작품 상세

Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, a co-founder of the cult Matahati artist’s loose cooperative, has found early success since graduating with a BFA at the Universiti ITM in 1991. Still, it was not until 1998 that he struck up his first solo titled 939495969798 at Art Salon, Kuala Lumpur, showcasing his output from 1993 to 1998. Working on various media involving paitning and printmaking on crates, he had his phase of chloroformed butterflies that won him the 1st Prize in the Malaysian Artist Open at Galeri Petronas in 1994, the year he was chosen for the Asean Art Show at the Fukuoka Art Museum. Before the end of the millennium, he became the vanguard of young artists again. In 1997, he clinched the Major Award in the Malaysian Young Cntemporary Artists (BMS) competition and the Jurors Choice Award in the Philip Morris Asean Art Awards in the finals in the Philippines. He was back in the winners circle among the top 5 national winners in the Asean Art Awards in 1999.This pseudo Pop work is from his Pop Kaki Jual phase between 2003-2006 which culminated in his solo exhibition at the Nadine Fine Art, Petaling Jaya. Nadine was also the venue of his two other major solos on wildlife conservation and the environment – Warning: Tapir Crossing (2007) and Golden Gate (2012). The Pop-sy work takes up the old Boy Meets Girl ritual of testerone-pumped youth of the 1960s Pop Yeah-Yeah days but curiously from a Western perspective. A giraffe with its height advantage looks over two couples, one in swimwear and with the girl topless playing with a beach ball and the other of a well-dressed man in dark blue blazer chatting up a seated lady with hat and dress in blue, which is also the background colour. The girl in the foreground getting out of the pool with makeup in place, glances at the swimwear couple, probably reminiscing or longing to meet her own beau. In the new Millennium 3, Shukri keeps up his winning ways amidst tougher competition among the newer crops. In 2003, he was selected for the Rimbun Dahan artist’s residency and in 2013, the Echt The Netherland s international exchange residency. The years 2003 and 2004 were his Arab sojourns, first at the Sharjah Biennial and then the Emaar art symposium in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. There were also the Asian Biennale in Bangladesh in 2001 and the Asian contemporary workshop in Gazipur, Bangladesh, in 2002 besides the Brande International Workshop in Denmark in 2002. In 2005, he had his third and last solo with Art Salon, renamed XOAS Gallery, called Fitting Room. The decade was capped with the momentous major Matahati Ke Matadunia exhibition in Los Angeles with his Matahati core group in 2009. In 2014, he won the Minor Award Mural Satu Malaysia at the National Art Gallery.