• 

This art exhibition review is long overdue. We have just a few days til the exhibition closes, and what a perfect way say goodbye to 2020. Let’s hope 2021 be a little more uplifting, a little less scary, a lot more smiles on faces and a cautious step out of the box, a foot at a time…

“Using the ideology from this metaphor, BOXED IN (one foot at a time) pulls in a group of Penang based visual artists from various backgrounds and art practices. Each participating artist was given two 12” x 12” wooden boxes and set off to let their creative imaginations run wild. The only catch was for them to “think outside the box” whilst having the artworks within the box itself.”

Participating Artists

Aboud Fares | Bibichun | Carey Junior | ERYN | Esther Geh | Fuan Wong | Hungry Goat | Jakob Zuyten | Jonathan Yun | Jose Ilao | Lijynn | Lusy | Maizul Affendy | MAMA | Marianne Klerk | Mawar | Nasir Nadzir | Rebecca Wilkinson | sumidik | Thomas Powell | Tiffany Choong | Tina Lee Degreef | Tommes | Vatsn | White Bones

Curator : Ivan Alexander Francis Gabriel

Location : Hin Bus Depot 31A Jalan Gurdwara,  10300 ​George Town,  Penang

Exhibition Space Operation Hours:
Mon – Fri, 12 pm – 7 pm
Sat – Sun, 11 am – 7 pm

Q&A with Ivan

What are some words that come to you when curating?

“Take care. Bridge. Art therapist. Artist ‘s therapist. Middle person. Connector. Babysitter. Parent. Go to person. Care taker. One. Just Me. Time. I was boxed in also. Bullseye . Target. Blame. No expectations. No formula. Unlearn to re-learn. “

What are the challenges as curator? And how did all this start?

“No template, no platform , no mentor. A Pandameic on its own”. As a teacher, 4 years ago the seed started. I wanted to exhibit 1000 works from artists… it was my first project. They were primary school kids, they were all artists. Little did I know, it wasn’t a walk in the park, it was a walk in the “Jurassic” park.

Slide show depicts some more of works that related to me, by Nasir Nadzir ” French Toast with Blueberries” and “Blueberry Box”, Jonathan Yun’s “The treasure of Your Heart 1” and “The The Treasure of your Heart 2” , Aboud Fares’s “Boxed in I” and “Boxed in II” , Jose Ilao ‘s “Komunikasyon” , and last but not least MAWAR’s “The (Missing) Piece 1”

Your confidence over flows, it shines, it shouts, what about the artists? How did you gather these collections ?

Its like …”Breaking out of the box of  being Asian. Break walls! There are many artist that are confident and I am so amazed with that, being Asians. Some artists tho, dropped out because the lock down was hard on them . Yet it wasn’t about the number of pieces. It wasn’t the quantity. , I didn’t want to “drop” artists and add or just substitute with another number. Pedestals with empty spaces are dedicated to these anonymous artists who were not able to participate.  ” They and all who participated were handpicked for a reason.

How do you earn as curator?

Belang (early 2020) was the first official appointed gig as curator but usually artists appoint me personaly. ” How many curators are there? “There many and then there are none… I (like to think that) work differently , I love directing and bridging the gap. Public, the people and art work converging. ” …to see the 2 combine and react, the audience and the subject, the topic and the content (being the spectators) without Ivan , thats his goal, to step back and see it all play out. Its important to keep developing and directing.. for example I took curating courses from MoMA

What is your advise for future curators ? 

“Curating is not about putting pretty pictures on the wall. You have no idea… Let me educate you.”

For the list of works and their worth please click here, at this time of writing , close to 50% of these creative works have been sold. And some are strictly NOT FOR SALE.