The 1998 exhibition Bayu-Timur brought together Awang Damit Ahmad and Bayu Utomo Radjikin, two pivotal figures of the Sabahan diaspora, in a dialogue centered on the materiality of memory and abstraction. By this period, both artists had moved beyond their initial regional emergence to become central to the Malaysian contemporary canon. The show highlighted Awang Damit’s Marista series, which emphasized a philosophy of “making” over mere painting. Utilizing mixed media and layered canvas, his works sought an “organic unity” between color and form, translating the half-remembered landscapes of his Kuala Penyu childhood into dense, tactile abstractions.

This was paired with the abstract inquiries of Bayu Utomo Radjikin. While largely recognized for his visceral figurative sculptures and paintings, Bayu utilized this presentation to explore the expressive limits of the canvas through a series of non-representational mixed media works. His new abstractions maintained the same intensity as his earlier figures but redirected it into formal explorations of texture and gesture. Collectively, Bayu-Timur framed the “East” (Timur) not just as a shared point of origin, but as a persistent aesthetic influence that informed their navigation of the urban art scene in Kuala Lumpur.