Zulkifli Lee "Consonance & Dissonance"（SINGAPORE）

Solo exhibition by Zulkifli Lee

13 July – 18 August 2024

Artist Talk (moderated by Louis Ho): Saturday, 13 July 2024, 3pm – 4pm

Vernissage: Saturday, 13 July 2024, 4pm – 7pm

 

Mizuma Gallery is pleased to announce Consonance & Dissonance, a solo exhibition by Zulkifli Lee.

 

Malaysian artist Zulkifli Lee, in his first solo exhibition with Mizuma Gallery, presents a series of abstract paintings and sculptures that are characteristic of his materially-based visual language. His objects are largely crafted from natural materials, such as soil, limestone and used wood. Not unlike the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which is premised on an appreciation for impermanence and imperfection, these works foreground the patina of passing time, evince the defects inherent in nature, and allude to the traces of our constantly shifting environment and material culture.

 

Zul’s paintings are premised on geometric patterns of lines, waves and shapes, and created from varieties of native soil and limestone collected from locations around Malaysia. The palette of these compositions are entirely organic, derived from their constituent materials; there were no artificial colours or dyes involved in their creation. Their designs are reminiscent of the abstraction of Islamic aesthetics. His sculptural works, on the other hand, are fabricated from found wood and steel, the base materials of large-scale construction and industry. The former was sourced from old homes, disused train tracks, abandoned bridge structures and also acquired from stores selling second-hand wood. Carved into modular components, these wooden blocks are juxtaposed with steel lattices in interlocking combinations that evoke the repetitive systems of modern life, networks of relations and the built environment created by mass production.

 

These new bodies of work, as the artist notes, speak to the metaphysical axiom that “we are always part of something larger than ourselves.” His objects embody “the paradoxical coincidence of opposites, since all paradoxes may be reconciled. Nature is built on opposites, on compromises between what is comforting and disturbing, on the relationship and harmony between the contradictory opposites. These contrasts are our reality, and to ignore them would be to ignore the complexities of life. Like the consonance and dissonance of intervals and chords in music, I want to celebrate the harmony of opposites, to acknowledge difference and learn to find the beauty in it.”

 

Consonance & Dissonance is dedicated to the exercise of correlating, harmonizing and, indeed, celebrating difference and opposites, which is innate to the world we live in.

Consonance & Dissonance, a solo exhibition by Zulkifli Lee, will run from 13 July to 18 August 2024 at Mizuma Gallery, 22 Lock Road #01-34 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108939. The gallery will open from 11am-7pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays, and 11am-6pm on Sundays. The gallery will be closed on Mondays and Public Holidays. In conjunction with the launch of the exhibition, an Artist Talk with Louis Ho will be held on Saturday, 13 July 2024, from 3pm to 4pm, followed by an opening reception from 4pm to 7pm. A digital publication featuring images of the artworks and a text by writer Louis Ho will be available.

 

 

 

About the Artist

 

Zulkifli Lee (b. 1978, Pahang, Malaysia) holds a MA in Fine Art and Technology (2013) and a BA in Art and Design (2000) from Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. His practice explores the dynamic between personalised and impersonalised forms, using the language of materials. His work juxtaposes the beauty and paradoxes of the relationship between humans and nature. Bridging Islamic aesthetic philosophies with contemporary principles, Lee references traditional Islamic and Malay folk art to create minimal yet intricate compositions, often involving systematic and rhythmic geometric patterns. Rather than striving for total control, he embraces the element of chance and submits to the materials’ naturally occurring properties, sharing the creation process with nature itself. Since 1999, Lee has exhibited extensively in galleries and institutions in Malaysia and abroad. As Rimbun Dahan’s year-long resident artist for 2017, he presented his first solo exhibition Material, Order & Chance (2017). He also finished ACME Studio Associate Artist Residency in London, UK in 2019. In early 2021 he presented a solo sculpture exhibition titled Interdependence at TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur. He has exhibited in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. Zulkifli Lee lives and works in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

 

 

 

> Press Release

 

This exhibition is a collaboration with