1966–present
Yeoh Kean Thai
The Malaysian artist Yeoh Kean Thai (born 1966) has worked since the early 1990s on the theme of the natural environment being destroyed by cities and human activity. He developed his own visual language based on metal and metal aesthetics. He is a winner of the Philip Morris Art Award and a Freeman Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, and in 2008 and 2009 took part in New York’s “Asia Art Week”.
Biography
Yeoh Kean Thai’s works are in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery of Malaysia.
He was born in 1966 in Malaysia; the exact date and place of birth are unknown. Where and with whom he studied is not known, so I begin with the work.
Since the early 1990s his attention has been fixed on one subject: how the natural environment is disrupted, corrupted and remade by human will, under the pressure of development and urbanisation. He chooses technique, colour and perspective so that viewers respond to what they see personally, rather than remaining detached observers. Later these themes (the environment, decay, visual “regeneration”) persisted but moved into a palette that critics describe as more engaging. A separate strand of his art is bound up with metal: he works with the material and its aesthetics, and in this, in the opinion of critics, lies his own artistic language. What objects he makes and in what technique is not described in detail, and it is hard to check. Among his awards are the Philip Morris Art Award, a Freeman Fellowship for work at the Vermont Studio Center and, most recently, the Commonwealth Arts Award. The years of the awards are not given. In March 2008 Yeoh was among the first Malaysian artists to be featured at New York’s Asia Art Week; this was repeated in March 2009. The exhibitions were arranged through the gallery Shalini Ganendra Fine Art. His works have also been shown at other international venues, including Hong Kong and Italy. Besides the National Art Gallery, they belong to numerous corporate and private collections.
Profile notes