In bad times, good art flourishes. Is this what we are seeing in the Klang Valley?
The Klang Valley is experiencing an unmitigated art boom. No day passes without an exhibition or two taking place, and on weekends the tally can go up to four or five!
Although the galleries have not yet reached a level of specialisation that exhibits its own marquee of artists, the changing profile of both new and old establishments towards the contemporary is grist enough for a thesis.
The art forces are four-pronged: the galleries, the institutions, the peripheral spaces (like the New Straits Times Art Gallery) and the private lobbies – that is, individuals or special interest groups who rent spaces for exhibitions. This includes splinter talents from the now defunct Valentine Willie Fine Art such as Beverly Yong, Rachel Ng and Adeline Ooi who form the art book-centred Rogue Art, and the Snow Ng-Liza Ho-Simon Soon triumvirate pushing the buttons at My Art Projects. Splinter talents also consist of independent curators such as Nurhanim Khairuddin, Jaafar Ismail, Amran Ariffin and Syed Nabil Nahar.
