Chong Siew Ying is one of the Southeast Asian region’s most powerful portrayers of the human face and figure. A lyrical and elegant painter, her work is profoundly emotive, embracing broad themes such as nature, human relationships and the search for meaning in life. The expressive qualities of the human form –its spontaneity, its mystery; its ability to relate joy, pain, ecstasy, loss are central to the artist’s work.

Siew Ying’s May 2008 solo exhibition at Valentine Willie Fine Art will showcase new developments in her artistic career. Her interest in classical Chinese literature, as well as the local landscape, has come to fuse with her portraiture in her most recent works, creating iconic images with a fresh contemporary Asian sensibility.

A new monograph of Chong Siew Ying will be launched in conjunction with the opening of her solo exhibition at VWFA KL. The publication will be the first to bring together the body of this important contemporary figurative artist’s work, tracing the progress of the Siew Ying’s practice over the past ten years and more.

Avenue Invest Berhad (AvIB), a member of the ECM Libra Group, is proud to support this publication celebrating the work of a leading Malaysian artist. By supporting Malaysian artists, AvIB is making an investment into the development of our nation’s artistic heritage. Avenue Invest Berhad has RM2 billion of assets under management. Avenue Invest Berhad clients include high net worth individuals, pension funds and public listed companies for whom we manage customized portfolios as well as unit trust funds.

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IDYLLE: New Paintings by Chong Siew Ying runs from 21 May until 14 June 2008 at:

Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur
1st Floor, 17 Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
(P): +60 (0)3 2284 2348 (F): +60 (0)3 2282 5190

Sponsored by: Avenue Invest Berhad (AvIB), a member of the ECM Libra Group

For general or press inquiries about
this exhibition, please email:
snow@vwfa.net
or call 012 4639 376 (Snow)
For general enquiries: info@vwfa.net.
Please visit our website www.vwfa.net

Idylle was an exhibition held in conjunction with the launch of an artist monograph for the works of Chong Siew Ying. In making the works in Idylle, Siew Ying drew from a rich and varied life growing up Malaysian-Chinese in post-Independence Malaysia and spending many years practising her art in Paris. Building on the positive aspects of her mixed cultural identity, her paintings bind diverse philosophies and experiences into a strong personal artistic vision that has laid the grounds for the universality of her work and its appeal. The monography traced the development of that vision over the past ten years and beyond, following a chronological path through changes of place and sensibility as well as a continuing exploration into different approaches to the human subject.