Ooi Kok Chuen

is an art-writer and journalist, and the author of MAHSURI: A Legend Reborn (Ooi Peeps Publishing), an adult contemporary fantasy “movel” (a novel conceived as a mock movie) spun from a local legend.

152 posts

PENANGPAC-The Latester Venture by Faridah and Joe

8 min read

PENANGITES got a welcome year-end bonus of free arts performances at the newly opened Performing Arts Centre of Penang (Penangpac) in November and December....

Women Artists Are Flourishing

6 min read

Artwork exhibited at RRRAWRRR!!!WHOA! Where do all these women artists come from? So, so many new young and emergent women artists now...

Will the Market for Art Ever be the Same Again?

7 min read

BRICK-AND-MORTAR art galleries are hugely impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic because of the lockdown and the consequent economic crunch.Poster of We...

Cartoons Fuelled by Farce

7 min read

I want to send a clear message to the aggressors – they can ban my cartoons, they can ban my books...

Celebrating Ten Years of Art Writing

5 min read

TEN years ago, Penang was still a backwater in the national art narrative. There were signs of little titillations, though, that signaled a potential resurgence...

Art Events Can Be Sumptuous Affairs

6 min read

Food catering at art exhibition openings/launchings and events is an art in itself – that of balancing budget, prestige, expanding clientele-followers bas...

Painting Motion Pictures

6 min read

THE MEANDERING RIVER to the left of the sprawling countryside in the painting of actress Umie Aida references Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous portrait, t...

EXCLUSIVE: Sculptures Symbolising ASEAN Fallen into Outrageous Disrepair

7 min read

UNVEILED TO GREAT fanfare as a symbol of ASEAN solidarity, peace and economic power in 1987, the six monumental sculptures, minus one which has gone missing, in...

A New Generation of Women Artists Steps Up to the Palette

8 min read

TIME WAS WHEN women artists in Malaysia could be counted with the fingers. On one hand. Now, there is a plethora of women expanding the parameters in different...

ASEAN’s Appeal Watered and Coloured

7 min read

Chow Chin Chuan's (Malaysia) The Unfading Past II.IN THE MIDST of the Covid-19 pandemic, an international watercolour exhibition has surprisingly attracte...

Penang State Art Gallery Gets a Windfall of Masterpieces

7 min read

ANOTHER LARGESSE of artworks, 330 in all, has been donated by Datuk Dr. Tan Chee Khuan to the Penang State Art Gallery (PSAG). The magnanimous collection is val...

Don’t Miss Them! Art Exhibitions are Back

6 min read

READY BUT POSTPONED Or Cancelled.A litany of woes of short-circuited, still-born and miscarried exhibitions brought about by the protracted Coronavirus pandem...