photographs. Such familiar motifs, taken from pictures that we might see in National Geographic – or even tourist brochures – are a way of interrogating our own culture and treatment of nature. “I use pop art elements in my paintings because all these animals are very popular,” says Najib. “If they were not popular, they would not be hunted. Elephants are popular because of their tusks; tigers for their skin. So that is why I use pop art.”
right; great migration 1 mixed media on canvas 167 x 258 cm / 2012
In the Endangered series, text was often overlaid on the paintings to emphasise the vulnerability of his subject. Phrases such as “There’s no place like home” carried an ironic resonance, suggesting the rootlessness of animals that had been hunted or captured. Great Migration continues this theme, most notably in the title of the series itself. “Normally a ‘great migration’ means moving to a new place to find water. But in my case, these animals are moving from jungle to town because mankind is cutting all the trees, demolishing their habitats,” explains Najib. “Actually, there are two subjects: the first is the wall, the second is the image. Combining both, I bring all the animals to the city to show the public that our animals are gone. We only have the images on the wall left.”
Indeed, the “wall” is the signature thread that pulls the Great Migration series together. In several paintings, Najib experiments with subtle textures in the backdrop, creating a mouldering effect so that the canvas looks like it has been subjected to the ravages of time and nature. These scuff marks are created unpredictably via a printing method, overlaid on the painted image. The result is a canvas that looks like an exposed wall. “My work is not clean,” says Najib. “Before I put the print it is like a poster: very nice, very clean. Too clean. Then after I put the print, it looks like old graffiti. I take a mirror and put some patterns there, and place the canvas on top. It’s all unpredictable. That’s what I like.” Combining the textures of the “wall” with the clean lines and colours of the animals, a visual tension emerges in the paintings. As viewers, our attention is continually drawn to the artwork’s many layers. This play on surfaces is taken even further in Great Migration 7 and Great Migration 8, where Najib actually depicts a brick wall as part of the painting. The wall is painted with simple lion and tiger motifs, while the corner of each painting foregrounds a crumbling section of another wall, also imprinted with a partially revealed animal. In these paintings, cement has been mixed with paint to give a gritty texture to the bricks, thus literally bringing the wall to the canvas. Such metatextual paintings are a recent departure for the artist, and altogether more playful, with some of the animals depicted as simple coloured shapes in pastel tones. (essay continues on page 19)
Ling Low is a writer and filmmaker based in Kuala Lumpur. She writes on arts and culture for Time Out Kuala Lumpur, Esquire Malaysia and other magazines. She also contributes as a film blogger to The Independent (uk). She is currently Editor of Poskod.my, an online magazine about city, culture and community in the Klang Valley.
left; detail; great migration 2 right; great migration 2 mixed media on canvas 167 x 258 cm / 2012
great migration 3 / mixed media on canvas / 167 x 258 cm / 2012
great migration 4 / mixed media on canvas / 122 x 152.5 cm / 2012
left; great migration 5 mixed media on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm / 2012 above; great migration 6 mixed media on wood panel 65 x 167.5 cm / 2012
previous page; great migration 7 & 8 (diptych) mixed media on canvas 152.5 x 152.5 cm (each) / 2012 left; great migration 9 / mixed media on canvas / 168 x 229 cm / 2012 right; great migration 10 mixed media on canvas 214 x 153 cm / 2012
left; great migration 11 mixed media on canvas 122 x 122 cm / 2012 next page; detail; great migration 12 mixed media on canvas 183 x 152.5 cm / 2012
Najib’s love of grafitti art is another reason for his obsession with creating “walls” in his paintings. As a student, Najib experimented with graffiti art styles, even producing work with stencils and spray paint. Like the Endangered series, the paintings in Great Migration bring this style of graffiti art from the street into the gallery. However, Najib eschews spray paint and stencils in favour of hand painting. “With paint you can test your patience and technical discipline,” he explains, adding that the black images are painted over three times in order to achieve the right effect. Only his signatures are rendered with a stencil: a small, irreverent reminder of Najib’s roots in street and youth culture. The combination of graffiti, pop art and vintage photo aesthetics have led Najib to find his own distinctive niche: art that is always underscored by a sense of destruction. In Najib’s paintings, it is not only the animals that are threatened, but also the art itself. After all, graffiti images are temporary, popular products are disposable and canvases can – as he shows – erode. It is this persistent sense of decay that sets Najib’s work apart from other Malaysian peers working with similar themes. While other artists, including Najib’s mentor Ahmad Shukri, also pay tribute to nature in their work, there is an underlying sense of melancholy to Najib’s paintings that is entirely the young artist’s own. Najib has described his paintings as a “documentary” for future generations, for a time when such animal species may no longer exist. But despite the serious and heartfelt message, there is a relaxed charm to his personal approach. He has emphasized that he does not set out with a conceptual agenda; instead, his paintings are first and foremost aesthetic works. “You must get your painting in harmony, in balance, so I play with all that. The viewer might think, ‘Why is that zebra red but not the others?’ I say maybe he’s the leader. Or maybe he’s the one the hunter aimed at so they all ran away. It’s free for everyone to decide.” While viewers may interpret Najib’s works differently, what is clear is that the paintings in Great Migration invite us to look, and to look again. These artworks reward the viewer’s patience, surprising us with new details as we return each time, shifting our perspective from different vantage points. This impulse to reflect is all the more valuable given the images of destruction that run through the series. If mankind were to pause more, these paintings seem to suggest, then perhaps fewer of these animals would be endangered.
NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ 1987 E D U C AT I O N
SOLO EXHIBITION
2010 2008
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
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 SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS “Expressions of the Malayan Tiger” 2012 Peninsula & Island TAKSU, Singapore Art Competition, Maybank Art Gallery, KL LOADED Pace Gallery, Petaling Jaya Vice Chancellor’s Awards POPUP House of Matahati (HOM), Ampang Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art, UiTM Shah Alam Songsang Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara 1st Class Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art UiTM Earth Puncak Art Gallery, Bukit Jelutong 1st Prize (Mix Media) Tanjong Heritage Spice Pace Gallery, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Art Competition, Kuala Lumpur Locals Only TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur 1st Prize Winner Nando’s, Kicking-Off Nasi Campur TAKSU, Singapore with Art & Soul, Damansara Utama 2011 Endangered (2 Man Show) TAKSU KL Dean’s List Awards Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art Visual Art Award (VAA) 2011 Starhill Gallery Semester 06, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur 2009 2nd Place Open Johor Art Competition Open House 2011 Galeri Chandan, KL Johor Art Gallery, Johor Kalam Galeri Chandan, Kuala Lumpur Consolation Prize Winner (2D Hanging Display) Anniversary Show Pace Gallery, Petaling Jaya The Art of Recycling The Nando’s Way Signs, Symbols & Icons (3 Man Show) NN Gallery, KL Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara, KL Dean’s List Awards Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art Pulp Friction Galeri Chandan, Kuala Lumpur Semester 05 & 04, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Private Affairs Galeri Chandan, Kuala Lumpur 2008 Dean’s List Awards Degree (Hons.) in Fine Art LiFest MAP @ Publika, Dutamas, KL Semester 03, UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor 2010 Dis-Chromatic Small Talk With The Moon Finalist (Open Category), MRCB Art Awards Petaling Jaya, Selangor National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Expressions of the Malayan Tiger Best Graduate of UiTM Melaka Maybank Art Gallery, Maybank Tower, KL Pra Graduate Award, Equatorial Hotel, Melaka Tanjong Heritage Sri Melayu Restaurant Best Graduate of Faculty Art & Design Ampang, Kuala Lumpur UiTM Melaka, Pra Graduate Award, Melaka HIMPUN Peti Seni @ National Art Gallery, KL Best Graduate of Programmed in RIYAD Al-Ilm ‘Garden of Knowledge’ Fine Art Department, UiTM Lendu, Melaka Galeri Chandan, Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur Dean’s List Awards Diploma in Fine Art Conform Three Sixty Art Development Studio Semester 06, UiTM Lendu, Melaka Desa Park City, Kuala Lumpur 2007 2nd Prize Art Competition, Melaka TYT Action Degree Show: LOAD FSSR Portrait, UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Dean’s List Awards Diploma in Fine Art Nando’s, Kicking-Off With Art & Soul Semester 04 & 05 UiTM Lendu, Melaka One Utama Shopping Centre, Damansara Utama 2006 Dean’s List Awards Diploma in Fine Art, 2009 Young Art R A Fine Arts, Kuala Lumpur Semester 02, UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka Belief Three Sixty Art Development Studio 2003 Best Student in Art Subject Desa Park City, Kuala Lumpur Maktab Rendah Sains Mara, Muar, Johor Open Johor Art Competition Johor Art Gallery, Johor COLLECTIONS The Art of Recycling The Nando’s Way Bank Negara Malaysia Kuala Lumpur NN Gallery, Kuala Lumpur Maybank Kuala Lumpur Open Show Shah Alam Gallery Galeri Tengku Nur Zahirah UiTM Shah Alam Shah Alam, Selangor Galeri Seni UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka 2008 Pallete The Gallery @ Starhill, Star Hill Gallery, KL Galeri Seni Rakyat Bandar Hilir, Melaka Diploma Show Tengku Nur Zahirah Gallery Galeri Seni Johor Yayasan Warisan Johor, Johor UiTM Shah Alam, Selangor Pati Satu Studio Puncak Alam, Selangor Diploma Show Art Gallery TANJONG Public Limited Company, KL UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka TAPAK Shah Alam, Selangor Nando’s, Peri-fy Your Art NN Gallery, KL Nando’s Restaurant Kuala Lumpur 2007 Antara Merdeka National Art Gallery, KL Private Collectors Melaka TYT Action Portrait UiTM Lendu, Alor Gajah, Melaka
GREAT MIGRATION NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ
_
ISBN 978 - 981- 07-3798 - 6 PAPERBACK
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.
Artworks & Images Š 2012 Najib Ahmad Bamadhaj Essay Ling Low Photography Din Dirann Graphic Design Jeffrey Lim / Studio 25 Printer Unico Services
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.
978 - 981- 07-3797- 9 E-BOOK
Suherwan Abu Director, TAKSU Galleries
GREAT MIGRATION NAJIB AHMAD BAMADHAJ
_
ISBN 978 - 981- 07-3798 - 6 PAPERBACK
978 - 981- 07-3797- 9 E-BOOK