Once regarded as art created by those without formal art training, naïve art has blossomed from its humble beginnings to become a fully recognised art genre worldwide.
First impressions often refer to the childlike and colourful appearance, and it’s this simplistic, vibrant nature of naïve art that bestows it with easy accessibility to a wider audience, free from the formal, complex qualities of traditional art.
This approach allows artists to bend so-called rules of art perspective in favour of a less inhibited, less sophisticated way of working. Yet take a closer look and you’ll see that the artworks reflect careful thought, vision and execution.
A naïve art exhibition called RONAisme, which features the canvas of 26 artists, is currently being held at the Shah Alam Gallery, located on the fringe of a tranquil lake. RONA is a group of naïve artists who encourage free movement and provide a platform for naïve style art to be exhibited, including non-traditional forms of naïve art.
“You can see in this exhibition that there are plenty of styles,” begins Elly Nor Suria MZ, RONA founder and an artist herself. “There are different media. We even bring sculptures in 3D medium, not just 2D on the wall. But we focus mainly on naïve art.”
The gallery ‘glows’ with artwork, most of which are so strikingly vibrant. Flourishing landscapes and nostalgic kampung life are popular themes, but more unconventional exceptions can easily be found, in pieces that adopt naïve elements but whose creators may not necessarily define themselves as naïve artists.
Elly hopes that the exhibition will inspire people to appreciate this genre and at the same time, help to discard any narrow stereotypes and misconceptions they may have. She laments that a lot of people regard naïve art as inferior to other types of art where the artists have undergone formal art education.
Many naïve artists are demonstrating that being self-taught or taking an alternative path to becoming a full time artist is no impediment or weakness to creating art that resonates with people.
“Everyone has a naïve side,” remarks Elly. “So this is a way to express their inner naïve, inner child. It’s not just paintings that we can express like this. It works even with installation art,” she continues, referring to a soft sculpture.
At some point during the wander around the gallery, visitors will also come across a wall of sketches displaying the initial ideas and drafts by the artists regardless of their chosen medium. It’s certainly an interesting insight into their creative journey. Here, some of the artists involved in the RONAisme exhibition share their story.
Tham Siew Moi
At first glance, Tham Siew Moi’s paintings appear to be a straightforward depiction of fruit against a homely backdrop of curtains. But in fact, she says, they reflect “… my feelings and emotions about my country,” specifically the impact of last year’s general election. Pomegranates contain a mass of seeds and these seeds, elaborates the artist, represent the people. Within the curtain, there are faces, some of whom represent certain national public figures. Tham, a graduate in Fine Art, also embedded other symbols into these pieces to express fairness, positivity and stability. The Johor-born artist cares deeply about the environment and her work conveys her respect for nature.
Lyna Khairi
Most of Lyna’s paintings come under her My Heritage series in which she showcases the heritage of the Malay, Chinese and Indian culture. For this exhibition, her work focuses on Malay culture; the images being a reflection of her past as a teenager in Perak.
This Teluk Intan-born artist describes her style as contemporary with naïve art elements such as in the way she depicts the human form. Unlike the familiar colourful examples of naïve art, her paintings are created from a strikingly monochromatic palette. “I prefer it to be black and white because it evokes a more classic feeling,” explains Lyna, who has a background in Art and Design. “It’s not easy to apply black and white to show the difference between the light and to show depth.”
Hidawati Amin
Hidawati’s work showcases an unconventional medium - she paints with needle and thread. Her excellence in craftwork has previously earned her as many as 12 awards, including the Piala Seri Endon. A graduate of Fine Art, she decided to focus her artistic style on stitching and embroidery as she finds pleasure in these activities and also to give herself a unique competitive edge against other artists.
The talented artist has created many art series on different subject matters, but for the RONAisme exhibition, visitors will get the chance to see enjoy her series on women and landscape, which combines stitching, textile collage and some acrylic. Hidawati shows me a striking example of her art, which shows the back of a female head with a neatly tied hair. “This is a metaphor for a woman’s strength in keeping everything together, not letting even a single strand of hair to fall out of place,” elaborates Hidawati, with a smile.
Abu Bakar Abdullah
Among the many landscape images, the work of Abu Bakar is a visual ode to the rustic beauty and peaceful simplicity of kampung life. His tool of choice, an Artline pen, is a vestige of his past career as a professional cartoonist. After certain magazines started closing down and thus affecting his source of income, this Taiping-born artist began experimenting with his drawings. But he lacked direction. At one point, Abu Bakar, who discovered naïve art four years ago, confides that he decided to join a New Straits Times competition with a black and white cartoon entry. “Daripada situ saya dapat ilham untuk cuba sesuatu menggunakan pen (From there, I became inspired to try something using the pen).”
Memories of his village birthplace are vibrantly expressed but he laments the decline of the natural environment that played an important part of his childhood. “Benda-benda ni semua dah tak de, macam air biru. Kalau balik kampung, air pun keruh atau sungai pun dah terkambus. Jadi benda benda tu lah kita nak tunjuk kepada generasi muda.” (All these no longer exist like clear blue water. If we go back to the kampung, we’ll see that the water is no longer clean or the river is choked up. These are the things that we want to show the younger generation.)
Lim Anuar
Batik meets naïve art at the RONAisme exhibition thanks to the work of Lim Anuar who has earned himself a strong reputation by winning national and international awards for his batik paintings. The talented artist is also well versed in other media such as silk painting, acrylic, watercolour, ink and pen drawing.
“My painting in batik incorporates a profusion of local colours. This represents my belief that one must harmonise with the environment and respect it,” shares the KL-born batik artist on his website. Lim Anuar began learning about batik in his younger years, first as a hobby, but opted for a career in architecture instead. He accumulated more than 25 years of experience in art and design projects before becoming a full time artist. A few years ago, he added a Master of Art in Visual Art to his list of achievements. Like many other exhibits at RONAisme, Lim Anuar’s pieces, A Beautiful Family and Morning Working portray regular kampung life.
Ali Akbar Othman
One of Ali Akbar Othman’s trademarks as an artist is his use of dots which fill his colourful landscape images. It’s hard not to be drawn to the bright hues and lush environments that he paints, especially the commanding 6ft x 5ft piece which he painted in 2007.
From a career in graphic design, Ali Akbar eventually embarked on full time painting in 2005, the same year that he was introduced to Yusof Gajah who advised him to pick up naïve art. “By 2008, Yusof Gajah said to me, “…you have your own style. I punya style you tengok ada titik, dot dot dot (my style involves dots),” Ali tells me, pointing to one of his paintings before continuing: “Yusof Gajah told me that I was the only artist to do this style and that if I’m late in putting on a solo exhibition or establishing myself, then others will copy me but say that I copied them!” Fortunately, Ali quickly found success.
Just five years ago, the artist was persuaded to take up a Masters course. Smiling broadly, he declares: “I’m the oldest Masters graduate until today!” These days, while he still paints mountains and kampung houses, he has added new elements to his paintings such as trees and flowers.
RONAisme Art Exhibition
When: Until Mar 27, 2019
Where: Galeri Shah Alam, Persiaran Tasik, Seksyen 14, Shah Alam, Selangor
Details: www.facebook.com/galeri.shahalam