To have a basic love for a country starts from knowing the geography of the country, which is the land, from where everything grow.’

Consummate painter of the Malaysian landscape, Wong Perng Fey, returns to VWFA KL this July for his eighth solo exhibition. In choosing the land as his subject, Perng Fey has always sought for a greater sense of belonging, of identifying with the country. He holds to the belief in and seeks meaning through a subtle measuring of his personal relationship with his subject, the changing nature of how he responds to his surroundings.

This new body of work is marked by Perng Fey’s interest in charting the emotional responses to living in the New Village environment, a place he grew up in, left and eventually returned to. But as he absorbs the legacy of his hometown, Perng Fey’s exploration expands to its surrounding terrain, in both natural and constructed places. More importantly,Perng Fey’s paintings speak of the invisible yet intimate relationship between man and his environment, creating a haunting picture that both celebrates and mourns for the changes that time (as well as development) has wrought upon the land.